By STEVE KADEL
H&N Staff Writer
July 26, 2006
 |
| H&N
photo by Andrew Mariman Mark Stern, director of the Klamath Conservation Area, stands in a wetlands area he helped reclaim from farmland on Modoc Point. The marsh is six-years-old and is already seeing some vegetation growth. |
With a scraper and dump truck in
the same area, it looked like a highway was being built across the Nature
Conservancy's Tulana Farms property.
Instead, the work marked early steps in a $10-million, multi-year project
to help endangered suckers by improving Williamson River habitat.
The goal is to cut seven or eight
breaches in the 27 miles of levee surrounding the property. An interior
levee will be removed.
The changes should spur growth of bull rushes, willows, and other rushes
and sedges juvenile suckers can feed on during their journey from spawning
beds near Chiloquin Dam to Upper Klamath River.
Reclamation of the land 50 to 60 years ago has caused the river channel to
straighten over time. That triggered a loss of sucker habitat, said Mark
Stern, the Nature Conservancy's Klamath Basin director and program leader.
Plants help fish
A pilot project in 2002 and 2003 used the the same techniques, and results
showed quick recovery of plants sought by the fish.
“They've seem tremendous use by larval suckers,” said Stern. “The
formula really is ‘just add water.'”
The National Academy of Science endorsed the method as a way to help larval suckers, he added.
The schedule calls for 500,000 cubic yards of dirt to be
moved this summer at a cost of $1.7 million. The total project involves
moving 2 million cubic yards of material.
Besides breaching the levee in some spots, crews from LTM Inc. General
Contractors of Medford will use heavy equipment to carve benches along
both sides of the Williamson River. The 100-foot-wide benches, which will
flood during May and June, will give juvenile fish added feeding sites and
cover during their trip downstream.
Restoration benefits
Restoration will help suckers,
Stern believes, and will add to water storage.
A recent $2 million grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
helped work get started. Funding also has come from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
The amount of wetland affected looks modest when viewed
on a map. But driving the fields gives an entirely different feeling. The
Nature Conservancy has 4,800 acres on its Tulana Farms and close to 7,500
acres in the entire restoration project.
“It's a big landscape,” Stern said. “That's why I'm hopeful it will
have a big effect on the suckers.”