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Lottery funds help restore wild salmon on Rock Creek
OregonWatershed Enhancement Board
OregonLottery®
Oct. 4, 2007
News Media Contact:
- Mark Grenbemer, OWEB, 541-776-6010 ext. 231
- Bob Kinyon, Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, 541-673-5756
Editors/reporters: A complete list of funded projects by county is posted on OWEB’s Website at: www.oregon.gov/OWEB. Click on “News and Announcements.”
Private and public groups partner to undertake two related projects
The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers has received about $683,000 in Oregon Lottery® funds to build a new fish ladder and fish sorting facility that will restore wild salmon on Rock Creek, which is in the North Umpqua River watershed.
In addition, the Douglas Soil and Water Conservation District received $50,000 in a related grant of Oregon Lottery® funds to design certain features of the new facility.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board recently allocated the funds for the projects which have a combined total cost exceeding $2 million.
The Rock Creek project will include funding of a new fishway facility to help restore wild and adult salmon. During high and low stream flows, the diversion dam at the Rock Creek fish hatchery creates an obstacle for adult salmon and a complete barrier for young salmon. Once complete, this project will improve access to 22 miles of habitat for salmon and 45 miles of habitat to cutthroat trout.
The project also will provide accurate monitoring of wild and hatchery fish, and will permit sorting and transport of hatchery fish to help meet the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Native Fish Conservation Policy.
Project partners for both grants include the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, ODFW, NOAA Fisheries and PacifiCorp and the Douglas SWCD.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board consists of 17 members. Members represent the public at large, tribes, state natural resource agency boards and commissions, the Oregon State University Extension Service, and federal natural resource agencies. The board is supported by a state agency of the same name that provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy watersheds in Oregon. OWEB actions support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, created in 1997. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources. For more information, visit www.oregon.gov/OWEB or call OWEB in Salem at 503-986-0178.
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