Project Number
216-8201-14052
Grantee
The Nature Conservancy
Partners
Meyer Memorial Trust, Bonneville Power Administration, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, Springfield Utility Board, Eugene Water and Electric Board, TetraTech, Ecotrust
Project Overview
The Middle Fork site is one of four comprising The Nature Conservancy’s Willamette Confluence Preserve (1,305 acres).The project is situated at the confluence of the Middle and Coast Forks of the Willamette River and had the overall goal of restoring a dynamic, connected confluence area to provide critical juvenile rearing and adult holding habitat for ESA-listed salmon. This was accomplished by restoring 330 acres of natural floodplain and in-channel habitat-forming processes and removing levees and revetments, resulting in a doubling of the channel length to more than 2 miles and increasing floodplain perimeter by 330% to 8000 feet. The project included removal of a former levee, backwater connections to 3 of 7 former gravel extraction pits, and reconnection of a slough that had been disconnected for decades. These connections are perennial and will provide habitat and refugia opportunities for native fish year-round. Four additional former pits located further from the river channels were not connected to the river but instead were improved for off-channel floodplain habitat. Shoreline habitats were transformed from steep banks lacking vegetation to diverse emergent and aquatic habitats with a variety of slopes, water depths, and structures such as large wood. Invasive vegetation was removed from the floodplain for multiple years leading up to the restoration construction. The confluence area has been designated as critical habitat for Chinook salmon. Along with anadromous fish, the Middle and Coast Fork rivers and floodplains provide habitat for resident threatened bull trout and Oregon chub, as well as western pond turtles and red-legged frogs. In 2017, the Governor presented project partners with the Department of State Lands’ Statewide Stream Project Award.
Please see a 2-minute YouTube video on this project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k_ghYH5nrU&t=5s.
For complete reports on this and other OWEB projects, please search OWEB's Grant Management System (OGMS).