Willamette Focused Investment Partnership Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring Program
The USGS, in collaboration with several Willamette River Basin partners, led a multi-phase program to assess the effectiveness of restoration efforts aimed at improving native fish habitat in the Willamette River. The Willamette Focused Investment Partnership Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring Program evaluates whether restoration projects achieved their targets to improve physical floodplain conditions for native fish. Data collection, analyses, and results support adaptively managed programs in the Willamette River Basin, where restoration goals are carried out in consideration of the best available science.
From 2016 to 2025, the Willamette Anchor Habitat Working Group Focused Investment Partnership (WFIP) made large investments in restoration and protection of fish habitat along the mainstem Willamette River. This initiative, approved by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB), brings together more than 15 organizations, agencies, and other entities collectively working with willing landowners to improve floodplain habitats on more than 87,000 acres of the Willamette River floodplain.
Floodplain habitats along much of the Willamette River need direct restoration because the natural processes that once sustained them - hydrologic, geomorphic, and vegetative - have been fundamentally altered by dams, bank protection, large wood removal, land conversion, and other impacts. Working at the site-scale, strategically planned restoration projects typically aim to restore local floodplain processes by addressing barriers to water flow, fish movement, and natural vegetation growth. For example: replacing failing bridge culverts that block floodplain connectivity and fish passage, re-connecting side-channels blocked by levees, treating aquatic invasive species, or planting native vegetation on former agricultural lands. These projects are based on the premise that improving physical habitat conditions will ultimately improve native fish and wildlife populations.
Significance
Recognizing the many challenges of restoration, the WFIP initiative was designed with adaptive management in mind. Where the best available science and effectiveness monitoring is used to refine goals, restoration activities, and best practices in the future. An effectiveness monitoring program is essential to determine if restoration projects met targets for improving physical floodplain conditions and to place these improvements within the broader context of floodplain processes.
WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program goals:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of different restoration activities at increasing and enhancing native fish habitat.
- Improve understanding of the physical and ecological responses associated with different restoration activities undertaken by the WFIP.
- Connect site-scale restoration outcomes with segment-scale patterns in fish communities, hydrogeomorphology, stream temperature, and vegetation, to evaluate how restoration activities influence habitat availability for native fish over time and space.
Accomplishments:
The effectiveness monitoring program led by USGS in partnership with Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, OWEB, and others began in 2018 and includes multiple phases.
- Completed a monitoring framework to evaluate effectiveness of floodplain restoration activities at increasing and enhancing habitat for native fish in the Willamette River. This framework describes monitoring indicators, metrics, and approaches for assessing restoration effectiveness. The monitoring indicators and approaches are grouped into five categories: fish, hydrogeomorphology, floodplain forest vegetation, birds, and aquatic invasive species. This monitoring framework provides a common science foundation to support collaborative decisions on future effectiveness monitoring activities for Willamette River restoration programs. To evaluate effectiveness, data must be directly compared between habitat conditions at the restoration site and restoration program goals; examples are provided, though site specific criteria will need to be tailored to meet program questions and available resources. This report serves as a resource for restoration program managers, scientists, and contractors developing annual monitoring plans for evaluating effectiveness of different restoration activities.
- Completed multiple monitoring and mapping datasets to inform restoration effectiveness. These include water temperature monitoring, floodplain forest mapping, geomorphic mapping releases in 2019 & 2022, and human-modified ponded feature delineation.
- Future phases of the WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program will summarize existing monitoring and mapping data and begin to evaluate whether restoration projects achieved their targets to improve physical floodplain conditions for native fish and to place these improvements within the broader context of overall floodplain processes.
Project partners:
Data sets produced by this project.
Classified Cover Mapping to Support Preliminary Assessment of Aquatic Invasive Vegetation (Ludwigia spp.) in the Willamette River, Oregon: Albany and Salem Reaches Classified Cover Mapping to Support Preliminary Assessment of Aquatic Invasive Vegetation (Ludwigia spp.) in the Willamette River, Oregon: Albany and Salem Reaches
Floodplain forest vegetation cover maps to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.1, August 2025) Floodplain forest vegetation cover maps to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.1, August 2025)
Human-modified ponded features mapped within the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon, in 2018 Human-modified ponded features mapped within the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon, in 2018
Native and Non-Native Fish Species in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon Native and Non-Native Fish Species in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Geomorphic Mapping for the lower Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon in 2018 and 2020 Geomorphic Mapping for the lower Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon in 2018 and 2020
Water temperature data to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.2, May 2024) Water temperature data to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.2, May 2024)
Publications produced by or related to this project.
