community
march21
2019
UNWC Recaps Productive Year
“They’re primary inhabitants
of our temperate rain forest,” says Pey-
ton. “Beaver and coho have evolved to-
gether, so when the beavers colonize an
area and create those backwater pools,
that’s where juvenile coho and adults
can thrive. We need to get our ecosystem
back into balance, and helping re-estab-
lish beavers in the region is one way we
can do that.”
In addition, Peyton says beaver
dams can work to slow down stream
flows in a particular small area during
high water events and act as natural val-
ley water storage areas. “These can help
slow the water during heavy rains and
help capture sediment, but we’re really
working against years of history and the
way our forests have been managed in
the past.”
Peyton says the BDA pilot proj-
ect was a partnership with ODF, NOAA,
OWEB, NFWF, and the Wild Salmon
Center. She says Rapid Bio Assessments
were done prior to the BDA placement,
which counts and documents the pres-
ence of juvenile fish, so effectiveness
can be monitored.
“All the areas where we installed
these BDAs show evidence that beaver
colonies had been there before, and there
is still some kind of a beaver presence,”
says Peyton. “We have a monitoring pro-
tocol so we’ll be able to see what works
and what doesn’t.” She notes that one
site on Rock Creek has already been
naturally improved by the work of local
beavers and is now a functional dam.
Another
ongoing
UNWC
project is to help rebuild streams to a
more natural setting. This past year the
UNWC continued their work, placing
33 Large Woody Debris structures along
salmon anchor habitat reaches and en-
hancing over two miles of streams on
Olson Creek, the north fork of Lousi-
gnont Creek, Beaver Creek, and at Hyla
Woods.
Logs for these projects include
the root wads and are strategically placed
in creeks and streams to form structures
that assist in the creation of naturally
forming log jams while interacting with
the stream flow to create flood plain con-
nection and sort the gravels that flow
through. The log jams jump start the
process of restoring a stream’s natural
state after decades of intensive logging
and help spread out fish habitat.
The placement of Large Woody
Debris in streams also helps capture and
slow the flow of water downstream dur-
ing high water events, and allows water
to soak in and recharge groundwater
supplies.
The UNWC undertook a variety
of other projects this year, including:
• participated in the process to get a 17
mile portion of the Nehalem River des-
ignated as a State Scenic Waterway
• continued riparian reforestation on 30+
acres in partnership with private land-
owners, the Columbia Soil and Water
Conservation District, and the Columbia
River Youth Corp crew
• supported riparian reforestation
through the Nehalem Native Nursery,
managed by the UNWC and located
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on the Vernonia School District cam-
pus with the help of the Vernonia High
School Forestry class
• managed about 50 volunteers from the
Oregon Zoo who recently spent time
working on a riparian restoration project
in Vernonia, planting trees and vegeta-
tion
• collected water quality samples from
30 select locations in the Nehalem ba-
sin for turbidity testing (amount of sedi-
ment) during the winter rainy season,
and at over 30 sites to record tempera-
tures during summer low-flow season
The temperature samples were
disappointing, says Peyton. “Tempera-
tures in the summer are too hot, and of-
ten lethal on the main stem of the Ne-
halem. That seems to be the trend and I
don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
According to Peyton, the tem-
perature problem is multi-facetted.
While the UNWC has been able to make
a small impact, the problem really starts
in the headwaters and is going to take
some major changes in the way the state
regulates forest management. Peyton
says that currently under the Oregon
Forest Practices Act the headwaters of
streams do not have to be buffered when
logged until they become perennial
streams (streams that flow with water
year round). “As a community and as
a state I think we’re still trying to accept
what it’s going to take to cool the Ne-
halem, and that is to start at the headwa-
ters”
The amount of sediment in
streams is also a result of the accumu-
lative effects of forest, farm, residential,
and urban land management practices
over the last 150 years. “The tempera-
ture issues and the sediment is a direct
result of the way the land is being man-
aged,” says Peyton.
Peyton and the UNWC are
currently wrapping up their work on a
Nehalem Strategic Plan with the Wild
Salmon Center and their multi stake-
holder team this winter. “This process
lays the foundation for identifying cur-
rent and future salmon anchor habitat
improvement projects in high priority
sub-basins and stream reaches through-
out the Nehalem watershed,” says Pey-
ton. “This process led directly to the
BDA pilot project, and hopefully some
ongoing funding and future projects.”
Peyton says the UNWC con-
tinues to improve their base operations,
computer networks, outreach activities,
and staff development with the support
of the UNWC Board of Directors. Their
website is back online at UNWC.Ne-
halem.org. The website is a great place
to learn more about current projects and
volunteer opportunities.
This summer Peyton says the
UNWC will be partnering to install more
BDAs in the region. “We’ve received
another round of funding and identi-
fied several brand new reaches, plus we
have funding left over from the original
project that we can use to augment the
first 27 we put in,” says Peyton. UNWC
will also be placing Large Woody Debris
structures around the region this sum-
mer..
Peyton says they are currently
looking for more interested citizens to
serve on their Board of Directors.
“We haven’t been able to cool
the Nehalem River, so that’s still a big
question,” says Peyton. “The level that
we’re able to work at, compared to the
magnitude of what has happened in this
watershed over the last 150 years, is just
too small, plus now we have these cli-
mate changes and our summer draughts
are getting longer. We still have a lot of
work to do.”
493 Bridge Street
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continued from page 10
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