Trout Unlimited
$99,153  Blue Mountains 

The Camp Creek Wet Meadow and Aquatic Resiliency Project is located on The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Zumwalt Prairie Preserve (ZPP) 17 miles northeast of Enterprise in Wallowa County, OR. TNC owns 90% of the Camp Creek watershed in its 33,000-acre ZPP and manages the land with strategies that integrate ecological restoration in a working landscape. Camp Creek is a tributary to Big Sheep Creek, which flows into the Imnaha River. The majority of the ZPP is protected in conservation easement land.

Camp Creek is an important spawning and rearing habitat for ESA-listed Snake River steelhead, and home to numerous other Oregon Conservation Strategy Species including Columbia spotted frogs, willow flycatchers, Columbia clubtails, common nighthawks, and Western toads. The OR Department of Fish and Wildlife uses Camp Creek as an index stream and has counted steelhead redds there since 1965. ODFW's counts show that Camp consistently produces the most or second greatest number of redds per stream mile in Wallowa County. The project area falls within the Zumwalt Prairie and the Imnaha Conservation Opportunity Areas.

Due to historic human activities, Camp Creek is disconnected from its meadow and floodplain habitat and much of the upper basin is not functioning at its ecological potential, increasing its vulnerability to changing precipitation and temperature patterns. This is phase 1 of a comprehensive 4.7-mile project reach which will be completed in 2 construction phases. Phase 1 will enhance 2.8 miles of stream and 30 wetland acres along Camp Creek.

The project goal is to re-establish a connected river-wetland corridor in a degraded meadow system, restore floodplain function, enhance climate resilience, and encourage natural habitat forming processes for a biodiverse community of species.

Project partners include the Nez Perce Tribe, Grande Ronde Model Watershed Council, Wallowa Resources, ODFW, RIVHAB, Trout Unlimited, and TNC.