Oregon Natural Desert Association
$32,550  Blue Mountains 

In partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS), the Oregon Natural Desert Association’s (ONDA) Pine Creek Conservation Area Spring and Mesic Habitat Restoration project will enhance riparian and mesic habitat and restore spring hydrology on tributaries of Pine Creek. This project would expand on existing work aimed at improving riparian and mesic habitat within the 34,000-acre Pine Creek Conservation Area, which is owned and managed by CTWS. While CTWS has made incredible progress in restoring the main stem of Pine Creek since acquiring PCCA 25 years ago, most of Pine Creek’s tributaries remain incised and disconnected from their floodplains, and are lacking healthy riparian vegetation. Under current conditions, these small streams typically run dry by late summer, and are progressively becoming more incised and eroded. Expected outcomes of the project include increases in both year-round soil moisture and seasonal flows in springs and streams, improved vegetation abundance and diversity, enhanced conditions for local mesic habitat and improved downstream habitat conditions for Mid-Columbia steelhead and other priority species of fish and wildlife. To achieve these outcomes, ONDA will recruit and lead volunteers on restoration work trips to undertake “micro” riparian restoration actions, including hand constructing small instream structures to reduce erosion and aggrade sediment, removing small western juniper that are encroaching on the stream channel, and installing native plants. Located within the Lower John Day Conservation Opportunity Area, this project will benefit several Oregon Conservation Strategy Species, including Mid-Columbia steelhead, Ferruginous hawk, and Arrow-leaf Thelypody. Other key results of the project will include increased public engagement in habitat restoration, and increased abundance of plants and wildlife on Pine Creek Conservation Area that Warm Springs tribal members utilize for subsistence and medicinal purposes.