The Finn Rock Reach restoration plan began in 2021, a year after the Holiday Farm Fire devastated the surrounding area. Its goals are primarily related to the restoring, and fostering of healthy habitats for salmon, and other wildlife along the McKenzie River by restoring previous water channels through the area of land the Trust owns. The hope is that these additional pathways for water will provide salmon a calmer area to spawn juvenile salmon down the line.

"Salmon, when they're rearing, especially when they're little juvenile salmon, they have a hard time in those high flows that are taking them downstream," said Eli Tome, the director of conservation with the McKenzie River Trust. "There's not good habitat for them."

So how does the McKenzie River Trust plan to go about doing that? By moving a lot of dirt, wood and water.

"Instead of just putting tiny band-aid fixes on little habitat components, we're really trying to restore the natural processes of the river on this property," Tome said. "So we're creating more space for the river to move, more space for the floodplain to be interacted with."

The project's early goals are to fill in a couple of gravel pits that remain. Once the area has been filled in, and wood has been placed to help slow down the momentum of the river, that barrier will be removed later down the line, allowing for water from the McKenzie to stream through and create a series of channels that will provide a safer place for salmon to live.

This isn't the only goal of the project. McKenzie River Trust hopes that increased water flow in the area will help with wildfires in the area.

"When we're able to restore the natural processes, especially in these floodplain areas, it's going to help slow down fire in the future" Tome said. "[It'll] create a more resilient landscape, and it's going to help as a fire break in the future, [and act] as refuge during fires."

The McKenzie River Trust has been working with a number of partners, including the Eugene Electric and Water Board, and the U.S. Forest Service, both of which have provided funding for the project.

"I want to see a river restored in this broad alluvial valley," said Kate Meyer, a fisheries biologist for the US Forest Service. "I want to see river function and processes restored, and those will help support and recover native fish and wildlife populations."

Along with salmon, another project goal is to increase wetland area for Western Pond Turtles who are nesting and rearing.

The second phase of this project began on June 2, and is expected to finish in late August, prior to salmon coming through the area in mid-September.