Background
GRMW ProjectsBackground
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What is the Grande Ronde Model Watershed?
In April of 1992, the Grande Ronde Basin was selected by the Northwest Power Planning
Council as the model watershed project in Oregon. This selection was reviewed and agreed
upon by the Strategic Water Management Group and certified by the Office of the Governor.
A Board of Directors, composed of local representatives and agency personnel involved with the multiple uses of natural resources within the basin, was formed to coordinate policy for the development, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of the Grande Ronde Model Watershed (GRMW). The GRMW has also been confirmed by the Union and Wallowa County courts. An executive director was appointed by the board to begin implementation of the Grande Ronde Model Watershed following guidelines set by the board.
The Model Watershed is to serve as an example for the establishment of watershed management partnerships among local residents, state and federal agency staffs, and public interest groups concerned with the management of a particular watershed. The central strategy of the approach is based upon the belief that a locally based effort to improve coordination, integration and implementation of existing local, state, and federal programs can effectively protect, enhance, and restore a regional watershed area.
What is a Watershed?
The term "watershed" refers to a geographic area in which water, sediments, and dissolved materials drain to a common outlet, such as a point on a larger stream, a lake, or river; an underlying aquifer; an estuary; or an ocean. This area is also called the "drainage basin" of the receiving water body. Our local area of concern is the Grande Ronde River Basin in northeastern Oregon.
Click image to view enlargement:
Graphic courtesy Conservation Ontario
What is watershed management?
The concept of watershed management focuses on the total matrix of resources and ecosystems within an area, starting from the crest of a mountain range, incorporating the forests, streams, wildlife, and communities within the basin, and continuing down to the eventual outflow of the rivers to the next geographic basin.
What is the GRMW's role?
The purpose of a model watershed is to coordinate the goals and objectives of all interests to use available natural, human, and fiscal resources within a watershed basin in the most beneficial manner. A comprehensive watershed management approach is used to enhance and expedite implementation of activities to identify knowledge and program gaps, resolve conflicts, and formulate priorities for action. Both public and private lands and initiatives are included in the process through voluntary participation in the program activities. The process seeks to bring together local landowners, resource managers, and key interests to formulate goals and initiate activities to restore and improve habitat and native fisheries, improve water supply and quality, and foster community development within the region.
Where is the GRMW located?
The GRMW coordinates habitat restoration activities in the Grande Ronde and Imnaha subbasins located in the Blue Mountain Region of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. Total area of the subbasins is approximately 5,265 square miles; there are 280 rivers and streams containing over 2,600 miles of fish-bearing streams. Ownership is approximately 65% public and 35% privately owned.
Grande Ronde Model Watershed location
(showing the Grande Ronde and Imnaha subbasins)
Click on map to view enlargement
Why is it needed?
The GRMW program (1) coordinates watershed planning activities with public agencies and private interests in the river basin to restore and enhance salmon and steelhead resources, (2) encourages and supports land and water management, economics, multiple land uses consistent with sound ecosystem management, and (3) enhances the quality and quantity of river flow within the Grande Ronde River Basin.
The following illustrates the magnitude of the problems in the subbasin.
- Major portions of the anadromous fish habitat in the area are considered to be in a degraded condition.
- Estimated number of spring chinook spawners in the Grande Ronde subbasin have dropped from 12,200 in 1957 to less than 400 in 1989.
- Water quality is documented by several agencies to be impaired by both sedimentation and thermal problems. The watershed is listed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality as being of "limited" water quality.
- Large pool habitat in the mainstem of the Grande Ronde River and Catherine Creek has declined by 73% since 1941.
- Spring flooding of downstream areas and farmland occurs every few years, causing economic hardship.
How does the GRMW operate?
The Grande Ronde Model Watershed is a public citizens' advisory group that was designated by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, the Governor's Strategic Water Management Group, and the Union and Wallowa County courts to be the central entity for long-term coordination, planning, and management activities within the Grande Ronde Basin in support of its mission, and to represent the interest of the basin to local, state, and federal agencies and other public and private interests.
Technical support is provided through the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service, the Pacific Northwest Region of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Soil Conservation Service, the Oregon Water Resources Department, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribal Office, and Oregon universities. The Bonneville Power Administration is the initial sponsor for the Grande Ronde Model Watershed.
The GRMW Board has no regulatory or enforcement authority or statutory standing to levy tax assessments.
GRMW Organizational Chart
