8
community
january8
2013
UNWC Improves Watersheds continued from front page
wood recruitment potential.
UNWC has identified many
more areas in the Pebble Creek water-
shed that would benefit from some form
of restoration and is currently working
with Weyerhaeuser to identify resources
Contracting, LLC from Portland, who
helped finish the Pebble Creek job.
“Their operators are very experienced
and live in the area,” says Peyton. “They
have many years of restoration experi-
ence and are very skilled at building
tainable community endeavors to create
natural and edible landscapes in the Ver-
nonia area. Peyton gave special mention
to grade school principal and Vernonia
Rural Suitability Center leader Aaron
Miller for his unfaltering dedication to
initiating meaningful education projects
that the students and staff, watershed
council and the community can be proud
of and that set an excellent example for
the world to follow.
Peyton also acknowledged that
the good work of the UNWC is made
possible by the competent leadership of
the executive board, her staff, the con-
tractors, the natural resource agency
technicians, local government, academia
and dedicated volunteers.
Peyton wished to extend a debt
of gratitude to the following individuals,
businesses and agencies:
UNWC Board: Jason Busch –
Chair, Cory Colburn – Vice Chair, Lee
Klingler – Treasurer, Rachel Wilcoxen
– Secretary, Aaron Miller, Vic Dykstra
Sorbets, Crew Leader – Greg Mustola,
Crew – Andrew Mustola, Christopher
and Joshua Buzzell.
Contractor’s: Aquatic Contract-
ing, LLC, Quality Excavation, Carex
Consulting, Siegmund Construction,
Triangle GIS, Bio-Survey’s LLC, Carex
Consulting, Jones Consulting, Schlosser
Consulting
Natural Resource Agency per-
sonnel: OWEB - Tom Shafer, ODFW
– Chris Knutsen, Michele Long, Bryan
Swearingen, Dave Plawman and Troy
Laws; DEQ – Bruce Apple, York John-
son, Jennifer Purcell and Colleen Foster;
BLM – Kurt Heckeroth, Roy Price and
Matt Walker; USFWS - Amy Horst-
man and Janine Castro, NRCS – Emily
Phife, Don Melhoff, Roslyn Grey and
Sara Tanavasa; OSU – Chip Bubl and
Amy Grotta; Columbia SWCD – Kari
Hollander, Tyler Joki and Nathan Herr;
Clatsop SWCD – Wendy Agalzoff;
Academia: Vernonia School
District, OSU, PSU, Western Oregon
A new bridge built by Siegmund Construction on Pebble Creek.
for continued work in the area. UNWC
has developed a good working relation-
ship with Weyerhaeuser. “They are OK
with the concepts we are proposing,
they’re alright with us working on their
land and they trust us and our contrac-
tors,” says Peyton. Currently they are
working on the logistics that would en-
able the UNWC to place as many as 800
trees into streams in the basin, which
would make it the largest project of this
type the UNWC has ever undertaken.
Peyton says she is especially
pleased with the contractor, Aquatic
complex in-stream structures by weav-
ing the logs into the existing stream side
forest, down and across the stream. It
was a great working with them!”
UNWC worked with ODFW
and Aquatic Contracting on another
project this past summer, placing 107
logs into Beneke and Gilmore Creeks on
the Jewell Wildlife Refuge.
The UNWC has also been very
supportive of service based learning
projects with the Vernonia School Dis-
trict including Salmonwatch, Natural
Resource Education Day, stream side
reforestation projects and water qual-
ity monitoring with the forestry class,
nature-scaping of the school campus and
the establishment of a native plant nurs-
ery. Currently UNWC is involved in the
construction and operation of a green-
house on the Vernonia School campus
which will be used to grow plants for
their reforestation projects. The green-
house will be a learning tool for students
as well as provide trees and plants for
the UNWC to use in their projects. The
greenhouse will also be available for the
community garden project and other sus-
Owned and Operated by
Don & Kim Wallace
Aquatic Contracting was building salmon habitat on Pebble Creek this past summer.
and Gil McLean. Special mention to
volunteer Jo Zettler for her expert fa-
cilitation of the organization’s strategic
plan. Honorable mention to founding
members: Bill DeJager, Dennis Nelson,
Jim Buxton and Lauren Jacobsen for
their continued support of the civil soci-
ety creation process.
UNWC Staff: Marie Knight –
Bookkeeper, Executive Assistant – Steve
Vernonia’s Voice
is changing publication dates!
Starting in February we will publish twice each month
on the 1st and 3rd Thursday.
Our next issues will be January 22, February 7 & 21.
Mariolino’s
Pizza & Grill
Open for
breakfast,
lunch & dinner
University.
The Nature Conservancy for the
facilitation of the development of the
Nehalem Conservation Action Plan.
The mission of UNWC is to fos-
ter better stewardship and understand-
ing of the Upper Nehalem Watershed
and its resources, to address issues in
advance of resource degradation, and
to ensure sustainable watershed health,
function and use. Their vision is a bal-
anced ecosystem that supports a healthy
watershed, contributes to a strong eco-
nomic base, and encourages viable com-
munities.
For more information go to
unwc.nehalem.org.
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