Pine Creek Conservation Area Robinson Creek Riparian Restoration Plan

Robinson Creek is located within the Pine Creek Conservation Area (PCCA), a 34,012 acre property in Wheeler County owned and managed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Robinson Creek, one of the largest tributaries of Pine Creek and the Lower John Day River, contains designated Critical Habitat for Mid-Columbia steelhead trout and essential salmonid habitat, and serves as a connective corridor for fish and wildlife moving from the lower elevations of the John Day Basin to the higher elevation ponderosa pine forest. Historic livestock grazing and other agricultural activities coupled with climate change impacts have severely degraded natural processes and habitat function on Robinson Creek, leaving it deeply incised with poor instream and riparian habitat and reduced instream flow.

In partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, ONDA developed a restoration plan and designed restoration treatments for approximately four miles of high priority stream on Robinson Creek to improve hydrological function, increase year-round flows, increase vegetation abundance and diversity, improve habitat conditions for Mid-Columbia steelhead and other native fish and wildlife.

Robinson Creek is one of the largest tributaries to Pine Creek, which then flows into the John Day River. These tributaries are designated Essential Salmonid Habitat in the Lower John Day watershed. The restoration plan developed in this project will focus on addressing key limiting factors and threats to steelhead by restoring instream and riparian habitat connectivity and function on Robinson Creek, as well as improving water quality and quantity. Specifically, the plan with focus on degraded floodplain connectivity and function, degraded channel structure (key habitat quantity and habitat diversity), and water quality (temperature) as primary tributary habitat limiting factors for the Lower John Day watershed. Upon implementation, the restoration project will benefit steelhead on Robinson Creek and throughout the Lower John Day Watershed by addressing habitat limiting factors and improving conditions and connectivity on degraded tributary habitat. Instream habitat complexity will improve via the restoration of natural, self-sustaining stream processes. Riparian habitat structure, complexity, and diversity will also be enhanced by increasing floodplain connectivity and improving water quantity and quality through proven process-based restoration treatments such as strategic construction of Beaver Dam Analogues and installation of native woody vegetation.