DESCHUTES RIVER FIRE RECOVERY
About Recovery
In the span of just a few weeks in July 2018, the lower Deschutes River canyon was impacted by 3 fires, which burned 25 miles of the canyon rim-to-rim, down to the river banks. Over 111,000 acres of cropland, grass, sagebrush, and riparian (the interface between land and a river) habitat in Wasco county and Sherman county was consumed by these fires.
The Foundation is working with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) to raise the funds for a landscape-scale restoration effort on the wildlife management area in the lower Deschutes River.
The need to do this is significant and immediate, as these annual grasses spread rapidly, particularly in a post-fire environment, and hold little nutritional value for wild or domestic animals. Virtually all landowners in the lower river have subscribed to this same plan on their own properties - the only difference is the source of funding to get the work done. A total of 50,000 acres in the lower river are participating in this project, making it one of the largest collaborative efforts of its kind in the western US.
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Every dollar counts! The primary source of funding for this project requires a 25% non-Federal match. Your $1 leverages $3 more in this program.
The restoration plan includes seeding in drainages to mitigate erosion; planting shrubs and trees within the riparian zone; and aerial and ground application of restoration herbicide on ~14,000 acres of upland and select areas of lowland, followed by native bunch grass seeding on ~6,000 acres. The latter is aimed at addressing the increasingly alarming spread of non-native invasive annual grasses, primarily cheatgrass and medusahead, within the canyon.