North Fork Klaskanine Fish Passage Project

The North Fork Klaskanine River is a major tributary to Young’s Bay and the first major watershed that ocean-returning fish encounter in the Lower Columbia River and estuary. Fish passage has historically been blocked by three water diversion dam structures that function to take water from the North Fork and North Fork Klaskanine River to provide a year-round water source for the hatchery, referred to as Intake #1 (Ogee Dam), Intake #2, and Intake #3 (North Fork Dam). Over the past several years project partners engaged in a process to develop fish passage solutions in the watershed. This led to a 2020 removal of one hatchery dam on the North Fork Klaskanine and a natural like fish passage structure built at a second dam in 2022, thus fully opening fish passage upstream of this proposed barrier removal project. Fish passage at the North Fork Klaskanine Diversion #1 dam (Ogee Dam) is the final phase of a watershed scale project to maximize wild fish passage and stream connectivity while maintaining hatchery management. Providing fish passage at the Ogee dam will provide access to 12 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for ESA listed coho salmon, spring Chinook salmon, winter steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey and Western brook lamprey. Project partners include the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and USFWS.

The North Fork Klaskanine River is a major tributary to Young’s Bay and the first major watershed that ocean-returning fish encounter in the Lower Columbia River and estuary. Fish passage has historically been blocked by three water diversion dam structures that function to take water from the North Fork and North Fork Klaskanine River to provide a year-round water source for the hatchery, referred to as Intake #1 (Ogee Dam), Intake #2, and Intake #3 (North North Fork Dam). Over the past several years project partners engaged in a process to develop fish passage solutions in the watershed at intakes #2 and #3. Providing fish passage at the Ogee dam will provide access to 12 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for ESA listed coho salmon, spring Chinook salmon, winter steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey and Western brook lamprey. Project partners include the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation, Tribes, and USFWS.

Reconnecting fish passage and a continuous stream channel at the North Fork Klaskanine Intake Dam 1 will restore natural stream function including sediment transport, movement of native aquatic species, movement of nutrients and large wood through the system and provide immediate connectivity to 12 miles of habitat for resident native fish. Improved aquatic access for resident Lower Columbia Cutthroat Trout, a species of concern, may increase population viability and enable this species to have increased out-migration of sea-run individuals to supplement the more imperiled anadromous life history. Similarly, the watershed’s resident western brook lamprey and anadromous Pacific lamprey will have immediate access to an additional 14 miles of habitat. The projects roughened channel will allow upstream access to complex habitat that will provide resilient fish populations during climate change conditions. This project compliments work completed in 2020, and 2022 to remove Intake Dams 2 and 3, which was located on the North Fork and North North Fork Klaskanine River. Immediately upon implementation of this project there will be no barriers in the North Fork Klaskanine subbasin.

The design techniques and strategies employed in this project strategically increase system-wide resilience and connectivity to provide access to a full range of habitat conditions that meet the natural life history variations and adaptive strategies inherent in healthy aquatic species populations. These benefits will accrue not only to anadromous and resident aquatic species, but also provide some incremental improvement in whole watershed conditions. Climate change models indicate the likelihood of changing conditions in the Lower Columbia and Oregon Coast through increased temperature and changes in seasonal flow variation. Specifically, the climate considerations that our project target by re-connecting aquatic corridors include amelioration of potential higher summer stream temperatures and reduced fragmentation of fish and wildlife movement corridors. Ecosystem processes and changing ocean conditions will dictate the sustainability of salmon and trout, however this project results in the removal of the last physical barrier to fish migration and therefore contributes to solutions that can augment these changes. While mitigation for development of the Columbia River hydro system is focused on the preservation and recovery of depressed salmonids, the preservation of the fishery infrastructure is equally important if recovery is indeed defined by harvestable, naturally spawning populations. This project on the North Fork Klaskanine River will provide wild fish passage to enhance ecosystem resilience in the Lower Columbia Estuary and Youngs Bay system.