MCKENZIE BRIDGE: Chinook salmon and bull trout just got a better place to call home, tied to a major habitat enhancement effort completed last week by the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project on the Upper McKenzie River.
Using helicopters to gingerly lower big loads of gravel and trees into the water, the project is targeted at breathing new life into a section of river located downstream of Tamolitch Falls—an area the utility says has historically lacked the “natural building blocks” needed for fish to thrive.
Accessing the area from the air, crews flew in 2,000 tons of spawning gravel, along with 20 bundles of brushy treetops to a section of the stream thay call the lower Carmen Bypass Reach. On the ground, workers used pulleys and cables to yard 10 large trees into the river to improve habitat conditions…