News Release Archive

Reclamation releases draft environmental documents for Klamath River Coho Restoration Grant Program funding

Media Contact: Erin Curtis, 9169785100, eccurtis@usbr.gov

For Release: May 29, 2018

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – The Bureau of Reclamation has released two draft Environmental Assessments to disclose potential environmental effects and solicit public comment associated with Reclamation providing grant funding for two projects under the Klamath River Coho Restoration Grant Program: Increasing Year-Round Rearing Capacity & Habitat Quality for Natal & Non-Natal Populations of Coho Salmon in a Priority Lower Klamath Tributary – McGarvey Beaver Dam Analogue Project; and Lower Beaver Creek Off-Channel Habitat Restoration Planning.

The grant program is an identified conservation measure in the 2013 Biological Opinions on the Effects of Proposed Klamath Project Operations and in the Final Recovery Plan for Southern Oregon/Northern California Coasts coho salmon. Through this program, Reclamation grant funds would be used to aid in habitat restoration and enhancement within the Klamath River Basin for Klamath River SONCC threatened coho salmon populations.

The proposed Increasing Year-Round Rearing Capacity & Habitat Quality for Natal & Non-Natal Populations of Coho Salmon in a Priority Lower Klamath Tributary – McGarvey BDA Project would install and monitor a series of beaver dam analogs in McGarvey Creek (Del Norte County, Calif.) to provide improved coho salmon habitat and other ecosystem benefits.

The proposed Lower Beaver Creek Off-Channel Habitat Restoration Planning project is part of an on-going program administered by the Mid-Klamath River Instream Working Group of reconnecting, restoring, enhancing, and/or creating a continuum of off-channel habitats along the Mid-Klamath River and select tributaries that provide important winter and summer rearing refugia critical for the recovery of SONCC coho salmon populations.

The draft EAs were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and are available at https://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_base.php?location=kbao.

Comments are due by close of business, June 12, 2018. Please email comments to ababcock@usbr.gov. Written comments may be mailed Amanda Babcock, Bureau of Reclamation, 6600 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, OR 97603.

Physical copies of the documents will be available for review at Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office at the above address. For additional information or to request a copy of the documents, please contact Babcock at ababcock@usbr.gov.

# # #

The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and is the nation's largest wholesale water supplier and second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Our facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation opportunities, and environmental benefits. Visit our website at https://www.usbr.gov and follow us on Twitter @USBR; Facebook @bureau.of.reclamation; LinkedIn @Bureau of Reclamation; Instagram @bureau_of_reclamation; and YouTube @reclamation.