Blue Sky Habitat

County: Jackson

Watershed: Upper Rogue River

Description: Restoration plans include riparian rehabilitation, large wood placement, side channel reconnection and instream flow restoration. These actions work in tandem to restore natural stream processes and enhance habitat conditions.

The riparian rehabilitation focuses on removing noxious weeds like non-native Himalayan blackberry and supplemental planting of native species to augment natural regeneration. Placement of large wood creates crucial habitat for coho salmon, chinook salmon and summer steelhead, all species that are either threatened or sensitive.

By reconnecting a historical side channel, the length of the creek will almost double in the winter, offering important rearing habitat for juvenile fish. This side channel contributes to floodplain reconnection, which in turn supports a resilient riparian plant community

Native fish benefited: Coho and chinook salmon and summer steelhead

County: Clatsop

Watershed: Rogue River

Description: This project is an important step toward finding ways to create productive habitat in dredge spoils sites, of which there are hundreds in the lower Columbia River.

This project creates more than 18 acres of tidal channels and surrounding tidal wetlands around the periphery of the 102-acre South Tongue Point landform, a task that will entail excavating more than 48,000 cubic yards of material.

A flow-through channel nearly half a mile long will improve fish access and hydrologic function to a 2012 restoration project. A series of tidal channel networks on the site’s eastern shore will provide valuable foraging and refuge habitat for endangered juvenile salmonids migrating to the ocean.

New techniques for amending the dredge sand substrate with wood mulch, paired with expanded plant-water interactions, will boost food inputs to the surrounding estuary.

Native fish benefited: Endangered salmonid species, especially juveniles

County: Clackamas

Watershed: Sandy River

Description: The overall goal of this project is to benefit Sandy Basin salmon and steelhead by restoring natural stream processes so that high-quality habitat is self-sustaining over time.

This project increases off-channel habitat/floodplain connectivity and large wood abundance on the Zigzag River and restores fish passage on Lady Creek.

Monitoring of fish and habitat response will make it possible to adaptively manage the implementation of the restoration plan over time. This project is part of a large-scale, multi-year effort.

Native fish benefited: Salmon and steelhead species

County: Josephine

Watershed: Applegate River

Description: This project removes the second of three major fish passage barriers that prevent access to high-quality upstream habitat on Williams Creek. The primary goal is to provide year-round fish passage to all life stages and species at the Watts Toppin Diversion.

The project involves a strong collaboration with local farmers and ranchers, who rely on Williams Creek for irrigation. The project design includes dam removal, an upgraded irrigation system, and installation of a roughened and reprofiled channel that will provide adequate water control to maintain flow to the newly constructed headgate so that the irrigators can divert their legally allowed rate of water.

The new system will reduce maintenance for irrigation and provide irrigation water security, especially during times of drought.

Native fish benefited: Coho & chinook salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout, lamprey

County: Hood River

Watershed: Mid-Columbia River

Description: This project restores fish passage at the Tony Creek hydro diversion dam, reconnecting over five miles of critical habitat for target species, resulting in the increased presence and abundance of native fish above the current barrier.

Passage is created with streambed modification in the form of an engineered and constructed riffle and step pools downstream of the existing diversion.

With climate change, cold, clearwater habitat like Tony Creek has become increasingly important for threatened native fish species, including the severely endangered bull trout population in the Middle Fork Hood River Subbasin, the only known population in the Mt. Hood National Forest and the Hood River Watershed.

Native fish benefited: Bull trout and other threatened species