The pole creek project will restore aquatic habitat

This federal Cooperative Agreement award of $253,408 was provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Aquatics Resources Management program (CFDA 15.244) to the Malheur Watershed Council in Oregon. The award will fund the Pole Creek Project, which aims to restore aquatic habitat and improve upland range biodiversity to enhance the drainage's resilience to climate change impacts such as wildfire, drought, and floods. The project objectives are to restore aquatic resources affected by these disturbances and increase their resistance, resilience, and adaptability. Key activities include habitat restoration, water quality improvements, and developing strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the Pole Creek and Malheur River watersheds. This award demonstrates the BLM's commitment to comprehensive ecosystem management through cooperative agreements that support scientific research, habitat improvement projects, and decision support tools to enhance water quality, protect biodiversity, and increase climate resilience for aquatic systems on public lands.

Upland range biodiversity furthers state and local conservation efforts already underway. IT will make this drainage more resilient to climate change. The desired future conditions for pole creek are to have IT meet water quality standards for temperature, bacteria, and nutrients. This will benefit the aquatic habitat of pole creek itself and the reach of the malheur river that pole creek enters into. The goal is to restore aquatic resources affected by wildfire, drought, and floods, and increase their resistance, resilience, and adaptability to the impacts of climate change which will include wildfire, drought, and floods.