Malheur Watershed Council

Malheur Watershed Council, a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Ontario, Oregon, is a federal grant recipient (75% of recent awards) that delivers watershed restoration, habitat enhancement, and water conservation services to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Reclamation across eastern Oregon. The organization does not hold federal contracts or contract vehicles and operates exclusively as a prime grant recipient and occasional sub-recipient on cooperative agreements and project grants.

The council's customer base is narrowly concentrated within the Department of the Interior. Of recent awards, the Bureau of Land Management (Oregon-Washington Region) and Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 each account for three awards, with the Bureau of Reclamation holding one. All funding flows through Interior's resource-management and conservation programs rather than distributed across multiple agencies.

Recent representative grant work includes a $5.149 million WaterSMART (CFDA 15.507) project grant from the Bureau of Reclamation, awarded May 20, 2024, to convert 10.4 miles of open-earthen irrigation canals to plastic pipe in partnership with the Vale Oregon Irrigation District, yielding expected annual water savings of 4,888 acre-feet and benefiting federally listed bull trout. A $253,408 cooperative agreement under the Bureau of Land Management's Aquatics Resources Management program (CFDA 15.244), awarded July 12, 2024, funds the Pole Creek Project to restore aquatic habitat and upland range biodiversity while increasing climate resilience to wildfire, drought, and flood impacts. A Fish and Wildlife Service cooperative agreement from July 1, 2026, supports restoration of 1.3 miles of the Malheur River through large wood and rock placement to create habitat for ESA-listed bull trout on private land adjoining USFS and BLM wilderness. In its sub-recipient role, Malheur Watershed Council received an October 2024 sub-award from Pheasants Forever for juniper and weed treatment projects and a November 2022 sub-award from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board for Pole Creek fire rehabilitation work.

Award volume has been sparse and irregular — one award each in 2019 and 2020, then a gap until three awards in 2024 and one in 2026. One award (combined potential value $5.149 million) reaches ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating a recompete opportunity in mid-2026.