Monitoring framework to evaluate effectiveness of aquatic and floodplain habitat restoration activities for native fish along the Willamette River, northwestern Oregon Monitoring framework to evaluate effectiveness of aquatic and floodplain habitat restoration activities for native fish along the Willamette River, northwestern Oregon
Geomorphic and vegetation processes of the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon: current understanding and unanswered science questions Geomorphic and vegetation processes of the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon: current understanding and unanswered science questions
The USGS, in collaboration with several Willamette River Basin partners, led a multi-phase program to assess the effectiveness of restoration efforts aimed at improving native fish habitat in the Willamette River. The Willamette Focused Investment Partnership Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring Program evaluates whether restoration projects achieved their targets to improve physical floodplain conditions for native fish. Data collection, analyses, and results support adaptively managed programs in the Willamette River Basin, where restoration goals are carried out in consideration of the best available science.
From 2016 to 2025, the Willamette Anchor Habitat Working Group Focused Investment Partnership (WFIP) made large investments in restoration and protection of fish habitat along the mainstem Willamette River. This initiative, approved by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB), brings together more than 15 organizations, agencies, and other entities collectively working with willing landowners to improve floodplain habitats on more than 87,000 acres of the Willamette River floodplain.
Floodplain habitats along much of the Willamette River need direct restoration because the natural processes that once sustained them - hydrologic, geomorphic, and vegetative - have been fundamentally altered by dams, bank protection, large wood removal, land conversion, and other impacts. Working at the site-scale, strategically planned restoration projects typically aim to restore local floodplain processes by addressing barriers to water flow, fish movement, and natural vegetation growth. For example: replacing failing bridge culverts that block floodplain connectivity and fish passage, re-connecting side-channels blocked by levees, treating aquatic invasive species, or planting native vegetation on former agricultural lands. These projects are based on the premise that improving physical habitat conditions will ultimately improve native fish and wildlife populations.
Significance
Recognizing the many challenges of restoration, the WFIP initiative was designed with adaptive management in mind. Where the best available science and effectiveness monitoring is used to refine goals, restoration activities, and best practices in the future. An effectiveness monitoring program is essential to determine if restoration projects met targets for improving physical floodplain conditions and to place these improvements within the broader context of floodplain processes.
WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program goals:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of different restoration activities at increasing and enhancing native fish habitat.
- Improve understanding of the physical and ecological responses associated with different restoration activities undertaken by the WFIP.
- Connect site-scale restoration outcomes with segment-scale patterns in fish communities, hydrogeomorphology, stream temperature, and vegetation, to evaluate how restoration activities influence habitat availability for native fish over time and space.
Accomplishments:
The effectiveness monitoring program led by USGS in partnership with Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, OWEB, and others began in 2018 and includes multiple phases.
- Completed a monitoring framework to evaluate effectiveness of floodplain restoration activities at increasing and enhancing habitat for native fish in the Willamette River. This framework describes monitoring indicators, metrics, and approaches for assessing restoration effectiveness. The monitoring indicators and approaches are grouped into five categories: fish, hydrogeomorphology, floodplain forest vegetation, birds, and aquatic invasive species. This monitoring framework provides a common science foundation to support collaborative decisions on future effectiveness monitoring activities for Willamette River restoration programs. To evaluate effectiveness, data must be directly compared between habitat conditions at the restoration site and restoration program goals; examples are provided, though site specific criteria will need to be tailored to meet program questions and available resources. This report serves as a resource for restoration program managers, scientists, and contractors developing annual monitoring plans for evaluating effectiveness of different restoration activities.
- Completed multiple monitoring and mapping datasets to inform restoration effectiveness. These include water temperature monitoring, floodplain forest mapping, geomorphic mapping releases in 2019 & 2022, and human-modified ponded feature delineation.
- Future phases of the WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program will summarize existing monitoring and mapping data and begin to evaluate whether restoration projects achieved their targets to improve physical floodplain conditions for native fish and to place these improvements within the broader context of overall floodplain processes.
Project partners:
Data sets produced by this project.
Classified Cover Mapping to Support Preliminary Assessment of Aquatic Invasive Vegetation (Ludwigia spp.) in the Willamette River, Oregon: Albany and Salem Reaches Classified Cover Mapping to Support Preliminary Assessment of Aquatic Invasive Vegetation (Ludwigia spp.) in the Willamette River, Oregon: Albany and Salem Reaches
Floodplain forest vegetation cover maps to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.1, August 2025) Floodplain forest vegetation cover maps to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.1, August 2025)
Human-modified ponded features mapped within the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon, in 2018 Human-modified ponded features mapped within the Willamette River floodplain, Oregon, in 2018
Native and Non-Native Fish Species in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon Native and Non-Native Fish Species in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Geomorphic Mapping for the lower Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon in 2018 and 2020 Geomorphic Mapping for the lower Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon in 2018 and 2020
Water temperature data to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.2, May 2024) Water temperature data to support effectiveness monitoring of channel and floodplain restoration projects along the Willamette River, Oregon (ver. 1.2, May 2024)
Publications produced by or related to this project.