Summer 2023 Riverlands Newsletter - Issue 52

A Game Changing Acquisition for Trinity River Restoration Efforts

This Issue:

Trinity River, CA

WRC commits to purchase a critical property on the largest tributary to the Klamath River

Racetrack Creek, MT

New effort to protect a key inholding on a headwater tributary to the Clark Fork River

Emigrant Creek, OR

WRC launches new project to bolster habitat connectivity in a global biodiversity hotspot

Yakima River, WA

In eastern Washington, WRC seizes opportunity to reconnect a stretch of the Yakima River to its historic floodplain

Okanogan River, WA

A conservation success for fish, wildlife and people in the heart of the spectacular McLoughlin Canyon

Trinity River

California

In Northern California’s remote Klamath Mountains, Western Rivers Conservancy has committed to purchasing a small but vital property on the Trinity River, downstream of Junction City. By transferring the parcel to the BLM, we will set in motion the critical next phase of a multi-decade restoration project aimed at reviving one of the great salmon streams of California.

The Trinity River drains more than 3,000 square miles of steep, rugged, densely

forested mountains that are home to some of the greatest biological diversity on Earth. It is the largest tributary to the Klamath River and historically produced more salmon, steelhead and cold water than any other river in the Klamath system. For the Yurok Tribe and the Hoopa Valley Tribe, it has always been a vital source of fish and integral to life and culture.

But the Trinity was put through the wringer for over a century, first by gold mining and logging and later by two hydroelectric projects

By purchasing a key property on the Trinity River and transferring it to the Bureau of Land Management, WRC will lay the groundwork for the next phase of an ongoing effort to restore anadromous fish runs in the Trinity.

TYLER ROEMER

IAN DAGNALL

Saving Oak Savannah in a Biological Hotspot

Southern Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonderland, with some of the greatest diversity of plant and animal life in the West. Located at the convergence of three distinct mountain ranges—the Klamath, Cascade and Siskiyou—it is an area of global biological importance and the country’s only national monument set aside specifically for its biodiversity. It’s an extraordinary place, with more than 200 bird species and some of the widest array of butterfly species in the country. Many of its plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world.

Within the boundaries of the monument, WRC has launched an effort to conserve a 1,425-acre property called Emigrant Creek Ranch, which includes three miles of perennial streams that all feed the Rogue River. The ranch lies at the doorstep of the Soda Mountain Wilderness, in a vital transition zone between the monument’s higher-elevation conifer forests and its lower-elevation oak savannah and grasslands. Roughly 1,200 acres of the ranch contain oak habitat, one of the monument’s most underrepresented plant communities.

Our goal is to purchase the ranch and transfer it to the BLM to preserve this critical transition zone and bolster habitat connectivity within the monument. The resilience of the area’s biodiversity depends heavily on this type of connectivity, especially across the disappearing woodland ecosystems of the Rogue Valley foothills, where Emigrant Creek Ranch lies. Conserving the ranch will also protect a mile of the Applegate Trail (part of the California National Historic Trail network), which meanders through the property. g

Preserving a Critical Stretch of a Major Clark Fork Tributary

Racetrack Creek

Montana

In southwest Montana, Western Rivers Conservancy just launched an effort to conserve the last remaining private inholding on Racetrack Creek, a large headwater tributary to Montana’s upper Clark Fork River. In the early days of 2023, we signed an agreement to purchase a remote 121-acre property called The Oxbows to protect prime fish and wildlife habitat in an area that is critical for large animals moving between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the south and the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem to the north.

Racetrack Creek runs clear and cold from the high mountain lakes of the Flint Creek Range and flows for 23 miles before joining the mighty Clark Fork, Montana’s largest river by volume. Much of the upper creek is protected within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The Oxbows property that WRC is working to conserve contains a mile of the creek and is spread across a scenic, shallow canyon with willow-covered wetlands, densely forested hillsides and dramatic mountain vistas in every direction.

The Oxbows is located where upper Racetrack Creek changes from a high-

altitude headwater creek to a slower meandering stream. This transition zone makes for prime rearing habitat for westslope cutthroat trout and potential habitat for endangered bull trout. With its mix of open grasslands and dense forests, the property also supports diverse wildlife, including moose, mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk, grizzly bears and wolves.

In addition to its superb fish and wildlife habitat, The Oxbows lies immediately adjacent to the Racetrack Campground and Picnic Area, the only recreation site in the area. This spot is popular during hunting season, and campers enjoy access to trout fishing on Racetrack Creek. Were the property to be developed, it would have a significant negative impact on the campground and the surrounding natural landscape.

WRC plans to purchase The Oxbows and convey it to the BeaverheadDeerlodge National Forest, keeping a pristine reach of upper Racetrack Creek permanently intact. Ensuring these riverlands remain undeveloped will be a meaningful win for fish and wildlife, and for all those who set out to explore and enjoy this rugged corner of Big Sky Country. g

WRC’s efforts at Racetrack Creek will protect prime habitat within an important wildlife corridor for large animals migrating between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

JON THOMSON

A Catalyst for Yakima River Floodplain Restoration

Yakima River Washington

Floodplains are where rivers release their energy, where floodwaters are slowed and absorbed into the ground, and where a mosaic of wetlands and side channels can hold all shapes and sizes of fish and wildlife. Yet, across the West, floodplains have been diked, bermed, drained and developed, depriving rivers of their most vital and fertile ecosystems.

