WaterWatch is helping farmers transfer their senior water rights on the Little Applegate River (tributary to the Rogue River) to instream uses to benefit wild salmon/steelhead and the local economy.
We have an opportunity to finally secure 5.4 cfs of water (almost 4000 acre feet) to help restore the Little Applegate River in southern Oregon, an important salmon and steelhead fish stream in the Rogue River basin. This water is the most senior water on the river and permanently keeping it in the river will keep this stream from going dry in the future.
The project will change how irrigators take water from the river and will result in new water remaining in the river. The project will require the removal of a small irrigation dam made obsolete by changes in the farmer's water diversion practices.
The project will protect streamflows on the Little Applegate for salmon and steelhead even in the driest years. These transfers will literally prevent the river from going dry in drought years. This will protect the stream's migratory corridor.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
