| Water that flows through streams and rivers provides a home for fish, but there are many competing demands on this water. As a result of legal water withdrawals during the peak growing season, stretches of many streams and rivers run low – and sometimes dry – with significant consequences for imperiled salmon, steelhead, trout and other creatures. Using permanent acquisitions, leases, investments in efficiency and other voluntary, incentive-based approaches, the Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program supports program partners in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana to assist landowners who wish to restore flows to existing habitat.
One example is along the 30-mile long Lostine River, a tributary of the Wallowa River in the Grande Ronde subbasin. When enough cold water flows in Lostine, Chinook salmon have access to their spawning grounds, a 600-mile journey from the ocean to Oregon’s craggy Eagle Cap Wilderness. But during the hot, dry days of August and September, especially during drought years, water diversions can reduce two key miles of the Lostine to a trickle, making passage impossible. For the better part of the last century, this has effectively closed off 11 miles of high-quality salmon habitat. Much of the Lostine’s water irrigates 4,000 acres of hay and alfalfa. In 2008, the Oregon Water Trust extended an existing agreement with more than 100 ranchers, leasing a portion of their water rights. This agreement ultimately added 15 cubic feet per second of flow to the river, or about 6,732 gallons per minute. In 2008, the OWT also was able to purchase 0.5 cfs of water rights to complete the first permanent water acquisition on the Lostine. 
Photo 2. Water leased from farmers and ranchers in the Lostine River helped boost spring Chinook salmon returns. Last year, 2,018 spring Chinook salmon from the endangered Lostine stock returned to the river, the highest number since the Nez Perce Tribe began monitoring in 1997 and a significant boost from 1999 when only 13 Chinook returned. The water right acquisitions are part of a larger, permanent restoration effort that includes irrigation efficiency upgrades and improved water management. The ranchers involved have been pleased thus far with the progress. |