Caribou Creek Reconnection

The Caribou Creek Reconnection project focuses on establishing year-round connection of Caribou Creek to the Middle Fork John Day River (MFJD). The MFJD River is host to mid-Columbia spring Chinook and ESA listed summer steelhead, Caribou Creek is a cold-water tributary to the Middle Fork approximately 3.6 miles west of Bates, Oregon. The MFJD River is considered critical habitat for juvenile and adult anadromous salmonids. However, over time both species have experienced notable declines in population abundance within this region. In 1999, mid-Columbia steelhead were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and Middle Fork Chinook are expected to experience a quasi-extinction in 2021. These declines are largely attributed to current and former management and land use practices, as well as climate change.



While water persists in Caribou Creek throughout the year, the creek becomes disconnected from the Middle Fork in early summer, limiting fish passage. This first phase, The Caribou Creek Reconnection project, will relocate Caribou Creek onto CTWS property and out of the mine tailings located on the forest service property. The primary objective of this project is to reconnect Caribou Creek in order to provide and improve rearing habitat throughout this section of the MFJD River and Caribou Creek. By reconnecting the hydrologic connection multiple actions can be associated with this: flood water storage, sediment trapping and deposition, water filtration, and growth in biomass. This action gives way to a suite of benefits including but not limited to: improved/maintained geomorphic flood protection and mitigation, increased/maintained groundwater recharge and storage, improved/maintained surface water quality, and improved/maintained carbon sequestration.



This project will address high priority limiting habitat factors including channel/instream habitat complexity, as well as water temperature and riparian vegetation to benefit the limiting life stages, including juvenile rearing for Mid-Columbia steelhead and Chinook salmon. Primary actions associated with this project include the reconnection of Caribou Creek by excavating preliminary alluvial fan channels and filling old channel, the addition of large wood, and roughened riffles in the MFJD River at the reconnection points. Designs are being covered by the Bureau of Reclamation and developed in partnership with the CTWS, BOR, and the U.S. Forest Service. Implementation is set for 2025.



The CTWS John Day River Watershed Restoration Strategy prioritized geographic areas with the greatest restoration potential for local fish species. Watersheds are delineated with a Restoration Potential Benefit (RPB) score, this project is located in a watershed (Camp Creek MFJD) with the RPB score of 9, the highest priority. The John Day Basin Partnership analyzed the most current biological and physical habitat data to prioritize areas and actions for habitat restoration at the watershed level. Within the Partnerships Prioritization using the Atlas Framework, The Caribou Creek project reach is located in the MFJDR Bridge/Camp/Big Subwatershed, which is a high-ranking Tier I Subwatershed.



Worksite #1 Proposed Work:

Primary actions associated with this project include the reconnection of Caribou Creek by excavating preliminary alluvial fan channels (~0.13 mi) and filling old channel (~0.13 mi). The new pilot channel will be connected with its alluvial fan through the relocation and sight terrace grading, the addition of large wood and willow trenches (~15 structures), and roughened riffles (3) in the MFJD River at the reconnection points. Suitable spawning gravel will be included in designs as new channel morphology and in the roughened riffles. Two miles of stream will also be made accessible to Chinook and steelhead by the removal of a barrier to migration composed of logs, boulders, and debris.

With the current state of salmon and steelhead in the John Day River and the broader mid-Columbia River basin, restoration projects of this scale are increasingly necessary to preserve these populations of fish. Federal, non-profit, and state agencies across the basin have and continue to allocate time and resources to restoring the Middle Fork John Day. Tributaries are highly important, especially for adult steelhead and rearing of all salmonid species. The reconnection of Caribou Creek would improve water quality, habitat availability, and riparian/floodplain function of both Caribou Creek and the Middle Fork John Day River. Data shows that juveniles also spend much of their time in the main stem of the Middle Fork, highlighting the importance of maintaining its cold-water inputs. This work is vital in order to improve fish habitat and water quality within the watershed and will prove to be even more crucial in the face of a changing climate.