North Umpqua River, Oregon
- North Umpqua River, photo courtesy of Tim Palmer
From its origin high in the Cascades on the flanks of Mount Mazama and the deep aquifer of the High Cascades in central Oregon, this powerful, cold, clear river rushes headlong on a westward course to the Pacific, joining the South Umpqua west of Roseburg, Oregon. Significant tributaries and water bodies include Diamond Lake, Warm Springs Creek, Clearwater River, Fish Creek, Boulder Creek, Copeland Creek, Calf Creek, Steamboat and Canton Creeks, Honey Creek, Rock Creek, and Little River. The North Umpqua’s cherished salmon and steelhead runs are among the most robust and productive of any river in the lower 48 states, supporting a diversity of local fisheries and traditions. The river sees annual runs of spring and fall run chinook salmon, summer and winter steelhead, coho salmon, cutthroat trout, and lamprey. Wildlife is abundant, with river otter, black bear, bald eagles, osprey, salamanders, songbirds, and other wildlife abounding in unspoiled old-growth riparian forests along the riverside. Few places on earth possess this kind of natural abundance so accessible by public highway and trail systems.
Land ownership in the headwaters includes a large piece of the Umpqua National Forest, including several large roadless areas; downstream the river and its tributaries traverse intermingled BLM and private forestlands, large ranches, and the communities of Idleyld Park, Glide, Winchester, and greater Roseburg in the Umpqua Valley.
Historical Threats and Conservation Challenges
Due to both geophysical circumstances and to history, the North Umpqua River has so far maintained a large share of its historic biological diversity, productivity, and resilience in the face of human development in the basin. The river has been impacted by a hydroelectric project that diverts flows in the headwaters and cuts off migratory fish access to a major tributary, a state highway corridor along the length of the mainstem, locally severe logging and logging road impacts in some key tributaries, and grazing, cropland management, and associated flow diversions in some small lower-basin tributaries. Anadromous fish bound for the North Umpqua are exposed to fishing pressure in the ocean, estuary, and much of the length of Umpqua and North Umpqua rivers. A state-run hatchery program has historically affected survival of wild steelhead and salmon, and may continue to do so to a limited degree. Across the basin, substantial areas of unprotected and unroaded or lightly-roaded federal forestlands remain in the headwaters. At middle elevations and to the south and east private industrial forest and intensively logged federal lands have locally high densities of logging roads that continue to adversely impact key tributaries and may reduce water quality in the mainstem. Summer water temperatures are critically high in some key tributaries, such as Steamboat Creek, a critical refuge and nursery for native summer steelhead.
The Umpqua is the primary water supply for Roseburg and other communities, and given it is the principal water source in the semiarid landscape of the Umpqua Valley, climate change and continuing population growth combine to substantially increase future demand for water extraction. In its current condition, the North Umpqua remains relatively resilient to year-to-year climate variation, due to the dominance of deep Cascades groundwater sources in its hydrology and the extent of relatively intact, mixed-conifer forest in headwater areas. Expansive roadless lands can provide biological refuge from storm-related landslides and debris flows. Because of the high-integrity condition of most national forest lands, recent wildfires have had small adverse effects and substantially benefited water quality and fish habitat (as long as post-fire salvage logging is limited). Maintaining and restoring watershed integrity will be critical to retaining the North Umpqua’s natural resilience to future climate change.
Emerging Threats
Despite its current very high integrity relative to other Northwest salmon rivers, long-time residents and scientific researchers have observed incremental declines in both the biological diversity (e.g., loss of life history diversity in wild summer steelhead, steep declines in coho salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout runs) and physical habitat conditions in the river and key tributaries. These are warning signs of stress from threats that will be exacerbated under future conditions of human population growth and housing development, climate change, transportation activity along the highway corridor, and timber and water extraction. These incremental losses in ecological and watershed integrity undermine the very basis of the river’s resilience to future climate change and human population growth.
Much of the North Umpqua’s watershed remains unprotected and vulnerable to impact under currently insufficient regulatory frameworks that govern dominant land uses such as industrial logging, residential development, and the design, construction, maintenance, and remediation of roads built to access these lands. On public lands, while the Umpqua National Forest continues to invest in watershed restoration projects, the BLM’s recently adopted Western Oregon Plan Revisions roll back stream protection in favor of increased logging near streams and on landslide-prone slopes and a major increase in roadbuilding on its large area of lands in the crucial Canton and Steamboat Creeks. Although the timber industry is important to local communities, lessons of the past show starkly that aggressive logging in riparian zones and on steep or unstable slopes, and irresponsible construction and management of logging roads can do serious and longlasting harm to water and fish (Read our scoping comments on the Umpqua National Forest Travel Managment Plan). On the other hand, experience in the North Umpqua also shows that responsibly planned, cautiously located and carefully executed logging and timber management — particularly when logging roads are limited or reduced — can occur without permanent harm to rivers and streams.
