Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative
The recovery of Pacific salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest has drawn much attention across the region. In order to focus restoration efforts, Ecotrust formed the Pacific Northwest Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative.
The Initiative is a partnership between the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, USDA Forest Service, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Community-based Restoration Center and Ecotrust. Together the partners work to identify river basins in the Pacific Northwest with the highest ecological values and potential responsiveness to restoration efforts. Within these basins, the partners target regional and national restoration funds, directing them to the watersheds with the highest conservation value for salmon and the projects most essential to the recovery of natural watershed processes. The Partnership's current working geography is defined as six high-priority basins within Oregon and Washington. (See map.)
In 2007, the partners pooled their resources for restoration into the Whole Watershed Restoration Partnership Fund. Ecotrust is the program coordinator and fiscal administrator of the partnership fund, which currently totals $2.3 million.
The Initiative works to amplify community-based and regional partnerships focused on strategic restoration of Pacific salmon ecosystems. In 2006, its first year, the Initiative successfully selected and funded 22 community-based restoration projects in Oregon and Washington that will result in the restoration of over 30 miles of stream habitat and more than 200 acres of critical riparian, wetland, and forested habitat as well as the decommissioning of more than 20 miles of sediment-producing roads. In 2008, the Initiative is funding an additional 32 projects and plans to expand the targeted watershed restoration strategy into Northern California, Idaho and possibly Alaska.
The Initiative's planning and prioritization process takes a "protect the best" approach, by focusing restoration activities in a few important watersheds per basin. The goal for these restoration activities is to restore and protect the major ecological functions by removing risk factors, restoring damaged habitat-forming processes in the watershed across all ownerships, and protecting the habitat that is in the best condition. Once the work restoring major ecological processes is completed in the watershed, restoration efforts will then be focused on the next priority watershed; thus the list of priority basins will change over time. The partners' shared philosophy is that by concentrating and coordinating restoration efforts where there is strong community support, effective collaboration, and high ecological value, measurable and sustainable recovery is achieved faster than when efforts are spread randomly across the landscape.
Initial priority areas in Oregon and Washington were identified using Ecotrust's conservation planning priorities tool (http://www.pacificwatersheds.net/priorities/) combined with outputs from the Forest Service's basin-scale prioritization (Basin-scale Restoration Prioritization Process, PNW Region, USDA Forest Service). The Partnership has settled on the following priority basins, which are the current focus of the Initiative:
- Mid-North Oregon Coast
- South Oregon Coast (Rogue/Umpqua)
- John Day
- Lower Columbia (Hood River downstream)
- Upper Columbia (Above Yakima, below Grand Coulee)
- Puget Sound
Based on watershed analyses and community input, the partners in these basins have further selected the following focus watersheds as their first targets for recovery:
- Mid-North Oregon Coast: Alsea River
- South Oregon Coast: Steamboat Creek (North Fork Umpqua) and South Fork Coquille
- John Day: Middle and North Fork
- Lower Columbia: Sandy River, Oregon; and Lewis River, Washington
- Upper Columbia: Methow/Twisp Rivers
- Puget Sound: Skagit River and South Fork Skokomish River
