Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program

In Idaho... Creative Flow Restoration Builds Momentum in the Upper Salmon

“We've always been proactive, and wanted to keep the fish in the stream, run a ranch, do it right – that's important to our family.”
– Mike Henslee, Co-owner
Salmon Falls Land and Livestock Company

A key tributary to the Salmon River, Pole Creek once again winds through the Sawtooth Valley in east-central Idaho, about 25 miles south of the town of Stanley, thanks to a creative partnership between the Idaho Department of Water Resources and a local landowner. Rancher Mike Henslee depends on a center pivot system run on hydropower to irrigate his property, the Salmon Falls Land and Livestock Company. But in some years, diverting 5 to 7 cubic feet per second to produce the needed energy largely dewatered a 2-mile reach of Pole Creek, crucial habitat for steelhead, chinook and endangered bull trout. In 2006, with support from the CBWTP, the Idaho Department of Water Resources negotiated a 5-year diversion reduction agreement with Henslee. Now, whenever flows drop below 5 cubic feet per second, he switches from hydropower to a new backup diesel generator from IDWR, leaving water instream that would otherwise be diverted. This solution builds more trust for managing water in the community and creates additional momentum for improving stream flows across the Upper Salmon Basin. Says IDWR's Bill Graham, “If we can minimize impacts to their operations, ranchers – just about every rancher I've talked to – they really want to see fish back in the tributaries.”

In Montana... Alternative Irrigation Method Restores Habitat Flows in Key Watershed

“Protecting the upper part of the Ninemile watershed is critical because it's where we see most of our native fish production. The Forest Service has been doing a lot on the public lands in the headwaters, but we don't work on private land, so this integration of restoration activities with Montana Water Trust is key.”
– Scott Spaulding, Fisheries Biologist
U.S. Forest Service, Lolo National Forest

Fisheries biologists with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have identified Ninemile Creek, some 25 miles west of Missoula, as one of the most important spawning tributaries of the Clark Fork River for imperiled bull trout and westslope cutthroat. But the Ninemile is chronically short of water that has been overallocated to supply irrigated agriculture. In 2006, building on the success of earlier partnerships in the watershed, the Montana Water Trust targeted a key stretch of the creek that runs through Tony Audino's 210-acre High Meadow Mountain Ranch. With funding from the CBWTP, the Trust initiated a 10-year lease resulting in up to 10 cubic feet per second of additional flow, benefiting a distance of roughly 12 miles from the headwaters of Ninemile Creek to its confluence with the Clark Fork. Revenue from the transaction gave Audino the opportunity to install a wheel line irrigation system that reduces the ranch's water use by about 75 percent. Combined with four additional water-leasing projects that the Montana Water Trust has initiated in the watershed over the last three years, the infusion of up to 6.5 million gallons of water per day at one of the uppermost privately-owned reaches is integral to supporting the return of a healthy fishery in the Ninemile.

In Oregon... Partnership Provides Strategic Boost for Wild Salmon

“This is the first time that I know of using diminishment of a water right as a flow restoration tool. This is a great case study for what the Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program was designed to do—find what works on the ground and under existing law that benefits the stream and the landowner.”
– Debbie Colbert, Senior Policy Coordinator
Oregon Department of Water Resources

“The Voigt family and the Oregon Water Trust have proven that ranching and natural resource protection can go hand in hand. They’ve also proven it's possible to reach solutions in a dignified, respectful manner.”
– The Editors, East Oregonian, August 2, 2006

“The Middle Fork offers one of the best examples in the Columbia Basin of how to improve habitat for fish without damaging the local economy. In what was, until recently, a watershed of severely limited habitat, there's now enough water to meet Oregon’s minimum flows for fish even in the worst water years.”
– Peter Paquet, Manager of Wildlife and Resident Fish
Northwest Power and Conservation Council

The equipment in Pat Voigt's pickup reads like an advertisement for long workdays managing timber, mending fences and tending to livestock. But on this hot, early July morning, Pat is on the way to a more unusual task: shutting off irrigation on his family's 1,000-acre Austin Ranch in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon.

He and his wife Hedy have made a voluntary, permanent deal with one of the CBWTP's partners, the Oregon Water Trust, not to divert water that they would normally use from the Middle Fork of the John Day River during the driest period of the year. “I like to look at the facts and what the right thing is to do,” says Pat. “We'll still be able to run close to the same number of cattle and irrigate, yet we're putting a significant amount of water back instream during critical flow times.”

The John Day is the second longest free-flowing river in the contiguous United States and a major tributary to the Columbia River. It's also home to one of the largest and last remaining populations of wild spring chinook and summer steelhead in the lower 48; many of these fish depend on what happens in the river's Middle Fork for their reproductive success.

Even today, after more than a century of impacts from historic land use practices, the Middle Fork supports up to one-third of the salmon spawning in the John Day system. Yet until recently, the recipe for more highly productive fish runs here was dependably short of two ingredients: fish spawning habitat and water.

