Deschutes Groups Wanted to Integrate Restoration Efforts
In an effort to restore healthy salmon and trout populations in Oregon’s upper Deschutes River, the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, and the Deschutes River Conservancy formed a partnership to collaboratively address the highest priority ecological needs across several Deschutes basin tributaries. Today these partner groups are working together to achieve shared restoration objectives and carry out prioritized activities to restore water quality, conserve key properties in the watershed, improve critical habitat, remove fish migration barriers, and restore streamflow to chronically dewatered streams.
Long-term Partnership with BEF Enables Strategic Coordination
In 2006, BEF began to support this collaborative effort to develop an integrated and long-term restoration strategy in the upper Deschutes. Support from BEF helped pull all the pieces of together. While many groups and agencies have worked to improve ecological conditions in the upper Deschutes in the past, there was little cohesion or understanding of how the actions of each group reinforced the actions of other related efforts. Now, with a sustained central monitoring program that assesses and tracks shared objectives, it looks likely that coordinated efforts in the Deschutes are on track to achieve a range of restoration milestones.
With the Model Watershed agreement for the upper Deschutes, BEF committed to provide technical support, funding for monitoring and evaluation, and the services of an independent scientific review team for at least the first 10-years of the partnership.
Model Watershed Partner Contact:
Upper Deschutes Watershed Council
700 NW Hill St.
Bend, OR 97701
http://www.restorethedeschutes.org
BEF believes it takes at least a decade to make a difference.
Our long-term funding strategy gives our partners more freedom to approach their work with a longer-term perspective, leading to more comprehensive and strategic action on the ground.