Planning for the Future

The Corps of Engineers wants your input as it updates and prepares master plans for projects located within the Willamette Valley. 

Specific locations include Big Cliff and Detroit projects along the North Santiam River, Foster and Green Peter projects along the South Santiam River, Blue River and Cougar projects adjacent to the McKenzie River, Dexter, Lookout Point, Fall Creek and Hills Creek projects in the Mid-Willamette River region, Dorena Project on the Row River, Cottage Grove projects on the Coast Fork Willamette River, and Fern Ridge Project on the Long Tom River. Regional master plans will be developed by watershed and will include an integrated environmental assessment, prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

Visit the main Cottage Grove and Dorena Lakes Master Plan and Integrated Environmental Assessment project website and subscribe to a newsletter about our progress, here.

The Corps encourages public participation throughout the development of this plan. If you missed the first-round of public meetings, you can view the virtual session, here. Viewers can learn more about authorized project purposes, potential funding and resource constraints at the public meetings or online to inform your comments and input.

The public can also submit comments via email to info@coastforkplan.com or electronically at the following website: www.CoastForkPlan.com.

Master plan development is a minimum two-year process for each watershed, with the first of five regional plans initiated in 2021.  All remaining master planning efforts we be initiated in the coming five years and are dependent on funding and other factors.

• Cottage Grove and Dorena Lakes Master Plan and Integrated Environmental Assessment
• South Santiam (Foster and Green Peter Lakes)  
• Long Tom Master Plan (Fern Ridge Lake) 
• Middle Fork Willamette Master Plan (Hills Creek, Lookout Point, Dexter and Fall Creek Lakes)  
• North Santiam AND McKenzie River Master Plans (Detroit, Big Cliff and Blue River, Cougar) 

Master plans are required for civil works projects administered by the Corps of Engineers and provide natural resource management planning strategies and ensure adherence to federal regulations and national goals in a comprehensive and consolidated manner.  They establish a vision for future natural resource management and guide responsible stewardship and sustainable use of project resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

A family recreates at Cottage Grove Reservoir, southeast of Eugene, Ore., during sunset, July 10, 2014.

While each regional master plan will have its own resource goals and objectives, the overarching master plan goals express the overall desired end state of the project, include the following:

• Identify the best management practices to respond to regional needs, resource capabilities and suitability, and expressed public interests consistent with authorized project purposes;
• Protect and manage project natural and cultural resources through sustainable environmental stewardship programs;
• Identify outdoor recreation opportunities that support project purposes and public demands created by the project itself while sustaining project natural resources;
• Recognize the particular qualities, characteristics, and potentials of the project;
• Provide consistency and compatibility with national objectives and other state and regional goals and programs.

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is one of the nation’s oldest environmental laws that encourages federal agencies to make environmentally responsible decisions. The law requires all federal agencies to consider and disclose the environmental effects of their proposed actions in an environmental assessment. The Citizen's Guide to NEPA explains this law clearly and in detail, as well as how to effectively submit your input.

To satisfy the requirements of the law, the Corps will be preparing an integrated environmental assessment for the master plan. The Corps prepares an environmental assessment to assist in the evaluation of the significance of environmental impacts of a proposed action. The environmental assessment will include brief discussions of the need for the proposal, possible alternatives, environmental impacts of the proposed action and alternatives and a listing of agencies and persons consulted.

Collecting the right level of information at the right time is important to developing this plan. This requires early and frequent engagement of all affected federal, state and local agencies, affected tribes, and interested groups and individuals.

Examples of areas for evaluation in the environmental assessment include: air quality, water quality, biological environment, socioeconomics, land use, recreation, aesthetics, historic and cultural resources, and transportation.