Conserved! Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge Expanded

In southern Oregon, Western Rivers Conservancy has successfully conserved three miles of the famed Williamson River and expanded the globally important Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge!

Thanks to your support, WRC conveyed the 2,200-acre Timmerman Ranch along the upper Williamson to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, protecting it forever and ensuring the ranch’s water is used for the benefit of fish, wildlife and the Klamath River system as a whole. The Williamson provides critical cold water to the Klamath Marsh and eventually Upper Klamath Lake, the headwaters of the Klamath River.

The property’s rich wetlands, and the outstanding reach of the Williamson that flows through it, lie at the heart of some of the finest migratory bird habitat in the West. Tens of thousands of birds rely on the ranch each year during their migrations north and south along the Pacific Flyway. The Williamson is also famed for its scale-tipping rainbow trout, which will benefit from the improved water conditions this effort delivers.

Now that we've conveyed the ranch to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency can begin restoring the stretch of the Williamson that runs through the property, sending more and better water into the marsh. This will help heal the Klamath system from the top down—at the crucial moment that dams are poised to come out on the lower river.

Thank you for your continued support! We have more than 25 projects in the works right now, and just like this one, they would be impossible without you.