Over the last 15 years, partnerships among private landowners, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, the Bonneville Power Administration, nonprofit groups and state and federal agencies have invested more than $10 million to restore the Middle Fork watershed. Fish passage barriers were removed by the dozens; stream channels were repaired; and thousands of acres of riparian and upland habitat are now under conservation.

“We saw the commitment to rejuvenating the Middle Fork and we wanted to find out if we could help,” says Steve Parrett, senior project manager for the Oregon Water Trust (OWT). “With more water in the river, we thought that these efforts could be leveraged in a big way.”

In 2000, OWT inked a short-term lease of Austin Ranch water rights to evaluate the biological effectiveness of increased streamflows. After five years of leases, the habitat improvements were conclusive and the group negotiated a new agreement with Pat and Hedy Voigt. The Voigts changed their water rights to permanently shorten their irrigation season by 40 percent in exchange for a payment from BPA through the Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program and other funding partners that included the Bureau of Reclamation.

Now, every year from July 21st until the irrigation season ends on September 30th, up to 10 cubic feet per second of additional cold, clean water flows into the Middle Fork just downstream from its headwaters. The boost of nearly 6.5 million gallons a day benefits the entire 70-mile reach of the river at the most critical time for salmon, steelhead and bull trout. “You need high-quality water to produce fish,” says Tim Unterwegner, district fish biologist in John Day. “This is the final piece of the puzzle to complement improvements in the watershed. Oregonians should be very proud of the outcome.”

In the meantime, Pat Voigt is finding new opportunities to innovate; for example, he's using revenue from the sale of a portion of his water rights to change the way he manages his irrigation. “This deal's working for us, and I believe OWT thinks it's working for them,” he says, turning the crank down on a diversion head gate. “How does it get better than that?”

In Oregon... Basin-wide Flow Strategy Prepares the Way for Fish Reintroduction

“Summer steelhead and spring chinook will be reintroduced into Whychus Creek with planned passage at the Pelton Round-Butte Hydroelectric Project. Streamflow enhancements are a critical link to successfully reestablishing self-sustaining populations of these species.”
– Steven D. Marx, Fisheries Biologist
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Oregon's Whychus Creek, formerly known as Squaw Creek, begins its journey in the Three Sisters range southwest of Sisters and meets the Deschutes River above Lake Billy Chinook. Over the past century, the creek has experienced unnaturally low flows, often drying up completely during the hot summer months. Since 1999, the Deschutes River Conservancy has been working to restore flows, in large part through a partnership with the Three Sisters Irrigation District (TSID), which brings water to 7,000 acres of area farmland. Historically, the 150 farmers who make up the TSID used surface water delivered through uncovered distribution canals—an inefficient method in this area, where lava rock absorbs nearly half of the volume before it reaches irrigators. But in the past eight years, the TSID has begun replacing ditches with piping, increasing irrigation efficiency to 99 percent while reducing water consumption by 30 percent. With support from the CBWTP, the Deschutes River Conservancy sought to build on this momentum. In 2006, DRC initiated a program that pays farmers to temporarily use groundwater rather than divert surface water from the stream, protecting up to an additional 3.67 cubic feet per second from June to October. Combined with other water transactions also funded in part by the CBWTP, this watershed-wide strategy has brought instream flows in the protected reach of Whychus Creek—24 miles upstream from its confluence with the Deschutes—to nearly 20 cubic feet per second in 2006. As a result, it now meets the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's estimated minimum flows to support the return of summer steelhead, spring chinook, redband trout and bull trout once found here in large numbers. In 2008, fisheries managers plan to reintroduce steelhead to Whychus Creek, and with the restoration of passage at the hydropower dams lower on the Deschutes, anadromous fish should see a major increase in the watershed.

In Washington... Salmon Return as Long-Term Leases Restore Water to the Teanaway

“I'm very supportive of the idea of leaving enough water in the river so that the fish can return to the Teanaway. As a boy I used to fish it.... We appreciate the fact that there's help out there for farmers to move in this direction.”
– John Crosetto, General Partner
Teanaway Valley Family Farm

Since 2002, the Washington Water Trust has been working to increase stream flows in the North Fork of the Teanaway River, among the most productive habitats for steelhead and bull trout in the Upper Yakima Basin. Spring chinook and coho also once thrived in this tributary to the Yakima River, but anadromous fish have suffered from low stream flows and passage barriers. In the past decade, short-term water leases have helped provide a source of revenue for producers who needed to refurbish irrigation systems after the '96 floods; the goodwill generated by these deals has begun to translate into a shift toward long-term transactions. This year, with support from the CBWTP, the Washington Water Trust's partnership with Marcia and John Crosetto produced an agreement to extend their lease of 102 acre-feet to 2023. With eight projects along 13 miles of the North Fork and mainstem Teanaway, the Washington Water Trust has increased flows by up to 5.5 cubic feet per second, a biologically significant boost for the basin's fishery.