Recent Accomplishments:

The John Day Basin is home to one of the last and largest remaining populations of wild spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead in the entire Columbia Basin.  Up to 30% of salmon spawning in the John Day River Basin occurs in the Middle Fork of the John Day River, but, water diversions have historically limited fish productivity.  In partnership with the Nature Conservancy which owns the 1,200 acre Dunstan Homestead perserve, the Oregon Water Trust completed a 25-year "time-limited transfer" that will keep water that would otherwise have been used for irrigation proected in the Middle Fork John Day River and the tributary Big Boulder Creek.  With the compensation provided by the Water Trust for completing the transfer, The Nature Conservancy will invest in a variety of habitat restoration projects on the Middle Fork.

This project complements the work OWT and their partners have already completed the Austin Ranch Forbearance agreement and the Confederated Tribe of the Warm Springs Reservation's Oxbow and Forest Rance Conservation Areas.  In addition, it demonstrates the potential for land and water trusts to work together to project rivers.  The Middle Fork of the John Day represents a great success for the OWT-- nearly natural flow has been restored to the upper 25 miles of the river.