Transcript
a watershed is the land area that drains
into a particular stream or river and
the streams running along the bottom of
a watershed inevitably are affected by
what goes on in the rest of the Basin
both good and bad
although these waterways make up only 1%
of the Watershed they are a critical
component to Watershed Health a
well-functioning stream contributes to
water quantity and quality and it plays
an important role in flood and erosion
control and of course it's where the
Wildlife and Fish
Live Well each species of of salmon that
uses this system has a different
freshwater life
history Steve Johnson has spent years
studying salmon and trout in Western
Oregon here's a here's a COO salmon uh
emerged uh a little over a year ago out
of the gravels has spent all uh last
summer and uh and all this last winter
rearing in the Watershed and now he's
finally uh finally heading out on 10mile
Creek a half dozen species of fish use
different parts of the stream system
during different times of the year
the many of the other species in here
the juvenile coo the the the steel head
the seun cutthroat trout are spending at
least one winter and in case of the
trout usually multiple years uh in this
system before they actually uh go on
their seaword migration the longer these
fish have to maintain their population
in the fresh water um the the more tied
in they are to the to the structure uh
and the structure Steve's talking about
the Fallen trees and bould Boulders the
beaver
ponds and the meanders all slow the
water
down the result quiet pools and a refuge
from floodwaters and predators a safe
haven for young salmon and
trout slowing down the water allows
gravel to drop out and form gravel beds
where fish
spawn and insects a food source for
growing
fish
Thrive slowing water down also helps
control down cutting erosion and
improves water quality by causing fine
sediments to drop
out these days days many streams are
missing critical structure historically
trees and snags were removed to clear
the way for boats and for logs in route
to Sawmills
Downstream beginning in the 1950s in an
effort to reduce the negative impacts of
impassible man-made logging debris jams
often all wood both logging debris and
naturally occurring wood was removed
when the practice ended in the 1970s
many streams were left Barren of Woody
structure instream restoration can be as
varied as the watersheds where it occurs
at one extreme a whole Watershed
restoration can include changing tree
plantations into natural Forest removing
roads and
culverts planting reparan
areas on 10mile Creek where Steve
Johnson's working Ridgetop to Ridgetop
restoration is underway the US Forest
Service is jump start starting the
instream restoration process by
harvesting some big trees and using
helicopters to place them in the creek
the man-made structures are placeholders
that maintain stream function this move
buys time for trees to grow and rocks to
roll it may take a hundred years or more
for natural delivery of materials into
this stream the project has attracted a
lot of attention Jack sleeper is in
charge of the project for the US Forest
so our philosophy was pretty much give
the stream the materials it needs to
make fish habitat and hopefully that
will last us until our vegetation grows
up and can start functioning naturally
this is an expensive way you can't
afford it we can't afford to do this
kind of restoration everywhere you need
to maintain your repairing area often
land use makes basinwide restoration
impossible oh come on girls come on
Drummond is a cattle rancher in Western
Oregon along Buck Creek come and when I
bought this place and when I moved over
here I saw it as pretty well used up
practically uh every tree of value was
uh taken off the place it was hot here I
mean there were no big trees down in the
bottom land erosion was Bob's big
concern he contacted Fisheries biologist
Tony Stein for help Tony suggested
planting trees and
shrubs I did that but at the same time
Tony uh went a lot further than that
rather than just uh address the
immediate erosion problem at that site
he talked about the reasons for the
erosion and uh then uh talked about how
they were uh building instream uh
structures to slow down the uh flow of
water explained to me how the creek had
uh had uh over
years had uh channeled itself down onto
the bedroom Rock was uh flowing
faster uh for different reasons uh it
had been the creek was straightened
um anyway the result was a faster uh
stream anyway Tony
uh asked if I was interested in uh you
know doing more than just uh something
right at the site where the erosion was
but going all the way back upstream and
placing these structures in with the
hope of uh slowing the uh
flow here we're looking at a pool that's
a result of uh plac in this structure
here I think we could find gravel has
been uh kicked up over the structure and
uh place just forward of it as you can
see from Bob's work adding structure the
logs and rocks slows the flow and gravel
drops out as more and more gravel Falls
a gravel spawning bed forms good news
for returning
salmon a stream's condition is affected
by land use and land use priorities
that's true on both the west and the
East sides of Oregon these areas were
settled in the late 1800s early
1900s uh when the first settlers came in
they brought in large numbers of
livestock predominantly cattle and they
grazed the right pair area is very heavy
but today some land owners like Jim
bowfield a Rancher and veterinarian are
