ODFW Plan Implementation - LCR 2022

The purpose of this project was to implement the Lower Columbia conservation and recovery plan by providing an Implementation Coordinator. The IC worked with the Clackamas Partnership’s OWEB Focused Investment Partnership (FIP) implementation grant, serving as the partnership’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) chair, as a member of the executive team, and on OWEB’s FIP technical review team (TRT). Within the Youngs Bay and Big Creek populations, the IC assisted the North Coast Watershed Association with the Return of the Redds campaign by recording public outreach on habitat and biology of Chum Salmon. The IC also worked with the Hood River Working Group to bring recovery plan habitat restoration volumes into their updated SAP. Within Columbia County, the IC worked with the county roads department to replace high priority fish passage barriers, worked with the SWCD Local Advisory Committee, and worked with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership and the SWCD for yearly water quality monitoring. The IC also worked with the USFS to develop a Good Neighbor Authority; provided input on high priority locations for Metro’s Parks bond measure; and was a member of the Columbia River Chum Workgroup, the Lower Columbia River Estuary Science Work Group, and the Columbia River Collaborative tributary and estuary workgroup. The IC completed one annual report and drafted the comprehensive 12-year assessment of the Lower Columbia River Conservation and Recovery Plan.



As an additional part of plan implementation, ODFW funded two Western Oregon Stream Restoration Program (WOSRP) biologists who worked in the Lower Columbia (and another ESU each; Lower Columbia funding documented in Column J). The WOSRP biologist provided local watershed councils and landowners with initial assessments of limiting factors for potential project sites, information about how potential projects fit within basin priorities for restoration, and designs for habitat restoration projects. Lower Columbia River ESU restoration activities were completed by positions located in Tillamook and Clackamas, which also conducted activities in the Oregon Coast ESU and Willamette ESU, respectively.



PCSRF FFY2018 and FFY2022 funds were expended on project costs incurred during the corresponding PCSRF FFY contract award periods.

The goal of this project is to successfully implement the Lower Columbia conservation and recovery plan. In order to do this, a coordinator with sole responsibility for plan implementation is required, given the scope of the plan and the likelihood that the level of attention needed for successful implementation of it would not be able to be provided by adding responsibilities to existing staff with full workloads. The goal of the plan is to provide a roadmap of actions for delisting the species addressed from the federal ESA list, and improve and maintain healthy populations of these native fish for the social, economic, and natural benefit of current and future Oregonians.