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Wednesday, May 25, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
DLT tackles another creek restoration project
By Craig F. Eisenbeis
Correspondent
Fresh off the resounding
success of the Whychus Creek
restoration at Camp Polk, the
Deschutes Land Trust (DLT)
is gearing up for yet another
major creek restoration proj-
ect at their Whychus Canyon
Preserve, which is down-
stream from Camp Polk.
Beginning in July, bulldoz-
ers and heavy equipment will
begin to reshape the canyon
floor and streambed of the
930-acre preserve.
Amanda Egertson, stew-
ardship director for the Land
Trust, explained that the les-
sons learned during the Camp
Polk restoration will help to
move this next project along
much more quickly. “It’s
going to be a little bit differ-
ent from Camp Polk. We will
be releasing water and doing
the plantings all in the same
year.”
The two-mile project at
Camp Polk took four years.
“This is a six-mile proj-
ect,” she said. “We can’t
afford to go at the same pace;
it would take more than 20
years.”
Another difference is
that Camp Polk’s restoration
Fascinating historic chairs
are in the shop! The early
1880s steam bent ash rocker
now has a hickory bark seat
woven on it. The maple
side chairs are from 1929
and 1935. These are part of
a group being re-laced with
rawhide for Lake Creek
Lodge in Camp Sherman.
These seating materials are
exceptionally long lasting!
What’s in your attic that
needs restoring?
centered primarily around a
single meandering channel
to spread the creek across the
floodplain. The plan at the
Whychus Canyon Preserve
calls for a many-channeled
“braided” pattern for the creek
to follow.
“I feel like we can accom-
plish a lot more with the
braided system,” Egertson
said.
The six-mile project begins
at the southwestern, upstream
end of the preserve and will
end at the far end of Rimrock
Ranch, where the creek enters
a relatively narrow canyon on
public land.
Egertson explained that
more than 50 years ago, the
stream channel was straight-
ened to prevent flooding; but
the unintended result was the
destruction of many miles of
fish and wildlife habitat.
“In all,” she said, “18 of
Whychus Creek’s 40 miles
were straightened.”
Much of the restoration
work will focus on removing
the artificial berms and bar-
riers that have kept the creek
from spreading out across its
natural floodplain. Although
more complicated than it
sounds, the major thrust of
the project will be to push the
photo by CraIg eIsenbeIs
The deschutes Land Trust’s stewardship director, Amanda Egertson (far left), explains this summer’s creek
restoration plans at the Whychus Canyon Preserve.
half-century-old berms back
into the gouged-out channel
so the creek can flood out
across the whole canyon floor
as it once did.
The Whychus Canyon
Preserve straddles four miles
of Whychus Creek. Originally
established in 2010, it was
opened to the public in 2011
and doubled in size in 2014.
The first phase of the proj-
ect will begin on land that
is part of that most recent
acquisition.
Two miles of creek on
Rimrock Ranch completes the
contiguous six-mile stretch of
the project, which has been
divided into six “reaches” of
approximately one mile each.
The adjacent Rimrock Ranch,
another part of the DLT sys-
tem, is currently linked to
DLT through a landowner
conservation easement; and
an agreement was recently
completed that would even-
tually bring the ranch under
See PROJECT on page 28
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