Wednesday, August 11, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
RESTORATION: Riparian
and wetland species
will be planted
Continued from page 3
The site is a beehive of
activity with heavy equip-
ment not usually seen on a
restoration site plying up
and down the valley. Three
35,000-pound, large off-road
dump trucks carry dirt from
place to place. The trucks
are loaded by three 75,000-
pound excavators whose
huge jaws remove earthen
berms that have been hold-
ing the stream in an artifi-
cial, straight alignment. A
bulldozer pushes dirt into
large piles and created the
temporary dirt roads used by
the equipment. This effort
will help promote the natu-
ral movement of meander-
ing creek channels across the
historic floodplain, a process
called braiding. A skidder is
used to move trees for place-
ment in the eventual restored
creek bed.
At the same time, soil
is being removed in some
places and built up in oth-
ers to even the floodplain
and raise the water table,
while leaving islands of
mature vegetation to help
provide mixed topography
and maintain the healthy cot-
tonwood, willow, and dog-
wood that currently grow
there. Throughout the entire
area there is ample gravel
deposited by long-ago gla-
ciers, which helps filter the
water and provide scrum for
spawning fish.
In order to use heavy
equipment in the vicinity of
the water while safeguarding
the creek and its surrounds,
the equipment must run with
biodegradable transmission
oil.
Salvaged whole trees are
being added where the creek
will eventually flow, to cre-
ate complex, layered habitat
for fish and wildlife while
slowing down the flow of
the water and creating quiet
spots for fish to rest.
When all three zones of
the restoration are complete,
there will be 1,000 salvaged
trees in place in the creek.
Those trees are coming from
a USFS thinning project and
300 of them from an ODFW
thinning project on Pole
Creek Ranch. Those thin-
ning projects promote forest-
stand health while providing
salvage trees for a healthier
creek.
While this work is being
completed, the fish are being
held out of the area with a
picket weir and fine-mesh
block nets. It took 30 days to
capture and move all the fish
that were in the restoration
area of the creek. Mathias
Perle, restoration program
manager with the UDWC,
indicated there are now
Chinook salmon upstream
of Camp Polk Meadow
and steelhead are making it
upstream beyond Sisters.
Because of the appear-
ance of the Chinook, ODFW
has shortened the period for
permitted work in the stream
from July 1 3 October 15
to July 1 3 August 15. With
the one-week delay due to
the fire, work will be right
up against the August 15
deadline.
Once all the excavation
work is complete and the
trees are in place, the flow
of the creek will be acti-
vated slowly, with only a
20 percent flow to allow the
water to seep in and wash the
gravel before slowly ramping
up the flow.
Perle said, <When the
creek is fully flowing through
the restoration area, the mac-
roinvertebrates on which the
fish feed will come back bet-
ter and stronger. The overall
health of the river system
will be greatly improved.=
The fish will return very
quickly when the weir and
block nets are removed.
While the work is under-
way, animals are coming
back to the area at night, as
evidenced by tracks in the
dirt found by the workers in
the morning. Some of the
in-stream work being done
will bring beavers back and
then, according to Perle,
<they can do the work for
us.=
Over three years, 60,000
riparian and wetland plants
and trees will be planted
around the islands and
throughout the floodplain
to provide for diversity and
complexity of the ecosys-
tem. The end result will be
<a complex, diverse, and
dynamic half-mile of creek
that will change from year-
to-year,= according to Perle.
The UDWC began moni-
toring the creek before the
restoration work started and
will continue to do so for
years after it is completed
to determine how well they
are meeting their goals and
objectives.
A third restoration project
is scheduled downstream, to
begin in 2023. The planning
and permitting for these proj-
ects takes two to five years,
so work is already on the
drawing board for the 2023
project.
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Why restore Whychus?
Historically, Whychus
Creek was a combination
of stretches through nar-
row canyons and others
with broad, well-vegetated
meadows where the creek
could spill over its banks.
These large meadows were
of significant biological
importance as they pro-
vided diverse stream and
side-channel habitats for
fish to spawn, rear, and
hide. Streamside vegetation
provided cover for wildlife
and helped maintain cool
stream waters, necessary for
fish health. Amphibians and
songbirds made their homes
in nearby wetlands.
Over the years, the creek
was artificially straight-
ened and bermed to keep
the creek in place and avoid
flooding. This practice
diminished fish and wild-
life habitat in and along the
creek. In an effort to cor-
rect the situation, Deschutes
Land Trust and its partners
re-meandered Whychus
Creek through Camp Polk
Meadow Preserve with
stunning results. They have
also focused on a mile of the
creek at Whychus Canyon
Preserve. Rimrock Ranch
is the third area undergoing
restoration.
In 1979, the property
that is now Rimrock Ranch
was permitted for a 14-lot
subdivision. That never
came to fruition. In 1988,
the land was purchased by
Bob and Gayle Baker and
they moved to the ranch
full-time in 2001. They sus-
tainably grazed cattle on the
ranch while working hard to
protect and enhance habitat
for wildlife.
They realized they were
sitting on a unique piece of
Central Oregon and worried
that when they were gone,
the ranch could very well be
developed, and the precious
habitat destroyed. That was
when they contacted the
Deschutes Land Trust to see
if, working together, they
could conserve the ranch
forever.
In 2006, a land preser-
vation agreement between
the Bakers and the Land
Trust was the first step in
protecting the ranch. The
Land Trust then purchased
and permanently protected
Rimrock Ranch in 2020,
making the Bakers9 long-
term vision a reality. Gayle
still resides on the ranch.
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