The Oxbow Conservation Area, a 1,022 acre property, was purchased as a high priority project in 2001 with BPA mitigation funds by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (Tribes).  The Forrest Conservation Area, with its two parcels of 4,232-acres, was purchased as a high priority project in 2002 with BPA mitigation funds by the Tribes. These Projects have since received BPA annual funding for O&M as part of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Tribes and BPA.  The goal of these projects are to "protect, manage, and restore" habitat values for fish and wildlife.

This contract is the first year that Project number 2001-041-01 Forrest Conservation Area is lumped together with Oxbow in order to consolidate administration.

The 1,199-acre Dunstan property is planned to be acquired by the Tribes from the The Nature Conservancy in early 2018.  The Dunstan property will also be managed and protected by the Tribes through this BPA Project.  This project will eventually be renamed Upper John Day Conservation Lands Program.

The properties are located within the John Day subbasin plan’s highest priority 5th Field HUC, Camp Creek, for Middle Fork subwatershed.  The properties hold high concentrations of adult spring Chinook salmon through the high temperatures and low flows of the summer months, offers spawning and rearing habitat to Chinook salmon, ESA-listed as Threatened Mid-Columbia summer steelhead and bull trout as well as access to fish-bearing perennial tributaries that come into the properties from National Forest lands. Pacific lamprey also use the habitats on these properties for spawning and rearing.

Before acquisition for conservation purposes, activities on the properties severely impacted habitat potential via overgrazing, dredge mining, invasive plants, channel straightening, and the clearing of trees and shrubs from riparian habitat.  Since acquisition, the Tribes have been working to protect existing habitat, restore degraded habitat, and assess conditions within the property and its valuable fish and wildlife habitat.  The Projects will continue to follow the goals, objectives, and guidelines presented in the Oxbow and Forrest property management plan. Biological objectives for these lands target habitat for anadromous fish populations and other ESA-listed and sensitive species found on the property.

This Project will continue to address aquatic priorities outlined in the John Day Subbasin Plan:

•Protect High Quality Existing Habitat – achieved through various property O&M, education and outreach, riparian fencing, controlled access, monitoring trends, etc.
•Enhance Riparian and Instream Habitat – achieved through channel restoration of historically dredged and degraded streams, intensive riparian planting, adding large wood for habitat and stream complexity where needed, and controlling invasive  plants in riparian corridors.  
•Fish Passage and Habitat Connectivity – achieved through improving irrigation diversions, and replacing outdated fish screens.
•Flow Restoration - achieved through protection of existing water rights, careful use irrigation for riparian enhancement and groundwater storage, and monitoring of flows surrounding such use.

With the completion of the Oxbow Tailings Restoration Project over the past seven years, the 2018 focus will continue special maintenance of the mile of restored river and creek channels completed in 2016 (Phase 4&5).  This work will include supplemental irrigation of riparian plants (final year), weed control, continued seeding, and other maintenance and monitoring.

Project work in 2018 will focus on riparian plan cages to removed ungulate browse and some beaver activity from woody plants and promote maximum growth for shading streams on the properties.

Staff will work with Bureau of Reclamation to produce restoration designs for remaining work on the properties planned through 2023.