This project is part of a very large restoration effort that supports the recovery of anadromous fish (summer steelhead, spring Chinook salmon, and Pacific Lamprey) in the Middle Fork John Day River. This site was dredge-mined for gold from 1939 to 1943 across 200 acres of floodplain. The dredging resulted in loss of soils and vegetation, and it created highly altered stream channels. These channels lack a significant amount of complexity and quality aquatic habitat. Since acquisition in 2001, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have studied an approach to treat the limiting factors presented by this site. The Tribes have worked with the Bureau of Reclamation since 2005 to develop solutions for this site. Using the best available practices, this project will ultimately construct 7,500 feet of new channels and additional habitat enhancement work on existing channels. This project began construction in 2011 with phasing portions of the work. To date, four phases have been completed. Extensive tree planting, seeding, browse fencing, bio-engineering, and large wood structures are planned along the entire project. This project will restore the most degraded portion of the upper Middle Fork John Day River.
Phases 4 and 5 of this larger project involved constructing 2,900 feet of river channel, nearly 400 feet Ruby Creek channel, and about a 1,000 feet of spring channels and alcove construction. Earthwork for grading mine tailings and channel construction exceeded 120,000 cubic yards. Plants wdfd transplanted and grown on a large scale to quickly re-vegetate the site, and the site will exclude browsing from ungulates for at least five years. Planting and transplanting, dredge-tailings contouring/removal/treatment, and removal of existing channels were the main construction efforts of the project. All details listed in this proposal are specific to the remaining phases of this project. As this property has ongoing funding from Bonneville Power Administration, project maintenance will be ongoing until the site is stabilized and performing as desired. BPA funding (project #2000-015-00) and OWEB funding (project #216-6008-12116) are also contributing greatly to this project and will be reporting their accomplishments and funding through different processes and will not be reported under this project.
Using CRITFC PCSRF funds the WST treated 0.03 miles of instream habitat. 2.14 structures of anchored logs and boulders were placed in the channel. 16.65 cubic yards of spawning gravel was placed in the stream. 03 miles of riparian streambank was treated with native species. This funding also provided propagation of containerized plants which were planted along Phase 4 and Phase 5 channel segments in 2016 and 2017. .02 miles of fencing was constructed to protect 0.67 riparian acres. One Water Gap was installed for a wildlife crossing.
The goal of this project was to restore physical and biological processes on this dredge-mined property to benefit summer steelhead and spring Chinook salmon.
Oxbow Conservation Area, near Bates, Oregon
Worksite Identifier: Oxbow Conservation Area, near Bates, Oregon
River miles 56-­-57, on Oxbow Conservation Area
Oxbow Forrest Conservation Areas Property Habitat Management Plan. March. Northwest Power and Conservation Council, 2005. John Day Subbasin Revised Draft Plan. (+ 3 others, see project proposal)
Monitoring will be guided by the Monitoring and maintenance plan being developed for the ESA programmatic coverage. This M&M plan will cover physical, fish, and vegetative attributes of the project for as---built, year 1 and post high--- flow event. The plan will also have standards which will need to be met or maintained, requiring maintenance to those standards not met. Some monitoring in this plan includes water temperature, juvenile salmonid and other fish usage (assemblages) snorkeling counts, riparian vegetation transects, photo points, spawning survey data, groundwater (wells onsite), and physical monitoring (width---depth ratios, pool depth, etc.). The Middle Fork John Day Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) program will also be collecting geomorphology study related efforts, channel dimensions, hyporheic temperature exchange (fiber optic cable deployment), PIBO habitat survey protocols, macroinvertebrates monitoring, and other effectiveness monitoring relating to fish populations within the watershed. The IMW monitoring may or may not measure project specific effects.