Klamath Tribe Upper Klamath Basin Thermograph Data Assessment

Thermographs have been deployed at 60 sites for a total of 477 site-years, with the number of years of data at individual sites ranging from one to 17. The purposes of the monitoring are to collect trend, baseline, implementation, effectiveness, project, validation, and compliance monitoring data. Other entities monitoring water temperatures in the Upper Klamath Basin include the US Forest Service, US Geological Survey, US Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality, and the Nature Conservancy (Figure 1).The Klamath Tribes, in collaboration with other public and private entities, have initiated an ambitious effort in the tributaries of UKL to increase instream flows, restore riparian corridors, increase complexity of instream and floodplain habitats, and improve water quality. A key component of that effort is the enforcement of the Klamath Tribes’ senior water rights to protect instream flows which began 2013. To inform the effective management and restoration of aquatic resources by the Klamath Tribes and its partners, there is a critical need to comprehensively analyze the water temperature data that has been collected over the past several decades. A data analysis report was completed by a contractor analyzing the Tribes Thermograph Data.

Project Benefit: This project is considered a crucial step towards achieving the tribal restoration goal of reintroduction and restoration of the Klamath Tribes historic salmonid fisheries, including Chinook, Coho, lamprey, and steelhead species that have been extirpated. Specifically, the project will assess the suitability of tributaries in the Upper Klamath Basin to support anadromous fish and changes in water temperature related to climate change, habitat restoration, and water rights regulation.