WASHINGTON (KTVZ) – The U. S. Department of the Interior has announced that the U. S. Department of the Interior has announced that the U. S. Department of the Interior has announced that the U The U. S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday announced more than $51 million in investments under President Biden’s Invest in America program for 18 projects in 8 states that will repair aquatic ecosystems, adding two projects in central Oregon totaling more than $6. 6 million.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s critical investment for the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART program will aid the study, design, and structure of collaboratively evolved ecosystem recovery projects that provide widespread regional benefits and suitability for fisheries, wildlife, and aquatic habitat through fish recovery and enhancement. step. .
The largest local grant, of $5.96 million, is to the North Unit Irrigation District to replace and upgrade fish screens at the Bend Headworks at its main canal intake on the Deschutes River (details below).
The company also provided approximately $650,000 to the Deschutes River Conservancy and irrigation districts in the region to complete and design habitat reclamation projects to take advantage of the Oregon spotted frog and local Deschutes River red trout.
“Through President Biden’s Invest in America program, we are advancing nature-based responses that take advantage of local water supplies and the wildlife and habitats that support them,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “The Department of the Interior continues to announce water responses that are environmentally and economically sound for the American West. “
“The benefits of those projects are significant in terms of climate resilience and ecosystem restoration,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, Commissioner for Restoration. “Work to repair and protect fish and wildlife habitat is also helping water quality and mitigating the effects of drought and potential consequences. “flood. “
Commissioner Touton made the announcement a stopover at the Las Vegas Wash outside Henderson, Nevada. As part of Tuesday’s announcement, the Southern Nevada Water Authority will receive $20 million to create a wetland and other habitats at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The task will improve water quality and help protect the spawning area of the endangered razor whale in Las Vegas Bay. The Wash is a major link in the Las Vegas Valley watershed, channeling more than two hundred million gallons of highly treated urban runoff. effluents and shallow groundwater to Lake Mead.
President Biden’s Invest in America program represents the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history and provides much-needed resources to build the resilience of Western communities to drought and climate change. Through the bipartisan infrastructure law, Reclamation is making an investment of a total of $8. 3 billion over five years in water infrastructure projects, adding rural water, water storage, conservation and transportation, nature-based solutions, dam safety, water purification and reuse, and desalination. In the first two years of its implementation, Reclamation has decided on 421 projects that will garner more than $2. 9 billion.
The projects decided under this cycle of the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program are the following 10 in the Pacific Northwest:
Deschutes River Conservation, Upper Deschutes River Aquatic Habitat Restoration for Oregon Spotted Frog and Other Native Species (Task A: Study and Design)
Rehab Funding: $651,542
Deschutes River Conservancy (DRC), in partnership with the Deschutes Basin Control Board (DBBC), will complete the study and design of habitat restoration projects that will benefit the Oregon spotted frog, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and the Endangered Species Act. Local species. Red-banded trout designated across the state as sensitive, in the Deschutes River in central Oregon. Habitat for those species has been degraded in this segment of the Upper Deschutes River between Wickiup Reservoir and the City of Bend, which includes Deschutes de Reclamation. Project, due to the garage and release of water for irrigation. DRC and DBBC will conduct studies and analysis to prioritize projects to repair the creek channel by reclassifying the banks and reconnecting the active channel to its floodplains to allow runoff to flood wetlands and riparian spaces. adjacent to waterways, thus providing habitat for Oregon. Spotted frog and habitat improvement in streams.
North Unit Irrigation District, Fish Screen Replacement at Bend Headworks (Task B: Construction)
Recovery Funding: $5,965,809
North Unit Irrigation District will replace the existing, rotary drum fish screens with upgraded, flat plate screens and a traveling screen cleaning system at the Bend Headworks, located at the district’s main canal intake on the mainstem of the Deschutes River, in Bend, Oregon. The Deschutes River is home to brown and rainbow trout, the rare brook trout, whitefish, and transient fingerling coho and kokanee from Wickiup Reservoir, a Bureau of Reclamation Project. The design of the new screens will slow the approach velocity, shrink the mesh size of the screen, and provide a safe path for fish to the fish ladder.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Restoring Ecosystem Function and Fish Habitat in the Hood River Watershed (Task A: Study and Design)
Recovery Funding: $500,000
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Hood River Basin Group will complete the study and design of five stream reclamation projects in the East Fork Hood River, Neal Creek and Creek subwatersheds in north-central Oregon. The investment will be used to expand 100 miles of fish habitat consistent with cent’s designs to remove two barriers to fish passage and repair at least 3. 5 miles of fish habitat, which will improve wetland function, increase stream complexity, repair riparian habitat, and link the floodplain to the main channel. advance the recovery of salmon and rainbow trout indexed under the Endangered Species Act.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Reconnecting Fish Passage to Recover Oregon Coast Coho in the Nehalem and Tillamook Watersheds (Task B: Construction)
Recovery Funding: $3,000,000
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and its local partners will present a series of high-priority fish passage and habitat recovery moves in the lower Nehalem Basin on Oregon’s northwest coast. The task will include the removal of four dams and culverts and the upgrade of five tidal gates, which are fish passage barriers that also restrict floodplain connectivity with two silent tide valves, resulting in the reconnection of 22 miles of coho spawning and nursery habitat and 381 hectares of reconnected floodplain wetlands.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Restoring Habitat Connectivity for Lower Columbia River Salmonids in the North Fork Klaskanine River Watershed (Task B: Construction)
Recovery Funding: $3,175,089
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will restore fish passage in the North Fork Klaskanine River by providing fish passage at the Ogee Dam. The project builds upon progress made in previous phases of a watershed-scale effort, that included the removal of one dam and installation of a fish passage structure at a second dam upstream of the proposed project location at Ogee Dam. Once installed, the fish passage feature at Ogee Dam will provide access to 12 full miles of critical spawning and rearing habitat in the upper reaches of the North Fork Klaskanine River for the benefit of ESA-listed coho salmon. The project will also benefit several non-listed, but culturally significant species, including coastal cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, and Western brook lamprey.
