Fisheries personnel within the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWSRO) will execute the Lower Deschutes River Basin Restoration Program. This Program will focus exclusively on projects within the boundary of the Warm Springs Reservation. The Program will use holistic watershed restoration approaches that seek to improve factors presently limiting salmonid production. Four limiting factors for salmonid production have been identified: 1) habitat complexity and quantity, 2) excessive fine sediment loading, 3) high-water temperatures, and 4) altered hydrology. Projects developed through this Program will address one or all of these limiting factors. Moreover, projects will be tiered to the Deschutes River Subbasin Plan, the Mid-Columbia Steelhead Recovery Plan, and Tribal documents that have prioritized projects on the Reservation.

Instream and watershed restoration projects on the Reservation are important to salmonid recovery in the Lower Deschutes Basin. The 660,000 acre Reservation provides critical habitat for wild populations of spring Chinook Salmon, Mid-Columbia summer steelhead, Bull Trout, Redband Trout, Pacific Lamprey, and a suite of endemic non-salmonid species. Protection and recovery of these species is important to Tribal culture and future harvest opportunities. The Tribes maintain and exercise the sovereign right to harvest fish within the Deschutes, Columbia and John Day Basins at traditional fishing locations. Restoration and protection of these watersheds is essential to the recovery of culturally important fish populations. Habitat restoration projects will be planned by Tribal staff from the Fisheries Habitat Program and implemented by both Tribal and non-Tribal contractors.  All projects will pass through the Tribe’s Integrated Resource Management Planning (IRMP) process and complete the required Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation.

Restoration projects slated for design and/or implementation over the two-year duration of contract CR-381014 include: 1) removal of a headwall dam referred to as Headworks Dam in Shitike Creek northwest of the town of Warm Springs, 2) a Stage-0 depositional valley reset in the Bennett's Reach in Shitike Creek, and 3) a beaver dam analog (BDA) construction project in Coyote Creek. The primary goal of removing the Headworks Dam is to improve Pacific Lamprey passage into upstream reaches in Shitike Creek. The primary goals of the Stage-0 project in the Bennett's Reach on Shitike Creek include floodplain reconnection and improvements to climate change resiliency, habitat complexity, and groundwater recharge potential. The primary goal for the BDA construction project in Coyote Creek is to reduce the transport and deposition of fine sediments into Beaver Creek, a large tributary to the Warm Springs River.