Salmon restoration work in a Southeast Portland creek has landed the city on a shortlist for an international award given to cities that are taking steps to address climate change.

The city’s effort to restore the Crystal Springs watershed near Reed College was named one of 26 finalist in this year’s C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards, city officials announced Wednesday.

The city is a finalist in the resilience category alongside projects in Delhi, India; Medellín, Colombia; and Quezon City, Philippines.

The watershed restoration effort began in 2008 and still ongoing. It seeks to protect salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act by improving water quality and removing nine culverts and other blockades to allow fish to travel through Crystal Springs Creek to reach spawning and rearing habitats. The two-and-a-half mile long creek starts at a spring on the Reed campus and flows down through Westmoreland and Johnson Creek parks.

The restoration work led to the city declaring the creek a salmon sanctuary in 2017, which designates it an official resting, feeding and spawning area. Starting five years ago, wild coho salmon spawned in Crystal Springs after decades of absence. Ultimately, the effort led salmon to return and spawn in the entire creek, according to the city’s environmental services bureau.

That bureau has led the project and partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other community and government groups.

“It’s hard to overstate how important salmon are to our region,” Portland Commissioner Nick Fish said during a City Council meeting Wednesday. “Salmon are a major part of our history, they’re integral to the life and culture of local tribes and urban Indians and they’re part of our collective future because salmon are a marker for how we treat our environment.”

Fish, who oversees the environmental services bureau, said the city has since used the Crystal Springs work as a model for similar projects, such as replacing an old culvert to allow salmon access at the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge for the first time in more than 100 years and another planned culvert replacement project in the Tryon Creek Watershed.

The Crystal Springs project has cost more than $16.5 million thus far with $8.8 million from the Bureau of Environmental Services, about $5.4 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and another more than $2.5 million from TriMet, grants and other project partners, according to the environmental services bureau.

The agency said another $2 million is estimated to be added for another potential effort to lower the temperature of Crystal Springs Lake.

Winners of the international climate action contest will be announced Oct. 10 in Copenhagen, Denmark at the C40 World Mayors Summit, which Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler plans to attend.

The city council on Wednesday authorized staff to begin a competitive process to purchase construction services for the Tryon Creek project. It’s estimated to cost $5.36 million and the funds are planned to come from the city’s sewer system operating fund budget.

A public celebration of salmon at Johnson Creek Park is scheduled for Sunday.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

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