Blue Sky Habitat Fund
Double the Difference
Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Habitat Fund provides customers with the ability to make a difference in two meaningful ways. Participating customers purchase and support renewable energy while also helping to restore and preserve habitats for Oregon native fish, including salmon, through an automatic $2.50 monthly donation.
The donations are given to The Freshwater Trust to administer multiple grants that restore habitat in Pacific Power’s service area. We coordinate the Blue Sky Habitat funds to match these donations with grant dollars, creating an even larger impact through projects across the state.
2024 Recipients
Lower Drift Creek (Siletz) Tidal Restoration Phase II – MidCoast Watersheds Council
Siletz-Yaquina Watershed, Lincoln County, Oregon
MidCoast Watersheds Council is working collaboratively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore tidal wetland habitat at the Lower Drift Creek Unit of Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Estuaries and tidal wetlands are essential habitats for ESA threatened Oregon Coast Coho and other salmonids, as well as other fish and wildlife species. This project (Phase II) will restore 32 of 80 acres of tidal wetlands on the Kangas tract through establishment of sinuous channels, filling of perimeter drainage ditches, placement of large wood, management of invasive plants, seeding and planting to restore native species, and establishing topographic diversity to support spruce swamp, scrub-shrub, and native marsh vegetation. These restoration actions will restore sediment accretion process to build marsh surface elevations to increase resilience to sea level rise, absorb flood waters, and sequester carbon in wetland soil.
Native fish benefited: Oregon Coast Coho Salmon and Steelhead (smolt and juvenile); Chinook Salmon; Pacific Lamprey
Ochoco Preserve Restoration Phase 3 – Deschutes Land Trust
Lower Crooked River, Crook County, Oregon
Ochoco Preserve is home to the confluences of Ochoco Creek, McKay Creek and the Crooked River. The Preserve is undergoing a multi-year restoration effort that supports the reintroduction of spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead. This project is designed to allow Ochoco Creek and the Crooked River to access historic floodplains by constructing stream channels, off-channel habitats, wetlands, floodplains, and uplands across about 86 acres of the Preserve. The length of Ochoco Creek and the Crooked River will nearly double. Much of the increased length will include complex habitats suitable for Chinook and steelhead rearing.
Native fish benefited: Middle Columbia River Spring Chinook and Summer Steelhead; Redband Trout
Wolf Bay/ Twilight Sanctuary Habitat Restoration Project – Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST)
Lower Columbia River, Clatsop County, Oregon
This project will help salmon grow and increase their survival rate as they journey from their spawning grounds to the Pacific Ocean and back. Threatened Columbia River salmon need special places to rest and forage for food before they enter the ocean as well as once they return. Because of habitat loss, available tidal foraging habitat along the Columbia River represents only 13% of what historically existed. This project focuses on restoring access to one of the last remaining large off-channel foraging and rearing habitats for out-migrating salmon before they encounter the hardened shoreline of Astoria and enter the ocean phase of their life cycle. The area is a 45-acre parcel of tidal wetland next to the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge and within the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary. The railroad that passes through this site constricts the natural flow of water and prevents salmon from reaching the high-quality tidal habitat just beyond the railroad. Our comprehensive restoration plan will address this by creating new openings in the railroad embankment, allowing water and fish to move freely once again. Specifically, this project involves: creating two new fully fish-passable openings underneath the railroad, reducing velocities at the only existing opening to facilitate fish passage, planting native plants in tidal wetlands, and restoring unrestricted access to essential rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids.
Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Chinook and Coho Salmon and Steelhead; Columbia River Chum Salmon
Powerdale Corridor RM 3 Floodplain Reconnection Project – Hood River Watershed Group
Mid-Columbia Hood Watershed; Hood River County. Oregon
The Hood River Watershed Group, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, and Columbia Land Trust have prioritized habitat enhancement projects on the mainstem Hood River along the Powerdale Corridor, a former hydroelectric project site whose dam was removed in 2010. The goal of the project is to improve aquatic habitat and ecological functions that support ESA listed salmon and steelhead populations, as well as other native fish that utilize the mainstem. Specific restoration actions include restoring off-channel rearing and spawning habitat and reducing peak flows in the mainstem by reestablishing floodplain and side channel connectivity.
Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon, Summer and Winter Steelhead, and Coho Salmon; Pacific Lamprey
Past Recipients
Bear Creek Floodplain Reconnection Project – The Freshwater Trust
Middle Rogue River, Jackson County, Oregon
Phase 2 of this project, led by The Freshwater Trust, restored 5 acres of native riparian forest burned by the Almeda wildfire of 2020 to provide shade and stability within the activated floodplain and filter sediments and nutrients. Native fish benefited: SONCC Coho Salmon, Fall Chinook, Steelhead, Cutthroat Trout, Pacific Lamprey, Speckled Dace.
Upper Sandy-Zigzag River Tributaries Restoration Project – The Freshwater Trust
Sandy River, Clackamas County, Oregon
The Freshwater Trust and US Forest Service led this project on behalf of the Sandy River Basin Partners. The project addressed primary limiting factors by increasing off channel habitat and floodplain connectivity and large wood abundance on Still Creek and by restoring fish passage at a road crossing on Henry Creek. The project is part of a collaborative, multi-year effort to accelerate recovery of naturally functioning conditions within prioritized stream channels and riparian areas of the Sandy River basin. Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Spring Chinook and Coho Salmon and Winter Steelhead.
Aldrich Point Habitat Restoration Project – Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST)
Lower Columbia River, Clatsop County, Oregon
In the project area, adjacent to the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge, foraging and rearing habitat for all juvenile salmonids have been lost or are extremely limited by past land use developments. The restoration efforts reconnected and enhanced Columbia River mainstem-adjacent habitat bisected by a railroad, reestablishing juvenile salmonid access to critical rearing habitats. The project created two 100% fish passable openings in the railroad prism providing access to over 24 acres of rearing habitat for salmonids. New railroad breaches, channel excavation, and a dense native planting effort fully connected the site for fish use, significantly reducing the distances between existing available habitat patches. Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Coho, Chum and Chinook Salmon and Steelhead.
Baldwin Creek Fish Passage & Habitat Restoration Project – Hood River Watershed Group
Mid-Columbia Hood River, Hood River County, Oregon
Hood River Watershed Group and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs restored continuous fish passage to up to two miles of spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead on Baldwin Creek in the Lower East Fork Hood River subbasin, increasing the presence and abundance of native fish above the barriers. In a watershed with limited cold, clearwater habitat, creating passage at the barriers will provide critical year-round habitat, which is becoming increasingly important due to climate change. Channel, floodplain, and riparian restoration increased quality and amount of habitat throughout the project reach where there are limited rest areas. Large wood structures and reconnection of floodplain or off-channel habitat gives the project area the “push” it needs to increase floodplain connection and restore natural hydrologic processes like nutrient cycling, energy dissipation, and deposition of gravels. Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Chinook and Coho Salmon and Steelhead.
Mill Creek Final Barrier Removal – Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce
Mill Creek – Lower Columbia River, Clatsop County, Oregon
The goals of this project are to increase spawning in Mill Creek by threatened anadromous salmonids, and to improve access to, and quality of, rearing habitat in lower Mill Creek for juvenile salmonids, both those that hatched in Mill Creek and those traveling down the Columbia River on their way to the sea. This project is the final phase of efforts to reconnect Mill Creek hydrologically and to create fish passage for native salmonids. The project removed a 10’ x 10’ reinforced-concrete box culvert and excavated 250 feet of adjacent roadbed, removing all hydrologic restriction of the tidal prism and its floodplain at the site. This box culvert is the last hydrologic barrier in Mill Creek and removing it will improve fish access to approximately 2.4 miles of habitat. Native fish benefited: Lower Columbia River Steelhead, Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, and Columbia River Chum Salmon.
Post-Archie Creek Fire Instream Habitat Restoration – Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers
Umpqua River, Douglas County, Oregon
This project is the second year of a multi-year project in Rock Creek (post-Archie Creek fire) that restored and maximized natural production of native anadromous fish in Rock Creek by restoring channel hydrology, reconnecting floodplains, and restoring, rehabilitating, and maximizing aquatic habitat through instream habitat restoration and floodplain enhancement. Project components included placement of fire-killed trees into stream channels, side channels and floodplain, construction of riffle complexes, and excavation of groundwater channels and pools. The technical design for this project utilizes the natural channel design concepts developed by U.S. Forest Service Enterprise Team. Native fish benefited: Oregon Coast Coho Salmon.
