Levy breaches at Agency Lake will create 14,000 acres of marshlands, providing new habitat for fish and birds

The breaking of a levy between Agency Lake and Upper Klamath Lake will create 14,000 acres of marshland. In mid-December, a break in the levy allowed water to flow freely from Agency Lake and Wood River Marsh into Upper Klamath Lake, providing much-needed habitat for fish and birds. It also offers nutrient sequestering of phosphorous and the inflow of much-needed tannins that will help combat the unchecked growth of algae in the waterways of Upper Klamath Lake.

Adam Johnson, Assistant Regional Director of Science Applications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 8 (California, Nevada, Klamath Basin), said that with over 75 percent of the marshes around the lake historically missing, the addition of 14,000 acres is a significant contribution to expanding the marshlands.  

He said the properties in question were diked off for agricultural purposes around the start of the 20th century. “Reconnection means they will then be fully connected to the lake,” he said. “It will fluctuate with Lake elevation. It will change the plant communities. It will change the wetland status. There’ll be open water areas that are open water year-round. There will be successful plant communities and different wetland types as you move up into higher elevations. And those will change as you flood and dry them out, and the lake elevation fluctuates.”

Amelia Raquel, regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited overseeing the project’s construction, said phase one construction, including internal restoration work, was completed in November, and external breaching to connect the site with Upper Klamath Lake began in December. BCI Contracting Inc., out of Portland, Ore., was hired to excavate.

Ducks Unlimited has been working with Klamath Tribes, Trout Unlimited, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife for over a decade to see this project come to fruition. Raquel said she is thrilled to be part of such a massive restoration effort. “Ducks Unlimited is involved in wetland restoration projects all across the country, and for us, this is probably the largest inland wetland restoration project, at least on the West Coast. So just that statement alone is pretty amazing to be a part of, and it’s exciting to be part of a project that is done at a scale that I think can actually make a difference.”

One of the prime functions of reconnecting the lake is reintroducing tannins from the marsh into the Upper Klamath Lake. Tannins enter the water through decomposing vegetation. When dead leaves, rotting wood, and other plant materials decompose, tannins are released and can leach into groundwater and surface water sources. The tannins create tannic acid and are also thought to darken the water. This combination of effects reduces the frequency of algal blooms due to the darker water and the higher acidity, which reduces the incidence of harmful bacteria or fungi in the water. Both effects were cut off when the marsh was diked and drained, and with its reintroduction, water quality in the lake is expected to improve.

Johnson stressed that this is no magic bullet and the work left to be done is immense. However, he said the 14,000 acres will have an immediate and lasting effect on water quality. “It will just be a source of those tannins that currently the lake is somewhat starved for,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t break the nutrient cycle. We still have to do all of the restoration work in the Sprague and in the Williamson, in the woods, and those upland areas to reduce the direct inputs of phosphorus in particular, but phosphorus, nitrogen, and other nutrient sources. But having those tannins is going to be a short-term boon to the overall water quality, or at least that’s our hope and expectation.”

As to the prospects for the c’waam and koptu, Johnson stated, “We do have intention to make some hatchery releases there, as I believe the Klamath tribes do as well to better understand that dynamic. Now, it should be excellent juvenile rearing habitat, and so we’re very hopeful that this will be a place where, when we make those reintroductions from the hatcheries, that too can see some success and survival, and it will effectively double the amount of nearshore lake fringe rearing habitat available in Upper Klamath Lake overall.”

“If the arrival of salmon back in the Klamath River is any indication of how fast we can expect the results to be seen, this spring, we should see some pretty amazing things coming back to our lake,” Raquel said, “I think wetlands generally rebound pretty quickly once they see water, so I suspect we’ll start seeing the wetland vegetation re-establish within the site, and then see the invertebrates and the birds and the fish kind of find it and be really productive.”

“Knowing that this is historically what this system was and what these species evolved under,” she continued, “I would expect that providing those conditions, the species know what they need, and you know they’ll find them.”

At a ceremonial event held on Dec. 20 by the Klamath Tribes, members of the Tribes attended along with other people involved in the project. Klamath Tribes Chairman William Ray Jr. reflected on the significance of the wetland restoration, speaking shortly after the ceremony. “I would have to say that connection is that I don’t think it was ever a disconnect,” he said. “I think it’s more of a liberation back to where we once used to be, and when I was a boy growing up, to see the dredge that was on 24/7 that was reclaiming it into farmland and taking all this marsh, these wetlands, away, and then now seeing it restored. So, we’re coming back full circle, and that’s what that means for liberation because we’re seeing our ecosystem return to how it once was and how productive it could be. And this is the first step in this Agency-Barnes for us to move in that direction, along with other projects.”

He explained that the marsh is also an integral part of the history of the Klamath Tribes to the marsh, an integral part of the culture, and a subsistence provider of Natural Resources essential to the life and ways of the tribes. “That’s why we were called “?ewksiknii” people of the marsh, people of the lakes,” he said. “We are very tied to the water as a people. That’s why over half our diet was made up of fish. Sure, we used all the resources, but a big part of our diet was the plant life. That’s why wocus was such an important part. It’s the only place in the whole world where you have the two-horn mono, and that was for processing the wocus seeds, and that’s how important that food source was. In order to have wocus, you’ve got to have water, and without it, then you don’t have the rest of the aquatic species of tules, pulpus. The wocus was a big part of all that healing and filtering the water to make it clean and produce good water quality.”