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CapitalPress.com
February 2, 2018
Culvert project a win-win for ranchers
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
Cattle ranchers and tim-
berland owners Andy and
Maryrae Thomson had a prob-
lem.
Eber Creek, on their prop-
erty west of Eugene, Ore., an-
nually flooded the road to their
timberland. The culprits? Two
culverts that were too small
to handle the creek’s winter
flow. The small culverts also
blocked access to native cut-
throat trout and other fish spe-
cies in the Long Tom River
drainage.
Long Tom Watershed
Council to the rescue: The
council gathered funds for a
project that paid to replace the
culverts with a sturdy bridge,
serving both purposes: The
Thomsons, whose ancestors
had farmed the land since
1881, improved their business,
and the trout could access the
Courtesy of LTWC
Before the Long Tom Watershed Council helped Andy and Maryrae
Thomson replace their culverts, high waters regularly washed out
the road to their timberland. After the council installed a bridge,
both the Thomsons and the cutthroat trout in Eber Creek could
access the higher reaches of the property.
upper reaches of the creek.
Andy Thomson touted his
success to neighbors, many of
whom joined in improving 4.5
stream miles by replacing sim-
ilar barriers.
With variations, the Thom-
sons’ tale could be repeated
dozens of times among Or-
egon’s 90 some watershed
councils. For the past 20 years,
farmers, ranchers, foresters
and other landowners have
worked with local councils on
projects that serve to improve
agricultural businesses while
providing habitat.
“We’re looking for the win-
win,” said Shawn Morford,
the executive director of the
Network of Oregon Watershed
Councils, based in Salem.
The Network is one of four
organizations that make up the
Oregon Conservation Partner-
ship, which also includes the
Oregon Association of Con-
servation Districts, represent-
ing the state’s 45 Soil and Wa-
ter Conservation Districts, and
the coalition of Oregon Land
Trusts, representing Oregon’s
17 land trusts, plus the Oregon
Conservation Education and
Assistance Network, the edu-
cation arm of the Partnership.
Although watershed councils,
conservation districts and land
trusts have their own unique
missions and resources, they
all work with agricultural and
other landowners who vol-
untarily join in conservation
projects.
The
Network
helps
strengthen watershed councils
by providing training and tech-
nical and scientific informa-
tion to their staff and leaders,
connecting them with fund-
ing sources, and providing
resources such as policy and
procedure templates.
In turn, watershed coun-
cils funnel state, federal,
and private funding to their
communities for ecosystem
restoration, monitoring, and
education. According to or-
egonexplorer.info, a website
that tracks watershed resto-
ration projects, in the five
years from 2010 to 2014,
there were 3,371 watershed
W18-3/101
council projects in the state,
representing an investment of
more than $293 million. Of
that, 41 percent came from
state lottery funds, an equal
amount from federal, city and
county funds, and the rest
from landowners’ contribu-
tions. In 2010-11, for exam-
ple, those projects made 356
miles of streams accessible
to fish migration, accord-
ing to the Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board, a state
agency that helps fund many
of the councils.
“Oregon’s watershed coun-
cil model is unique and often
envied by other states,” Mor-
ford said.
Council members focus on
the area of land that Morford
refers to as the “ridgetop to
ridgetop” — that is, the land
that includes the waterways
that start as small streams and
eventually flow into a major
river.