This project is located within the Cougar Creek-South Fork McKenzie River Sub-watershed. The project area encompasses the lower 4.2 miles of the South Fork McKenzie River from the base of Cougar Dam to the confluence with the McKenzie River and is approximately 780 acres in size. It includes two large alluvial valleys, separated by a transport reach, with another transport reach right below cougar. Most of the project area is under USFS ownership, except for approximately 40 acres owned by the USACE. This comprehensive stream design is for approximately 4.2 miles of the lower South Fork McKenzie River. This project is an important part of regional efforts to restore habitat for spring Chinook salmon and bull trout in the Willamette River Basin. The project is designed to rehabilitate to the maximum extent practicable the physical, chemical, and biological processes that are impaired by the Cougar Dam, legacy levee, riprap, and fill material, and by logging and stream clean-out in the past century. The project will include the removal of levee, riprap, and film material, aggradation of currently incised chemicals, construction of a new channel network utilizing relic channels where they exist addition of large woody material and sediment, riparian planting and noxious weed treatment.