making improvements along mil Creek in
eastern Oregon he's been at it the last
10 years and his neighbors are taking
notice the first year um we started this
project we fenced the creek and kept the
cattle out and so because the cattle
actually do a lot more damage um to the
new Willow shoots and the new aler
shoots and anything else um you know the
cattle were fenced out um we had some
structures in that raised the water
water table and the Willows and Alders
started growing and um now in many areas
along the creek It's a Jungle they're
very very thick and we've had a couple
High Water Events where neighbors that
have had um you know lush green pasture
going down to the edge of the creek and
no woody debris to hold the creek the uh
the high water events washed those
pastures away as compared to this
section of the creek where we have lots
of Woody debris holding um the stream
edges um they came up and saw that we um
didn't have uh as much um so-called
damage and so they're all interested in
in um doing the same thing landscape and
land use dictate the fix the bowfell
ranch is a good example of making
improvements that are good for the
Watershed the redband trout and good for
business turning these streams to
Historic pristine conditions is really
not a viable option uh these land owners
need to make a living off of this land
and having these Creeks Meander back and
forth across these VA uh broad valleys
like they did historically is is not a a
reasonable option so really what we're
trying to to do here is a
compromise Brett and the ranchers he
works with are allowing vegetation along
the streams to grow reducing stream
temperature and slowing Stream flow when
water is high other ways used to slow
water down are recreate in bends and
channelized or ditched streams a
Meandering effect and by adding
structure logs open
Boulders large rocks and boulders are
only used in streams where they
naturally
occur using back hose and heavy
equipment Brett's team is just mimicking
the work of Nature's contractors the
Beavers the the Beavers are actually
pretty phenomenal uh beavers are are
wonderful for the creek it's incredible
what they do once vegetation is
reestablished beavers move in they build
dams that store water raising the water
table a benefit to fish and Streamside
plants during the dry season the dams
also slow high water during storms and
provide a refuge for fish and
wildlife on the West Side beavers are
just as busy doing the same
things Don Wagner is a Forester for
whole Oaks
Lumber this is the kind of Natural Area
that that everybody's trying to create
today with dollars but this is an area
here
that that didn't cost anybody anything
it uh done anything it's it's just been
left up to Mother Nature and the beavers
and the beavers have come in and made
these dams in here and and we left
everything alone and it's it's created a
great habitat for just about any Critter
that wants to use the area in including
the salmon that are coming up the stream
in fact research shows that Beaver ponds
are an important resource for rearing
salmon and trout in
Oregon this lowtech passive restoration
started when whole Oaks replaced a
culvert with a
bridge we had Beaver problems in here
they continually plugged our covers up
and so we we uh did a cost share with
the state and we put this bridge in uh
two Winters
ago uh the Beavers now have free rain of
the territory and we don't have any
problems with them and we also now have
a clear fish passage so it's a a win-win
for all of us plug colberts is one
concern for Forest land owners losing
some trees is another we occasionally
lose a an alder tree like this right
here we might even lose a a fur tree
like this right here but they're going
to be with inside the the buffer strip
of the Stream and and we're not allowed
to because of the forest Practices Act
uh use those trees anyway so instead of
us using them to Beavers are using
them like Hall Oaks Starker Forest is
concerned about culverts and fish
migration traditionally culverts were
designed to efficiently move water with
little consideration for fish and
sediment passage also the other problem
as you can see is this perched Outlet
it's about a 1ft drop from the outlet to
the pool in the Stream and juvenile fish
cannot pass they cannot make this jump
and swim through the pipe so Jennifer
Nunan is a forest engineer for Starker
during the low flow of summer months
when the impacts to fish are minimal
Jennifer and her crew replace the small
culverts with bigger ones that are
embedded in the Stream the result fish
can move upstream and wood and gravel
can move Downstream in a single season
or two the stream bed can change
dramatically at one time the stream had
all Bedrock below the CT Crossing and
now that we've replaced the Culvert the
stream material the sediment and cobbles
have been able to flow through the pipe
and fill in the Bedrock below the below
the CT uh allowing good habitat for um
salmon
whether it's changing culverts in the
country or in the city or a basinwide
restoration on Force land instream
restoration is at best a stop Gap that
buys time while nature regenerates the
elements needed for Watershed
recovery
In this video viewers explore the critical role streams play in our watersheds and see what landowners from the coast range to the high deserts are doing to help improve Oregon's precious streams.
Catalog - EM 9038
Want to learn more about this topic? Explore more resources from OSU Extension:
Fish and aquatic life, Riparian areas
