McKenzie River projects show promise for large-scale interventions

Before the September meeting, Council members and staff toured the Finn Rock Reach (pictured) and Quartz Creek restoration sites with representatives from the McKenzie Watershed Council, McKenzie River Trust, Eugene Water and Electric Board, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the US Forest Service.

At the September meeting, the Council heard updates on McKenzie River restoration projects from Joe Moll, Executive Director, McKenzie River Trust, and Susan Fricke, Water Resources Supervisor, Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB).

Moll began by noting the significance of a member of a land trust co-presenting with a utility (EWEB), attributing it in part to the Council's "vision for what it means to have collaborative power production, power use, and fish and wildlife conservation."

Willamette Basin restoration

The McKenzie River is a primary tributary of the Willamette River. It flows west about 90 miles from the Cascades to where it joins the Willamette near Eugene, Oregon. Like many other rivers, it was heavily channelized during development of the region. Efforts have been underway to protect and restore the Willamette Basin for decades.

In 2001, the Willamette River Basin Planning Atlas was published by Stan Gregory (Professor Emeritus of Fisheries at Oregon State University and former chair of both the Independent Science Advisory Board and Independent Scientific Review Panel) et al.

"And this became a road map for us," said Moll. "It said, look, we have some choices in the Willamette Basin. We can keep going as we are, and we will continue to lose access to clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, all of the other benefits. Or we can do some really strategic conservation, give the river back its floodplain in some really strategic areas, and it's not going to have to be a really big sacrifice to have some really strong gains."

The Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program (WWMP) was established in 2010 through a memorandum of understanding between the State of Oregon and Bonneville Power Administration, managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and guided by the Council's 2009 Fish and Wildlife Program. A variety of habitat restoration projects have been implemented both before and under the WWMP in the Willamette Basin, including along the McKenzie River, to protect and restore floodplain and riparian habitat.

From the utility perspective, EWEB has both water and power under its umbrella. In 2001, EWEB created its own drinking water protection plan, because the McKenzie River is the sole source of drinking water for the city of Eugene and much of neighboring Springfield as well. This led to interest in natural solutions to maintain clean drinking water, like river restoration.

Starting about a decade ago, the US Forest Service started looking at a larger scale intervention model they call "stage zero", where a heavily channelized river is returned to a more natural depositional valley model. This adds value in terms of fish and wildlife habitat, clean water, water retention, and reducing flood impacts. This is the approach that is now being used for the Finn Rock and Quartz Creek project, with the collaboration of multiple agencies, partners, and funders, including the Council.

Middle McKenzie projects

The McKenzie River Trust was able to acquire 278 acres of bottom land in lower Quartz Creek in 2014 and 2015. On Upper Quartz Creek, EWEB was able to work with Campbell Global, land manager for the landowner Franklin-Clarkson Timber Co. LLC, to do conservation through a 50-year stewardship easement on 82 acres. This project also incorporates some US Forest Service and BLM land. Limited human infrastructure in the area meant that large-scale restoration efforts could take place with minimal disruption to surrounding communities.

Quartz Creek was a restoration priority even before the Holiday Farm Fire, acting as a firehose that shot out what Fricke referred to as "chocolate milk" (water with a lot of sediment) into the mainstem. A cut-and-fill approach was used to take everything to grade and allow the river to spread out over the landscape. Quartz Creek is also being used to better understand the benefits of logjams versus a lattice for adding wood to restoration projects. This large woody debris provides a number of benefits to the ecosystem, including habitat for fish and wildlife. The logs are secured to prevent their release into the mainstem and protect fishing and boating opportunities.

Oregon Council member Margi Hoffmann remarked that these projects had the rare ability to work at scale, and asked about opportunities for other similar, large-scale projects. Moll replied that these interventions started on federal land, and there are examples happening now on federal, private, and state lands, both in Oregon and across the West. He also mentioned the risks involved, which can include impacts to recreation and the possibility of flooding, but concluded that the benefits are worth it.

Fricke, with EWEB, added that finding locations for this kind of restoration work is strategic, and wouldn't be undertaken in heavily urbanized areas where there might be negative impacts to infrastructure or transit. It can also be expensive. She went on to discuss some of the challenges of working with a patchwork of landowners to create large-scale projects, but also appreciated the willingness of many landowners to contribute to river restoration. After the Holiday Farm Fire, EWEB found that in addition to working directly with landowners on restoration projects to improve erosion control and protect drinking water, ratepayers were willing to pay a surcharge to acquire, restore, and protect land along the river. This raised $11.5M over 5 years, which EWEB was able to leverage into an additional $17M in grants.

"One of the things that is really beautiful about Oregon is it doesn't matter where you are in this state, everybody cares about the outdoors," said Fricke.

Large river restoration projects can help promote wildfire resiliency. During the Holiday Farm Fire that burned over 170,000 acres in 2020, restoration partners discovered that restored areas, which were wider, wetter, and more humid, acted as natural fire breaks as well as providing a base for firefighting operations and refugia for fish and wildlife. Additional benefits of these projects include moderating water temperatures, providing habitat for fish and wildlife, protecting drinking water by removing sediment and filtering toxins, and reducing flooding. Long-term monitoring and evaluation will be needed to more fully understand the impacts of these projects over time.