Description
Following restoration and revitalization of the Williamson River Delta, this preserve provides vital habitat for migratory fish and birds. This property is privately owned and managed in order to protect the sensitive species that call it home and is closed to the public.
About Williamson River Delta
One of the most challenging wetland restoration projects in the West is here at the mouth of the Williamson River on Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. Hosting a multitude of migrating birds along the Pacific Flyway, the lake is also one of America's largest freshwater bodies.
The Williamson River used to meander across a 12-square-mile delta at the north end of the Upper Klamath Lake, nourishing vast marshlands, until it was diked and drained for agriculture. While farming still remains, much of the original plant and wildlife habitat is being restored as a result of restoring the hydrologic connectivity and reestablishing wetlands.
Caring for the Land
For decades, The Nature Conservancy has worked in collaboration with the Upper Klamath Basin Working Group, The Klamath Tribes, Bureau of Reclamation and Natural Resource Conservation Service, local industries and others, to restore nearly 7,000 acres of wetlands. After multiple years of successful breaching of levees along Upper Klamath Lake and Agency Lake, this reconnected the lower six miles of Williamson River to its delta, restoring critical habitat for endangered fish and other wildlife and improving water quality, while maintaining 750 acres for organic farming.
Plants at the Preserve
Wetland flora includes tules (hardstem bulrush), wocus (Nuphar lutea ssp. polysepala), cattails, sedges, willows, sage pondweed, golden dock and American water plantain, many of which are important first foods and resources for The Klamath Tribes.
Animals at the Preserve
Upper Klamath Lake is a world-class haven of biodiversity, hosting 2-3 million birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway, as well as many native and endemic fish and freshwater mollusks found nowhere else on Earth. Declining water quality has endangered two fish species, the C’waam and Koptu (Lost River and shortnose suckers).