10
community
march21
2019
UNWC Recaps Productive Year
“very productive” for the UNWC, its
Board of Directors, and its numerous
partners, with successful projects across
a wide spectrum of watershed health and
native salmon recovery activities. Near-
ly $1.3 million in grant funds have been
disbursed since 2017 to successfully
implement ecosystem infrastructure im-
provement projects in Columbia, Clat-
sop, Tillamook, and Washington coun-
ties.
“This was our best year for high
profile restoration projects,” said Pey-
ton. “We did a large culvert replacement
project on Apiary Road, a pilot project
helping create beaver dams, and we
placed a lot of large woody debris struc-
tures in streams. We also got quite a bit
of recognition for some of our work.”
The original UNWC Charter
was recognized by the Columbia County
Board of Commissioners in July 1996
and by the Clatsop County Local Gov-
ernment Group in August 1997. Since
that time UNWC has continued to edu-
cate local communities while helping
address watershed management issues
in coordination and cooperation with
key regional stakeholders composed of
government agencies, environmental
protection groups, local contractors, and
private landowners - including the tim-
ber industry. The end goal continues to
be a balanced ecosystem that supports a
healthy watershed while providing for
an economic base and viable communi-
ties.
Primary
funders/partners/do-
nors include the Wild Salmon Center,
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
(OWEB), Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife (ODFW), Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ), National
Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), Oregon Department of Forest-
ry (ODF), National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation (NFWF), Columbia County
Road Department, Weyerhaeuser Com-
pany, and Stimson Lumber Company.
One of the most visible projects
this past year partnered with Columbia
County Road Department on Oak Ranch
Creek and replaced an undersized cul-
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continued from front page
vert under Apiary Road with
an open bottom reinforced
concrete arch allowing uncon-
ditional salmon passage. That
project, along with two other
bridge installation projects that
replaced undersized culverts
in the Mist/Birkenfeld area on
Lane Creek and Calvin Creek,
opened up a total of 20 miles of
productive aquatic habitat.
“We did ‘stream sim-
ulation’ work on all three of
those crossings, which is an ad-
ditional layer of work that re-
builds the stream beds once the
culvert is removed but before
the bridge is placed,” explains
Peyton. “It stabilizes that reach
of the stream and protects the
bridge abutments.”
Two of those projects
were in collaboration with
Weyerhaeuser, who Peyton
says were good partners to work with. “I
have to give them a thumbs up – they did
a really good job helping write the grant
for funding, managing the projects, and
keeping us in the loop.”
The other high profile project
was the installation of what are called
Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) on four
different streams that contain wild coho
salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout
populations. This pilot project installed
a total of 27 structures (wood poles sunk
vertically into the ground about two feet
apart across the stream and then interwo-
ven horizontally with willow, maple, or
conifer branches) in small stream tribu-
taries on ODF managed public land,
including the north Fork of Lousignont
Creek south of Highway 26 towards
Timber, on Upper Rock Creek and Bear
Creek near the rest area on Highway 26,
and Buster Creek near Jewell.
These BDAs act as footholds for
the beaver to build out into full-fledged
dams, providing shallow, cold water
pools where coho can find food and
cover from predators. These types of
off-channel habitats are essential for ju-
venile coho and other species to survive
and grow.
Beavers are considered a
“keystone species,” an organism whose
pond-creating powers help support
entire biological communities.
continued on page 16