The Upper Klamath Basin Watershed Action Plan

The Upper Klamath Basin (UKB) is home to numerous native fish species of conservation, cultural, and economic importance. A number of factors related to land use practices and a changing climate have led to a decline in water quality, fish populations, and riparian and aquatic habitat in the UKB. Several past efforts, including the UKB Comprehensive Agreement, Total Maximum Daily Loads developed by regulatory entities, water quality management plans and Endangered Species Act recovery plans, have identified the need for a coordinated plan or strategy to prioritize and implement restoration actions to support fish population recovery, water quality improvements, and restoration of riparian and riverine process and function in the UKB. The UKB Watershed Action Plan (UKBWAP) provides science-based guidance regarding types of restoration projects necessary to address specific impairments to riverine and riparian process and function, and develop monitoring regimes tied to quantifiable restoration objectives at multiple scales. The UKBWAP includes a reach-scale watershed condition assessment that prioritizes reaches (based on degree of impairment) for landowner engagement and subsequent implementation of voluntary restoration activities and guidelines for implementation of specific voluntary restoration activities, such as riparian fencing and riparian grazing management. Additionally, the UKBWAP outlines a process of adaptive management to refine condition assessments, recommended restoration actions, and monitoring approaches as new information becomes available. The UKBWAP was developed and will continue to be refined by a team of local restoration professionals representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Trout Unlimited, Klamath Watershed Partnership, The Klamath Tribes, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, The Nature Conservancy, and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board of California.