ODFW Plan Implementation - UWR 2021-23

The purpose of this project is to implement the Upper Willamette River Conservation and Recovery Plan for Chinook Salmon and Steelhead by providing a half-time Implementation Coordinator. The coordinator will interact, coordinate priorities, and track accomplishments with the numerous diverse agencies, entities, and individuals involved with implementing the range of strategies and actions across the entire plan area. A significant amount of time will be spent ensuring the implementation of the Upper Willamette Biological Opinion that NOAA developed as part of evaluating the effects of the USACOEs Willamette Hydropower project. The BiOp is key to the recovery of listed salmon and steelhead in the Upper Willamette. As an additional part of plan implementation, ODFW will fund a Western Oregon Stream Restoration Program (WOSRP) biologist for the Lower Columbia and Upper Willamette. The WOSRP biologist will provide 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.

The goal of this project is to successfully implement the Upper Willamette 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.