- Surface and Groundwater Public Drinking Water System, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
The North Umpqua basin provides several local communities with a source of clean drinking water. This map shows the drinking water withdrawals and outtakes on the North Umpqua (click for larger view). The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has provided a list of current and potential threats, to which we should be paying particular attention. These include grazing, timber harvest, roads, irrigation, stormwater discharges and others.
Ill-conceived recreation projects also threaten the North Umpqua. In particular, the BLM recently has proposed to build an expanded parking lot in connection with the Tioga Bridge. PRC submitted comments on the project explaining that without doubt, the expanded parking lot will have adverse environmental impacts on the river and its floodplain ecosystem within federally designated Riparian Reserves and downstream.
Science and Watershed Assessments
The North Umpqua has a distinguished history of basic and applied scientific research concerning various aspects of salmon and steelhead behavior, survival, and habitat requirements. Susan Gilmont published a bibliography of the Umpqua Basin that lists numerous published scientific papers, graduate theses, and agency reports, with an emphasis on fish and hydrology. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains long-term records of escapement over Winchester Dam near Roseburg for all anadromous salmonid species. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has prepared a Source Water Assessment for the Umpqua Basin Water Association, and for communities including Glide, Roseburg, and Sutherlin. These reports identify numerous threats from land development and land use, but do not identify specific actions and implementation mechanisms needed to protect water sources.
The Forest Service and BLM have conducted separate and joint Watershed Analyses for federal lands. These assessments have been the basis of the Umpqua National Forests’ moving forward with road decommissioning projects in federal land Key Watersheds. BLM has not acted consistently in accord with recommendations in federal Watershed Analyses. The Umpqua Watershed Council (Now Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers) sponsored the Lower North Umpqua and Rock Creek Region Assessment and Action Plans.
These plans include a useful assessment of geography, environmental conditions and environmental data. In short, there is abundant information about various parts of the basin, and much local expertise residing in agency experts, but this knowledge is fragmentary. There is no overarching structure to synthesize this information into a coherent rationale for strategic priorities and actions, a vision to ensure that the North Umpqua as a whole river ecosystem is protected and restored for future generations.
A Vision for the Future
The North Umpqua is a great river, but like all rivers it remains vulnerable to a death by a thousand cuts. Because different federal, state, and local agencies have fragmented authorities and have worked in a way that enforces partitioning and narrowing of their authority, no strategic conservation plan exists for the river and the watershed that sustains it. Restoration progress has been piecemeal and many investments have had short-lived or no benefits or because they failed to address land or water use upstream or upslope, or failed to appreciate the full biological context of instream projects. The critical need in the North Umpqua is to develop a community-supported, comprehensive strategic plan to establish protection and restoration priorities and establish means to get effective conservation measures on the ground at the appropriate scale. This will require a whole watershed synthesis of existing information, and forging a new cross-basin vision and framework for protection and restoration actions. Existing assessments of the North Umpqua and experience on rivers globally suggest such a framework will rest on a combination of measures to protect water in the river and its tributaries, guidance and incentive programs to positively influence land use reform and watershed protection, and actions to permanently protect public lands that are vital to watershed functions. Pacific Rivers Council is partnering with The North Umpqua Foundation to work with local people to find a path to secure the North Umpqua River for future generations. Learn more about the panel of scientists and economists that PRC and The North Umpqua Foundation have teamed up to convene to provide expert resources to help inform, inspire and guide our work.
Other Non-governmental Organizations Working in the North Umpqua Basin:
The North Umpqua Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Roseburg devoted to preserving this the North Umpqua River through the funding and promotion of ongoing conservation measures and educational programs.
The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers works through a consensus process to promote and support riparian and instream restoration on private lands in the basin.
Steamboaters comprise a dedicated group of anglers and conservationists who care deeply about the North Umpqua watershed and its fishery.
Umpqua Watersheds is a local nonprofit that focuses on public land use issues.
Umpqua Valley Audubon is a local Audubon chapter that is active on a number of issues that relate to the North Umpqua watershed.
Learn more about the Forest Service sponsored Pacific Coast Watershed Partnership, which promotes healthy watersheds including the Umpqua River Watershed.
