Funding will support continued habitat restoration work at finn rock reach located on the mckenzie river near blue river or

Since 2021 mckenzie river trust and partners at the mckenzie watershed council eugene water and electric board and the national forest service have been working to reconnect approximately 150 acres of floodplain throughout mckenzie river trusts fee title owned property. This property was burned in the catastrophic 2020 holiday farm fire leaving little live vegetation throughout the site. Partners successfully reconnected the floodplain utilizing a stage 8 approach in the summers of 2021 and 2023 in a phased approach restoring connection to the downstream section first in 2021 and restoring the upstream connection in the summer of 2023.we are requesting funding to support pre award implementation costs associated with the reconnection of 150 acres of floodplain habitat to the mckenzie river. This project will benefit pacific lamprey spring chinook salmon bull trout and western pond turtles. All of these species have been documented in the project area. This project is designed to slow water down and spread IT out across the valley bottom allowing for the accumulation of fine sediments in areas that can be used for lamprey rearing. IT will also sort additional cobbles and gravels which will benefit spawning and rearing habitat for ESA listed species. Additionally we are requesting funding to support vegetation establishment across the project area. Since the catastrophic wildfire in 2020 the immediate area has been infested by invasive vegetation including scotch broom and blackberry. MRT is planting nearly 100000 native plants throughout the project area in the winter of 2023 and 2024. The planting plan includes more than 33 native species of trees shrubs and graminoids which will be strategically distributed across wetland riparian and upland areas mapped within the project area. Funding from plci will help establish this vegetation in the summers of 2024 and 2025 by completing IVM treatments irrigating key areas and helping install infill plants in the winter of 2024 and 2025.