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Lottery funds will help breach Sprague River levee
Sept. 24, 2007
News media contact:
- Shannon Peterson, Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust, (541) 488-4822
- Rick Craiger, OWEB Regional Program Representative, (541) 923-7353
Editors/reporters: A complete list by county of funded projects approved by the OWEB Board is posted on OWEB’s Website at: www.oregon.gov/OWEB. Click on “News and Announcements.”
New wetlands will give sucker fish more habitat and reduce erosion
The Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust has received nearly $28,000 to remove levees along a two-mile stretch of the Sprague River to allow the river to flood more naturally and to reconnect with streamside wetland areas providing habitat for suckers and other fish and wildlife.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board recently approved Oregon Lottery funds for the project, which has a total cost of about $150,000.
This is the first project of its type for the Sprague River, according to Shannon Peterson of the Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust, which applied for the grant and worked with landowner James Wayne and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to design and plan the project. The breaks in the levee will range from 70 to 230 feet long. About 25 acres of wetlands will be restored. The streamside wetlands will then be protected from cattle impacts. “This is a win-win situation,” said landowner James Wayne, “because it will provide natural irrigation for my cattle pasture, decreasing my need to pump irrigation water, and at the same time restores wetlands and the river.”
“The Lottery funds allow us to complete the project all at once rather than stretching the project over several years depending on availability of other funding sources,” Peterson said. “The concentrated effort makes it much easier to convince a landowner to tackle the project,” she added.
Besides creating new habitat for fish and wildlife, the wetlands will help reduce erosion and the amount of sediment washing into Upper Klamath Lake, Peterson pointed out. And by allowing flood water to spread over the pasture, the ground will act like a sponge, absorbing and then slowly releasing water back into the river later in the season. She reported that partners working on the project, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have secured federal funds to monitor water quality and use of the new wetlands by suckers for rearing their young after completion of the project.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board consists of 17 members. They 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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