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Dam removal is an opportunity for rural Lane County

Hult Pond
Bureau of Land Management
/
Bureau of Land Management
Hult Pond

The Bureau of Land Management has decided to remove a hazardous dam in Lane County. But first, the BLM wants locals to share what kinds of recreation they want the site to offer.

Northeast of Triangle Lake, the Hult Reservoir* holds a 42-acre pond that was built over 70 years ago to store logs for milling. Cheryl Adcock is with the BLM, which manages it. She said the dam was leaking, so they had the Forest Service bore into it, “And what they discovered was, it wasn’t solid material," she told KLCC. "They were putting a lot of organic materials: dirt, logs, stuff like that, into the face of the dam because that’s what they had.”

Adcock said the Army Corps of Engineers told them the town of Horton and nearby Highway 36 could be flooded if the dam fails, and there’s no safe way to improve it. She said it’ll take a few years to engineer the project, so it’s a great time for community input. And there’s this: Opening the stream channel will create about 10 new miles of coho salmon habitat.

Adcock emphasized the BLM is sorry the pond has to go. She said they want feedback, not just to check a box, but because they will incorporate people's ideas if they can.

A notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the project is online here.

*Named for the Hult Lumber Company, which is also the namesake of Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts.

Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.