Fish and Wildlife

The USGS, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and other state and federal agencies, is studying a contaminant called 6PPD-quinone.

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...

The USGS and the Environmental Protection Agency are working together using advanced modeling tools to understand how 6PPD-quinone moves through watersheds and how green infrastructure can reduce its impact.

Chinook Salmon and Pacific Lamprey are culturally significant fishes to the Tribal community along the Siletz River, Oregon. The USGS studied how streamflow and bedload conditions may influence mainstem spawning habitats.

Beavers and their dams are common sights along creeks in the Tualatin River basin. Beaver help create diverse habitats for many other animals, including birds, fish, and amphibians. The USGS studying the affect beaver activity has on the amount and quality of water in local streams, so that agencies in the basin can make strategic management and habitat restoration decisions based on science.

Migratory wildlife need to balance the benefits of migration and reproduction with the physiological costs. This is particularly challenging in dynamic environments like wetlands, where food levels can vary greatly from year to year. For shorebirds in the Great Basin region, saline or terminal lakes provide essential habitats during their annual life cycle. To understand how changes in hydrology...

The Willamette River Basin reflects the conflicting water demands between humans and ecosystems—particularly salmon— and the challenge resource managers face throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for a variety of highly valued ecosystem services, including shorebirds, waterfowl, and a diversity of other wildlife species.

Welcome to the Willamette River Study page. Here you will find links to USGS research for the Willamette River and the Willamette River Basin.

Hills Creek, Lookout Point, and Dexter Dams are located on the Middle Fork Willamette River upstream of Eugene in western Oregon, and are important resources managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for flood control, hydroelectric power, recreation, navigation, and irrigation. On the South Santiam River east of Albany in western Oregon, Green Peter and Foster Dams provide functions and...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates 12 dams in the Willamette River Basin. The dams alter natural temperature and hydrologic regimes. Unnatural water temperatures can negatively impact all life stages of salmonid fish species. Water temperature in the mainstem Willamette River regularly exceeds the standard of 18.0 °C (64.4 °F) designated for salmon and trout rearing and migration for mid...

Fish, wildlife, and human populations along the lower Columbia River are exposed to an ever-growing variety of contaminants as a result of increasing urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural development.