Biological Opinions - Bureau of Reclamation

include the Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust, Klamath Watershed Partnership, The
Klamath Tribes, The Nature Conservancy, Sustainable Northwest, Klamath Soil and
Water Conservation District, Upper Klamath Water Users Association, and USFWS.
UKCAN work focuses geographically on the UKL watershed, which includes the UKL,
Williamson, Sprague, and Wood river sub-watersheds, as well as the Spencer Creek
watershed. UKCAN has developed restoration priority actions at finer geographic scales
and refines those priorities as new information is made available. Due to the funding
processes, UKCAN is uncertain about the amount of restoration work that will occur in
the future. However, given the amount of focused effort and the involvement of several
key organizations in the Upper Klamath Basin, progress is expected toward the group’s
priorities over the next 10 years that will be measureable at some scales.
3) Now that the Lost River and Klamath River TMDL in California and Oregon is
completed (ODEQ 2010), governmental and private entities contributing to the
degradation of water quality in those rivers are required to develop and implement water
quality management plans that reduce nutrient loading and aid in the improvement of
water quality in the Klamath River, which should benefit suckers.
4) In 2013, PacifiCorp is scheduled to begin implementation of its habitat conservation
plan to no longer operate the East Side and West Side turbines, resulting in a substantial
reduction sucker mortality. PacifiCorp will also contribute $100,000 towards LRS and
SNS recovery over the next 10 years. Although the projects that will receive these funds
have not been identified yet, we anticipate they should result in additional recovery
actions benefiting the suckers (PacifiCorp 2013). PacifiCorp will also contribute
approximately $200,000 to The Nature Conservancy’s Williamson River Delta
Restoration project. From these contributions, an average of $4,000 per year ($40,000
over the Permit Term) will be used directly to implement additional projects to increase
sucker habitat through riparian and wetland plantings along the Williamson River and
the shoreline of UKL, and other sucker habitat enhancement projects at the Williamson
River Delta Restoration project (PacifiCorp 2013). The remainder of funds will be used
for supporting ongoing sucker recovery and land management actions by The Nature
Conservancy for the restoration project, such as creating and maintaining wetlands that
improve water quality and providing rearing habitat for larval and juvenile suckers.
Activities funded by PacifiCorp are expected to directly or indirectly improve survival
of listed suckers and increase the likelihood of recruitment to the adult population;
however, none of these benefits can be quantified at this time because specific project
details are not available.
Most of the non-Federal actions listed above will improve water quantity, water quality, and
habitat in areas that support listed suckers, including UKL and its tributaries and the Keno
Reservoir. Screening will reduce entrainment of suckers and improve overall survival.
Habitat restoration will increase the amount and quality of areas important to complete
sucker life cycles. Water quality improvement projects will work towards addressing a major
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