Long Tom Watershed Council Support 2025-27

This capacity grant will provide operating support for the Long Tom Watershed Council (LTWC), which serves approximately 450 square miles in and around the communities of Eugene, Monroe, Veneta, and Junction City. Major limiting factors to habitat and water quality in the Long Tom Watershed include high stream temperatures due to insufficient native riparian vegetation, lack of floodplain and oxbow habitat connectivity, insufficient large wood recruitment, erosion and sedimentation, barriers to upstream fish passage, and impaired water quality. LTWC works to address these limiting factors by working with private and public landowners and other community members to implement voluntary solutions that improve the overall health of the watershed. There are three main aspects to our work: 1) community engagement through watershed outreach; 2) collection of scientific data; and 3) the implementation of voluntary habitat restoration projects. Project partners include individual private landowners and business owners, public landowners, many federal and state agencies, Tribes, local municipalities, other conservation NGOs, and state, federal, and private funders. This capacity project is essential for LTWCs capacity for watershed coordination, partnership building, public outreach, and organizational management.

Juvenile spring Chinook seasonally migrate from the Willamette River to rear in the lower Long Tom River. This project will benefit spring Chinook by supporting the Council to identify and design projects to improve passage and connectivity to high quality habitat.