When it comes to restoring river habitat, especially for salmon and steelhead, floodplain restoration can have an outsized impact. So, whenever WRC can use land acquisition as a catalyst for restoration, we jump on it.

On Washington’s Yakima River, Western Rivers Conservancy has a rare opportunity to advance a large-scale effort to restore and reconnect more than 650 acres of premier floodplain habitat along four miles of the river—all by conserving a small but pivotal 39-acre tract of land in Kittitas County called Four Seasons Ranch.

Four Seasons Ranch lies within a four-mile stretch of the Yakima called the Ringer Restoration Reach. Here, Kittitas County has been working with landowners for nearly a decade to purchase parcels along the river with the goal of restoring the entire reach to its natural floodplain. The ranch is the

last privately held piece of land within this stretch and, as such, offers a rare opportunity to restore floodplain, diminish flood risk and improve public access to the Yakima River.

So, when Four Seasons Ranch went up for sale, Western Rivers Conservancy moved quickly to put the last piece of this major restoration puzzle into place.

In March, WRC signed an agreement to purchase Four Seasons Ranch with the goal of transferring it to the county in late 2023. When that happens, restoration of the Ringer Reach can move forward in earnest. Berms and levees will be gradually removed, or allowed to continue their decay, side channels will be restored, cottonwood trees will be returned to the landscape, and this stretch of the Yakima will once again

be free to meander and shift across its natural floodplain.

For the Yakima’s salmon and steelhead, this is a major step in the right direction. Restoring side channels and reconnecting the river to its floodplain will open critical spawning and rearing habitat that has been cut off for decades. This stretch of the Yakima River is also particularly important for its groundwater upwelling, which provides stable yearround water temperatures and thermal refugia for fish during summer and winter extremes.

As small as Four Seasons Ranch is, the impact of conserving it will be huge—a win not just for fish and wildlife, but for the people and communities of the Yakima River, too. g

TYLER ROEMER

Anglers enjoying a beautiful day on the Yakima River just off the Four Seasons Ranch property, which WRC will purchase and transfer to Kittitas County for restoration and permanent protection.

TYLER ROEMER

WRC has signed an agreement to purchase Four Seasons Ranch, an acquisition that will set the stage for reconnecting a four-mile reach of the Yakima River to its historic floodplain while improving habitat for salmon and steelhead.

SUCCESS! Okanogan River

In Washington’s scenic and historic McLoughlin Canyon, WRC has successfully protected two miles of the Okanogan River and a key piece of one of the state’s most important wildlife corridors.

In March, we conserved the 727-acre McLoughlin Falls Ranch by conveying the southern portion of the property to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the northern portion to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Protection of the ranch delivers a triple win, conserving critical habitat for fish and wildlife, returning ancestral lands to the Colville Tribes, and providing new recreational access to a popular reach of the Okanogan River.

Located roughly 30 miles south of the Canada-US border, McLoughlin Falls Ranch is defined by towering stands of ponderosa pine, grassy benches above the river and dramatic, glacier-carved cliffs that rise like sagebrush-covered stairsteps along the meandering Okanogan.

The ranch forms a crucial part of a larger wildlife movement corridor that reaches from the Cascade Mountains to the Kettle River Range. Mule deer migrate between the valley and higher elevations, and the area is home to state-endangered Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and the country’s healthiest population of Canada lynx.

McLoughlin Falls Ranch also possesses healthy stands of riparian forest that shade the river and keep water temperatures low. Conserving that intact river habitat is crucial to the survival of the Okanogan’s imperiled sockeye and steelhead populations.

For the Colville Tribes, who have inhabited the area for millennia, our efforts return important ancestral lands, including historic hunting and fishing sites on the property. And now that a portion of McLoughlin Falls Ranch is under WDFW stewardship, people will forever be able to explore and enjoy this stretch of the Okanogan River at the heart of an extraordinary sagebrush-blanketed gorge. g

that sent nearly all the Trinity’s water to California’s Central Valley. Today, the great salmon and steelhead runs of the Klamath’s largest artery are a fraction of their historic numbers.

Despite these challenges, the Trinity remains one of the West’s most important steelhead rivers. It has long been a premier whitewater destination, and over 200 miles of the mainstem, North Fork and South Fork have been designated wild and scenic. Given the caliber of this river, in 2000, the Department of the Interior signed off on a massive interagency, inter-tribal restoration project to restore the anadromous fish runs of the Trinity. That effort has been underway for over two decades, and today, a major component of the project hinges on getting a single property called Benjamin Flats into public ownership.

In October 2022, WRC signed an agreement to purchase Benjamin Flats with the goal of conveying it to the BLM

this year, making the next step of this historic project a reality. By permanently protecting the property, we will also conserve a half mile of the Trinity, including riparian habitat that imperiled animals like neotropical songbirds, western pond turtle and yellow-legged frog need to survive. Once restoration is complete, the property will be managed for recreational access by the BLM, guaranteeing this stretch of the Wild and Scenic Trinity River remains open for all to enjoy.

WRC’s work at Benjamin Flats complements our larger efforts across the Klamath Basin, including our creation of a cold-water refuge and salmon sanctuary at Blue Creek, the first major source of cold water that salmon encounter on their way up the Klamath River. WRC has also conserved critical habitat and water on the South Fork Trinity, the Williamson and the South Fork Scott. g

The Trinity River is home to Chinook and coho salmon, though it is best known to anglers for its runs of steelhead (pictured). WILL BOUCHER

ELLEN BISHOP