Stronghold Partnership Leverages Funds for Rudio Creek ProjectNews & Program Updates

The North American Salmon Stronghold Partnership leveraged $94,000 from the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) to permanently reroute an existing water diversion and restore summer flows to the lower two miles of Rudio Creek, a cool water tributary of the North Fork John Day River used by summer steelhead for spawning and by spring Chinook for rearing.

The North Fork, supplying 60 percent of the water to the main-stem John Day River, and its tributaries, particularly Rudio Creek, are important sources of cold water needed to support and sustain anadromous fish in the John Day basin. This basin is recognized as a Steelhead and salmon stronghold -- one of the few in the Columbian Basin where fish populations remain largely wild an abundant. When implemented in 2008/2009, the project will enhance the quality, quantity and accessibility of spawning or rearing habitat available to steelhead and Chinook, will allow the stream to flow year-round and will complete the final water restoration activity on Rudio Creek.

The Rudio Creek project couples flow restoration with riparian habitat improvements, involves multiple partners working together to improve fish habitat in a priority reach for steelhead recovery, and meets the needs of the landowners by keeping productive agricultural land in production and improving irrigation efficiency. Partners on this project include the Oregon Water Trust, OWEB, and the Bonneville Power Administration.