Chelan County, Peshastin Creek Historic Waterway and Floodplain Design and Reconnection Project (Task A: Study and Design)
Recovery Funding: $768,587
Chelan County will complete the study and design of a comprehensive reclamation task to relocate and reconnect the Peshastin Creek Channel to its historic floodplain and construct two highway bridges over the diverted creek in Chelan County, Washington. The aquatic habitat of Peshastin Creek was severely degraded during the structure of State Route 97 in the 1950s, which reduced and straightened the creek channel and disconnected it from the old channel footprint and floodplain. The county will conduct a hydrologic and hydraulic assessment of existing and proposed conditions, conduct options research seeking input from fish biologists, local landowners, and other stakeholders, and conduct a bridge examination and hazard analysis, to produce a 60% design package.
Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, Pom Pom Road, Toppenish Creek Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration Project (Task B: Construction)
Recovery Financing: $3,020,000
The Yakama Nation will repair aquatic habitat and fish passage on Toppenish Creek, a tributary of the Yakima River in Yakima County, Washington. Irrigation diversions, roads, bridges, and agriculture have disconnected the main creek channel from its historic floodplain. As a result, federally indexed salmonid species have been isolated from healthy floodplain spawning habitat and floodplain groundwater recharge has been eliminated. Once completed, the reclamation task will provide 2. 4 miles of complex, high-quality habitat for the breeding and spawning of the federally threatened Columbia rainbow trout. and culturally significant Pacific lamprey through streams into the historic channel. The installation of a new bridge and 3 box culverts will increase the width by 270%, the creek will be reconnected to one hundred acres of floodplain forest, restoring the herbal processes of the creek. and expand flood water storage.
Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, Nason Creek Floodplain (DOT-N1) MD 3. 2 to 4. 6 Floodplain Project (Task A: Study and Design)
Recovery Funding: $500,000
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation (Yakama Nation), in partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the United States Forest Service (USFS), and in coordination with the Wenatchee Subwatershed Action Team (WAT), complete structural plans for a large-scale salmon habitat restoration effort along Nason Creek, near the town of Leavenworth, Chelan County, Washington, in the Yakama Nation’s Northern Treaty Territory. The task will expand final structural designs to remove, and then divert, a problematic 0. 65-mile-long segment of State Route 207 away from the Nason Creek flood channel to repair creek habitat for Endangered Species Act (ESA)listed spring chinook salmon, rainbow trout, and bull trout.
Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, Wapato Bypass: Anadromous Fish Passage Improvements (Task A: Study and Design)
Recovery Financing: $2,000,000
The Yakama Nation, working in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, will develop alternatives for the passage of anadromous fish species at the Wapato Diversion on the lower Yakima River in Central Washington State. Following an alternatives analysis, the selected project concept will be advanced to a 60% level of design. The purpose of the design alternatives is to restore fish passage for fish within the Yakima Major Population Group of federally-threatened, Middle Columbia River (MCR) Steelhead, spring and summer run Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon, and juvenile and adult Pacific Lamprey.
Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, Prosser Detour: Anadromous Fish Passage Improvements (Task A: Study and Design)
Recovery Funding: $2,000,000
The Yakama Nation will study, select, and design alternatives to improve fish passage and avoid entrainment at the Prosser Diversion on the lower Yakima River of Central Washington State. The Prosser Diversion supplies irrigation water through the Chandler Canal serving the
Kennewick Reclamation Division’s Yakima Project. The dam can divert more than 50% of the flow of the Yakima River, creating situations that are very detrimental to the passage of fish. A giant proportion of smolts in the Yakima Basin are swept into the canal and suffer maximum mortality. Removing or modifying the dam and headwaters will create safer situations for all anadromous species. These innovations will benefit the four populations that make up Yakima’s main population organization of federally threatened Central Columbia rainbow trout juveniles and adults; juveniles and adults from all Yakima Chinook salmon populations breed naturally in spring and summer, and in fall Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye; and juvenile and adult Pacific lamprey.
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