This project combines multiple stream culvert replacements to be efficient and to have a greater cumulative impact on addressing critical infrastructure concerns improving public safety and benefit…

The U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service awarded County of Ashland a $410,732 cooperative agreement under the National Wildlife Refuge System Enhancements program (CFDA 15.654) on June 1, 2025, with a completion date of May 19, 2028. The project delivers multiple stream culvert replacements and infrastructure improvements across undersized, degraded, and perched culverts that currently pose public safety risks and obstruct aquatic organism passage. The county will replace these failing culverts with appropriately sized structures designed to accommodate extreme weather conditions and span the full width of streams, thereby improving traffic safety, landowner access, National Forest accessibility, and emergency services delivery.

The project generates quantifiable environmental and recreational benefits aligned with the Headwaters to Coast Initiative priorities, including restoration or protection of 3 acres of wetlands, 1 mile of stream and shoreline restoration, 13 miles of fish passage restoration, and removal of 4 fish passage barriers. The initiative supplements ongoing work by Ashland County and the U.S. Forest Service to enhance both local infrastructure safety and fish and wildlife habitat. Benefits extend to recreational stakeholders through improved hunting, fishing, foraging, and general access to National Forest lands in the region.

This project combines multiple stream culvert replacements to be efficient and to have a greater cumulative impact on addressing critical infrastructure concerns improving public safety and benefit fish and wildlife. The project addresses multiple headwaters to coast objectives under the priorities of connected and functional habitats healthy habitats and high water quality and hydrologic integrity and community engagement. The project will remove multiple undersized degraded and perched culverts that are also at risk of potential failure which is a public safety issue. They are also barriers to aquatic organism passage. They will be replaced with appropriately sized and placed culverts that account for extreme weather and span the width of the streams. The project will improve infrastructure safety by providing safe access for traffic private landowners national forest access and access to emergency services. This project supplements work that ashland county and the U.S. Forest service are already doing to improve local infrastructure as well as fish and wildlife habitat. Beneficiaries include improved infrastructure safety as well as hunting fishing foraging and other recreational access to large tracts of the national forest. 3 acres of wetlands will be restored or protected. 1 mile of stream and shoreline restored. 13 miles of fish passage restored. And 4 fish passage barriers removed.