Greater Oregon City Watershed Council Capacity Grant Application 2025-2027

The Greater Oregon City Watershed Council (GOCWC) watershed is approximately 69 square miles in size encompassing the entire city of Oregon City and a portion of Clackamas County. Abernethy Creek, Beaver/Parrott Creek, and several smaller basins feeding into the Willamette River above and below the falls in Oregon City are the areas of focus for the work of the council. The 2025-2027 Council Capacity Grant supports our work to further understand and restore the natural processes, improve management practices, and address land uses that influence stream habitat, fish populations, and water quality. We develop and implement restoration activities and advance community engagement by implementing projects identified in our 2024-2028 Strategic Action Plan and collaborate with community partners on a variety of engagement initiatives. Capacity has been enhanced through the work of a full-time Executive Director and recent additions of a part-time Outreach and Engagement Coordinator (2024) and a part-time Restoration Project Manager (2025). The 2025-27 GOCWC work plan includes new and continuing activities to advance the goals outlined the 2024-2028 GOCWC Strategic Action Plan focused on Restoration, Collaboration, Organizational Sustainability, and Organizational Capacity. The council and staff have expanded resources through grant development, new partnerships and planning for future projects and activities. The GOCWC has worked effectively with the Clackamas Partnership (15 members including 3 other watershed councils, Metro, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Water and Environmental Services and others) Oregon City, Clackamas Community College, the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District, Clackamas County, and numerous private landowners in collaboration to develop and implement projects to support the mission of the organization.

The Greater Oregon City Watershed Council focuses on working with communities in and around Oregon City to restore water quality, fish populations, and habitat in the Abernethy Creek watershed, the Beaver/Parrott Creek watershed and the tributaries entering the Willamette River above and below the falls bounded by these two watersheds. Abernethy Creek and its tributary streams provide important adult spawning and juvenile rearing habitat for federally endangered coho salmon and winter steelhead as well as for other fish such as Pacific lamprey (listed as a State of Oregon and federal sensitive species) and cutthroat trout. While a sizable portion of the watershed’s streams are rated as “high intrinsic potential” habitat for salmon and steelhead, much of the historical high-quality habitat that supported productive fish populations is not present today because stream and watershed conditions have degraded over time. Work will be conducted through engagement with property owners, development of projects to address issues related to stream temperature and cover, in-stream habitat, fish passage barriers and impairments to water quality.