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Willamette SIP
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Article Content
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| Overview |
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In March 2008, the OWEB Board allocated $6 million for the Willamette Special Investments Partnership (SIP). Building off of the extensive research and planning conducted on the Willamette River as portrayed in the Willamette Planning Atlas, the main objectives of this SIP are to: (a) re-establish channel complexity and length; and, (b) re-connect flood plains in the historic meander corridor of the Willamette River main stem and the major tributaries, wherever feasible. These objectives will restore aquatic and riparian habitats for a wide variety of species. The restoration of dynamic river processes will improve water quality and native habitats for aquatic species.
The Willamette SIP is built on a companion effort of the Meyer Memorial Trust who is an active funding partner and deeply involved in exploration of ways to increase the pace of restoration in the Willamette basin.
 | The Willamette Valley has numerous off-channel features such as gravel ponds that can provide habitat for native fish species, amphibians, and waterfowl.
Bowers Rock State Park, west of Albany, is one example of an opportunity to reconnect the river to provide fish passage and wetlands habitat for native species.
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One foundation of the Willamette SIP is that all partners will do what they can to mutually support one another's objectives, with particular emphasis on the areas of overlap. Willing participation of private landowners will be crucial to the success of the Willamette SIP. A key to the Willamette SIP is a series of agreements between OWEB and Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), Department of State Lands (DSL), and the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). Several projects from the list of identified objectives and projects are in development including Willamette Mission State Park, Bowers Rock State Park and Scappoose Bottoms.
Willamette SIP and the Willamette River Basin Flood Control Biological Opinions
The partnership initiated by the Meyer Memorial Trust (MMT) and OWEB has grown and expanded to include recovery of federally listed spring Chinook, steelhead, bulltrout, and Oregon Chub. Through an application to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC), OWEB has been awarded a grant from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to fund projects that implement the “reasonable and prudent action” 7.1.2 of the Biological Opinion (BiOp). The award is up to $500,000 a year to ensure projects are implemented. OWEB proposed the process be integrated with the Willamette SIP and project reviews be integrated.
Anchor Habitats
The OWEB-MMT proposal was built around locating the required projects at “anchor habitats” or projects that will link anchor habitats. Anchor habitats are the cold water areas of the river that sustain cold water fish. These locations are not evenly distributed in the river, but form the framework for building back populations of salmon and steelhead. Anchor habitats have been mapped (PDF) to include tributary confluences and areas of known cold water refuge.
Monitoring by “Slices”
The Willamette Planning Atlas developed equal areas perpendicular to the main course of the river “slices” to establish a stable framework to measure change of the river and its floodplain. OWEB and MMT assisted the refinement of the slices to enable finer scale (project scale) measurements of change. Slices Web site The use of the slices to measure changes in channel complexity and floodplain connection resulting from Willamette SIP and BiOp projects. The proposal to the NPCC included the use of the slices to measure change at different scales and at different time frames.
PreApplications
Proposals for projects to be funded through the Willamette SIP and BiOp will be reviewed through a preapplication process. Solicitation for projects will occur on a regular basis and be announced through the website and other methods. The first solicitation for preapplication forms is open, forms are due August 30, 2011. Willamette SIP PreApplication (Word)
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| Willamette Model Watershed Project |
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The Meyer Memorial Trust (MMT) has also focused on supporting multi-year, integrated approaches to improving watershed conditions at the sub-watershed scale in selected Willamette tributary systems. (see: http://www.mmt.org/willamette-river-basin-restoration ) This strategy recognizes the contribution tributary systems make to the health of the Willamette as a whole, as well as their importance for recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and as a source of public drinking water. The tributary strategy was developed in close consultation with an advisory group of Willamette stakeholders.
Through this strategy, MMT, in cooperation with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, will support restoration efforts undertaken by local watershed groups in accordance with a rigorous, long-term planning and evaluation framework designed to achieve specific outcomes, such as improved water quality and flows, riparian conditions, and fish and wildlife habitat. OWEB has committed Special Investment Partnership funds to implement the strategy developed in the model watersheds.
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| Synthesis Mapping Project: Willamette Conservation Priorities |
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 | This map was developed by multiple partners working to define areas within the Willamette Valley Ecoregion that are high priorities for restoration and acquisition due to rare species or rare habitat type. The green areas that are in lowlands include many opportunities for SIP projects to re-connect channels and floodplains, but important SIP project may occur anywhere in the historic meander corridor of the main stem tributaries.
OWEB and its SIP partners are developing a map more specific to SIP priorities and opportunities.
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| Draft Willamette Floodplain Priority map provided by The Nature Conservancy. |  |
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| Projects Awarded or Pending Award to Date |
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Lower Willamette River Off-Channel Habitat Restoration at the Confluence of Stephens Creek – Funded for $199,060. Lower Stephens Creek provides off-channel habitat for ESA-listed Chinook, coho salmon, and steelhead in the Willamette River between the Sellwood and Ross Island Bridges in Portland. The City of Portland will restore the bank along Stephens Creek to provide floodplain connectivity and will remove invasive plants in the floodplain.
South Meadow Floodplain Enhancement Phase 3 – Funded for $204,823. This third phase of a multiyear project will restore the floodplain along the Coast Fork Willamette near Eugene. The project will increase the frequency of flow to a ¾ mile side channel complex and replant riparian vegetation in the floodplain.
Willamette Mission Programmatic Reconnection Project – Funded for $908,370. Willamette Mission State Park north of Salem contains a remnant channel isolated from the mainstem of the Willamette by revetments and dikes. The project will reconnect the channel to the Willamette River for salmonid habitat and remove fish passage barriers.
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| Supporting Documents |
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Staff reports supporting the formation of the Willamette SIP.
September 18-19, 2007
January 16-17, 2008
Attachments
March 19-20, 2008
May 20-21, 2008
September 16-17, 2008
January 21-22, 2009
June 1-2, 2009
Complete list of objectives and potential project sites.
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