Projects in Oregon’s McKenzie River, a tributary of the Willamette River, are restoring the river from its recent channelized state to a healthy river with connected flood plains and natural flows, a river that is much more conducive to salmon and steelhead rearing, according to a recent presentation at a Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting.
The Finn Rock and Quartz Creek restoration projects in the mid-McKenzie River have been made possible by a partnership of non-profits, utilities and local, state, and federal agencies, according to a Sept. 3 Council Memorandum (2025_09_2.pdf). The partners had “aligned behind shared goals for restoring river complexity for the mix of habitat, flood retention, drinking water protection and other public values that connected floodplains and natural flows can provide.”
Similar to other watersheds in the Pacific Northwest, regional development had simplified or channelized the McKenzie River, reducing its habitat diversity and diminishing its ecosystem processes, according to a Sept. 19 Council blog.
Efforts to restore the river began in 2001 when the Willamette River Basin Planning Atlas was published by Stan Gregory, currently a Professor Emeritus of Fisheries at Oregon State University and former chair of both the Independent Science Advisory Board and Independent Scientific Review Panel, and others.
“And this became a road map for us,” Joe Moll, Executive Director of the McKenzie River Trust, said at the Sept. 9 Council meeting in Eugene. “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.”
That was the beginning of the over two decade history of McKenzie River restoration.
In 2001, the Eugene Water and Electric Board created its own drinking water protection plan. The McKenzie River is the sole source of drinking water for the city of Eugene and much of neighboring Springfield. This led to an interest by EWEB in natural solutions, such as river restoration, to maintain clean drinking water, according to Susan Fricke, Water Resources Supervisor at EWEB.
In 2010, the Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program was established through a memorandum of understanding between the State of Oregon and Bonneville Power Administration. The Program was managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and guided by the Council’s 2009 Fish and Wildlife Program, the Council blog says. A variety of habitat restoration projects have been implemented both before and under the MOU.
Also about ten years ago the US Forest Service began looking at large scale intervention in the river that the Service called “stage zero.” That’s where a heavily channelized river is returned to a more natural depositional valley model, according to the blog.
“This approach adds value in terms of fish and wildlife habitat, clean water, water retention, and reducing flood impacts used for the Finn Rock and Quartz Creek projects, with the collaboration of multiple agencies, partners and funders, including the Council,” the blog says.
One of those funders is NOAA Fisheries, which in 2022 provided the McKenzie River Trust with $1.7 million for the project from congressionally-directed community project funds to restore 150 acres of floodplain habitat at Finn Rock Reach. According to NOAA, adult Chinook spawned in the restored habitat in 2023, laying eggs in 65 “redds”—gravel nests they scour out of the river bottom.
And, last year NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the McKenzie Watershed Alliance $7.6 million through the Infrastructure Law to help restore lower Quartz Creek. Historical accounts document the presence of Chinook salmon and bull trout in Quartz Creek, but neither species has been seen there for decades.
EWEB added $1 million for project funding and grants added $17 million more.
The McKenzie River is a primary tributary of the Willamette River, flowing west about 90 miles from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to where it joins the Willamette near Eugene, OR.
At the Council meeting, Moll noted the significance of a member of a land trust co-presenting with a utility, 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.”
The projects came together with the McKenzie River Trust acquiring 278 acres of bottom land in lower Quartz Creek in 2014 and 2015, the blog says. On Upper Quartz Creek, EWEB worked 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. The project also incorporates some Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property.
“Limited human infrastructure in the area meant that large-scale restoration efforts could take place with minimal disruption to surrounding communities,” the blog says.
Margi Hoffmann, Oregon Council member, said that these projects had the “rare ability to work at scale,” asking if other opportunities for similar, large-scale projects existed.
These projects began on federal land and there are examples happening now on federal, private, and state lands, both in Oregon and across the West, Moll said. He also said there are risks with these types of projects, such as impacts to recreation and the possibility of flooding, but he concluded that the benefits are worth it.
Fricke said 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.
Fricke also said it is challenging to work with a “patchwork” of landowners to create large-scale projects, but she also appreciates the willingness of many landowners to contribute to river restoration.
Large river restoration projects can help promote wildfire resiliency, the blog said. 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.
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, the public company’s electric ratepayers were willing to pay a surcharge to acquire, restore and protect land along the river, Fricke said. 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.
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, the blog says.
The McKenzie River Trust is a nonprofit land trust formed in 1989 to protect critical habitats and scenic lands in the McKenzie River basin. Its service area today includes the watersheds of the Long Tom, Upper Willamette, Coast and Middle Forks of the Willamette River, the Umpqua, Siuslaw and coastal headlands rivers, streams and lakes from Reedsport to Lincoln City.
For background, see:
— CBB, June 21, 2024, Infrastructure Law Funding Restores Habitat On Section Of Oregon’s McKenzie River, Redds Showing Up, Infrastructure Law Funding Restores Habitat On Section Of Oregon’s McKenzie River, Redds Showing Up – Columbia Basin Bulletin
–CBB, Sept. 15, 2023, AS MEASURES IMPLEMENTED TO AID ESA SALMONIDS AT WILLAMETTE VALLEY DAMS, CORPS STUDYING WHETHER TO END HYDRO PRODUCTION https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/as-measures-implemented-to-aid-esa-salmonids-at-willamette-valley-dams-corps-studying-whether-to-end-hydro-production/