A well protected and managed North Umpqua watershed that sustains robust populations of wild steelhead, salmon, lamprey and other native fish and wildlife, and serves as a model for the protection, restoration and management of other great rivers of the Northwest.
By any definition, Oregon’s North Umpqua is one of the Northwest’s “best” rivers. It is beloved by local residents and visitors from around the world for its natural beauty, biodiversity, wild fish, and recreational opportunities that include angling, boating, hiking, camping, and birdwatching.
By any definition, Oregon’s North Umpqua is one of the Northwest’s “best” rivers. It is beloved by local residents and visitors from around the world for its natural beauty, biodiversity, wild fish, and recreational opportunities that include angling, boating, hiking, camping, and birdwatching.
The North Umpqua is renowned as one of the nation’s most beautiful rivers.
Photo by the Bureau of Land Management. |
Pacific Rivers has a long and proud history of conservation science, advocacy, action, and results in the North Umpqua River Watershed. It includes designation of the North Umpqua as a National Wild and Scenic River in 1988; major contributions to the development of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the Northwest Forest Plan to increase protection of the rivers and tributary streams of the North Umpqua (as well as many other rivers on federal forest lands in the region); a decade of consistent monitoring of salmonid populations in two key tributaries, Steamboat and Canton Creeks; and establishment of the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary in the Steamboat Creek Watershed.
But conservation is a commitment, not an endpoint. It requires eternal vigilance. |
Today, we work in partnership with allied organizations in the North Umpqua Coalition, and with federal, state and local agencies to protect and build on the results of our past work, and to identify present and emerging problems and threats.
The North Umpqua Watershed is recovering from massive wildfires in recent years. A poorly planned effort in 2023 to repair a small dam that should not even exist led to disastrous consequences for water quality and fish. Plantings of hatchery steelhead, silt-laden runoff from disturbed forest areas, and fish migration barriers in spawning tributaries are impairing the recovery of the wild steelhead runs for which the river is renowned. There are proposals for recreational facilities that would diminish or destroy the very attributes that attract people to the North Umpqua. Perhaps most of all, despite the river’s designation as a National Wild and Scenic River, there remains today no comprehensive plan for protecting and restoring its unique values over the long term.
The North Umpqua Watershed is recovering from massive wildfires in recent years. A poorly planned effort in 2023 to repair a small dam that should not even exist led to disastrous consequences for water quality and fish. Plantings of hatchery steelhead, silt-laden runoff from disturbed forest areas, and fish migration barriers in spawning tributaries are impairing the recovery of the wild steelhead runs for which the river is renowned. There are proposals for recreational facilities that would diminish or destroy the very attributes that attract people to the North Umpqua. Perhaps most of all, despite the river’s designation as a National Wild and Scenic River, there remains today no comprehensive plan for protecting and restoring its unique values over the long term.
In 2019 – in response to years of research and advocacy by Pacific Rivers and our allies – Congress designated the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary in the watershed of Steamboat Creek, the North Umpqua’s single most important tributary for spawning and rearing steelhead. The legislation recognized the Sanctuary’s values and stated broad goals for their protection. Unfortunately, there is still no clear federal agency plan to ensure that those goals are met. We continue efforts to protect this “Special Management Unit”. To learn more, please see our report, “The Future of the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Special Management Unit”.
Student from the Phoenix School conducts in-stream counts of juvenile salmonids.
Courtesy of Audrey Squires |
Today, our North Umpqua program includes a variety of work. We conduct our snorkel survey of juvenile salmonids (with student participation from a local school) in Steamboat and Canton Creeks; there is now over a decade of data and reports. We have initiated a project to secure a protective watershed management plan for Steamboat Creek that will complement the Frank and Jeanne Moore Special Management Unit. Our efforts to end the summer steelhead hatchery program that imperils the North Umpqua’s wild steelhead continues. We support allied organizations to hold the owners of Winchester Dam accountable for disastrous consequences of their “repairs” of the dam in the summer of 2023.
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We now facilitate the North Umpqua Coalition (NUC) with our partner organizations: Steamboaters, The North Umpqua Foundation, The Conservation Angler, Umpqua Watersheds, and Native Fish Society. With our leadership of the North Umpqua Coalition, we ' re also uniting partners for bold, coordinated action.
From the Sanctuary’s future to research and monitoring, and the removal of one of the state’s worst fish barriers, Pacific Rivers is on the front lines fighting for a wild North Umpqua.
From the Sanctuary’s future to research and monitoring, and the removal of one of the state’s worst fish barriers, Pacific Rivers is on the front lines fighting for a wild North Umpqua.
