The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is a state agency that provides grants to help Oregonians take care of local streams, rivers, wetlands, and natural areas. Their mission is to help protect and restore healthy watersheds and natural habitats that support thriving communities and strong economies.
The Monitoring Grants program focuses on supporting projects that aim to describe, establish trends, or evaluate the effects of restoration or acquisition projects on watershed conditions. The program encourages the collection and public dissemination of data on specific habitat, stream, vegetation, macroinvertebrates, fish, other animals, invasive species, soil, and/or water quality and quantity variables. Eligible monitoring types include Status and Trend, which assesses long-term patterns and conditions; Project Effectiveness, focusing on the biological and ecological objectives of restoration projects; Rapid Bio-Assessment, aimed at supporting management decisions through the collection and analysis of biological data; and Landscape Effectiveness, which measures the impact of restoration actions on desired habitat condition changes across large geographical scales. The grants support activities like habitat surveys, stream surveys, and water quality monitoring, among others, to inform the development of effective restoration or acquisition projects.