Nehalem Landowner Engagement Initiative

The Nehalem Bay Watershed Council is submitting this grant on behalf of the Nehalem Basin Partnership.
The Nehalem Landowner Engagement Initiative (NLEI) is located in the Nehalem watershed, home to an independent population of ESA-listed Oregon coast coho salmon (OC coho).
The NLEI will engage landowners to restore habitat on their property, as called for in the Strategic Action Plan for the Protection and Restoration of Coho Salmon Habitat (NSAP) which implements the ODFW and NOAA Fisheries’ plans for OC coho. Landowner participation is critical to implementation of the NSAP.
The Nehalem Basin Partnership will contact landowners to enlist their cooperation in implementing key strategies from the plans, including adding large wood to priority reaches to increase stream complexity, enhancing riparian habitats with native plantings, managing invasive species, promoting beaver colonization, reconnecting and restoring tidal wetlands and sloughs and associated freshwater habitats, and replacing or removing culverts and other barriers to fish passage. NBP will contact timber, agriculture, residential and public landowners whose properties are in priority locations to invite participation in implementing restoration projects on their properties. A contractor will develop and use mailings, meetings, website posts, phone calls and in-person meetings to contact prioritized landowners. These will explain the priorities of the NSAP and develop a schedule for planning, design, and implementation. Landowners will be scheduled into a 10 year work plan.
This is a project of the Nehalem Basin Partnership which includes the Upper Nehalem Watershed Council, Nehalem Bay Watershed Council, Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Forestry, Weyerhaeuser Company, Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District Tillamook County Creamery Association, Lower Nehalem Community Trust, North Coast Land Conservancy, and Giustina Timber Co.

This project will develop a workplan for the implementation of the Nehalem Strategic Action Plan for the Protection and Restoration of Coho Salmon Habitat (NSAP). This workplan will provide guidance to the Nehalem Basin Partnership of when to apply for funding, timing of design phases, and when to implement specific actions prioritized in the NSAP. The workplan will specifically be scheduling actions from the NSAP in consultation with landowners so every project in the workplan will include a willing landowner. By having a workplan with willing landowners the Nehalem Basin Partnership will have increased capacity to pursue funding opportunities to implement the workplan. This project aims to plan 33 miles of instream habitat enhancement, 29 miles of riparian habitat restoration, and 26 fish passage barrier removals or replacements by 2035.