BPA Project Title: John Day Mainstem, Middle fork, North Fork Fish Habitat Program
Contract Number: 21625
Contract Title: John Day Sub-Basin Fish Habitat Enhancement
Performance/Budget Period: March 1, 2005 thru Feburary 28, 2006; Federal FY 2005

This project was initiated on July 1, 1984, under the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) contract number DE A179-84 BP17460 and allows for initial landowner contracts, agreement development, project design, budgeting, and implementation for anadromous fish habitat improvement on privately owned lands within the John Day Basin.  The primary goal of " The John Day Basin Fish Habitat Enhancement Project" is to access, create,improve,protect, and restore riparian and instream habitat for anadromous salmonids, thereby maximizing opportunities for natural fish production within the basin.

This project provided for implementation of Program Measure 703 (C) (1), Action Item 4.2 of the Northwest Power Planning Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (NPPC, 1987), and continues to be implemented as offsite mitigation for mainstem fishery losses caused by the Columbia River hydro-electric system.

The purpose of the John Day Fish Habitat Enhancement Program is to enhance production of indigenous wild stocks of spring chinook and summer steelhead within the sub basin through habitat protection, enhancement and fish passage improvement.  The John Day River system supports the largest remaining wild runs of spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead in Northeast Oregon.

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT AREA

The John Day River drains 8,010 square miles of land in east central Oregon and is the third largest drainage in the state. The sub basin includes a major part of Gilliam, Grant, and Wheeler counties and portions of Crook, Harney, Jefferson, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, and Wasco counties.

The mainstem John Day River flows 284 miles from its source in the Strawberry Mountains to its confluence with the Columbia River one mile upstream of the John Day Dam.  The largest tributary, the North Fork, enters the mainstem of the John Day River at Kimberly (RM184) and extends 112 miles to its headwaters in the Elkhorn Mountains near the town of Granite.  The Middle Fork of the John Day River originates just south of the headwaters of the North Fork and flows roughly parallel to it for 75 miles until they merge at RM 31 of the North Fork.  The South Fork of the John Day River originates from Cougar Mountain southwest of the town of Burns and drains the south side of Aldrich Mountain.  Then it flows into the mainstem of the John Day River near the town of Dayville at RM 212.

The Bonneville Power Administration under contract number DEA 179-84 BP17460 provides funding for this endeavor.  This funding is for private land leasing, stream habitat inventory, planning and design work, contract development, budgeting, fish passage improvement, fence construction, instream habitat placement, vegetation enhancement, construction review and maintenance.  These activities are for anadromous fish habitat improvement on private lands within the John Day Basin.  The John Day Fish Habitat program primarily relies on restoring natural vegetation, floodplain connectivity and groundwater interactions, using riparian fencing in streams that have been impacted by livestock grazing.  This method has proven to be effective in protecting and restoring streams (Beschta and others, 1991; Chaney and others, 1993).  This program is coordinated with other fish habitat improvement programs on BLM and Forest Service and Tribal lands within the basin, and for these restoration activities to be successful, they must be coordinated across many jurisdictional and ownership boundaries; section 7, Action Item 7.6C of the Northwest Power Planning Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program