The Lostine River is a tributary to the Wallowa River entering at River Mile (RM) 26. The project site is located just less than 2 miles southeast of Wallowa, Oregon on a private ranch that encompasses approximately 6,000 feet of the Lostine River and an estimated 1,500 feet of the Wallowa River and the associated left bank floodplain of both rivers.

The property is a family run Century farm.  The current parcel was purchased in 2004 and within just over a decade’s time has been enrolled in two separate permanent easements with the Wallowa Land Trust measuring 188 and 266 acres respectively.  Since that time all irrigation practices have been converted from flood to sprinkler utilizing some of the first pivot systems in the lower Wallowa valley.  The landowner has also agreed to a long-term late season lease and began incorporating cover crop rotations and fallow methodologies leaving more water in-stream during crucial summer months.   In line with the above mentioned easements, the landowner has taken land not irrigated by a new upgraded pivot system out of production and begun working with ODFW to create an intact wildlife migration corridor and peripheral habitat.

Like many rivers in the region, the Lostine River has been channelized and leveed to accommodate agricultural and residential infrastructure. At this site, past modifications and land use management activities have included levee construction, floodplain grading, cattle grazing, irrigation development and riparian clearing. Consequently, this has resulted in ecosystem-scale degradation, which includes a simplified river channel, disconnected floodplain, narrowed riparian extent, reduction of off-channel rearing areas and reduced wetland area and function.

This project seeks to promote natural river and floodplain conditions by removing levees; reconnecting floodplain channels; and enhancing floodplain wetlands. Key site features will improve habitat and water quality including increased pool abundance; increased low-velocity off-channel alcoves and side channels; increased Large Woody Material (LWM) for mainstem habitat complexity; and a diverse mosaic of floodplain wetlands. These proposed enhancements will benefit existing populations of ESA listed Chinook, Steelhead, and Bull Trout, as well as reintroduced Coho Salmon, Pacific Lamprey, Columbia spotted frog, Long billed Curlew and an variety of other aquatic and terrestrial species.

Objectives

•    Increase mainstem habitat complexity through large wood placement
•    Increase off-channel habitat through alcove creation and side channel wood placement.
•    Construct preferential flow paths to encourage floodplain interaction and connection.
•    Breach levees in key locations at pilot channel inlets and outlets.
•    Create and enhance wetlands in the floodplain through floodplain inundation using vertical post arrays.
•    Improve riparian vegetation species composition and distribution.

Project partners include the Grande Ronde Model Watershed, Wallowa Land Trust and BPA.