10 Winter 2012 Applegater
Restoration on Thompson Creek
gaining statewide support
by eliZAbeth MURphy
Turn south at the Applegate Store
and you’ll wind your way along one of the
most important fish-bearing tributaries in
the Middle Applegate. Thompson Creek
still maintains the greatest number of fish
distribution miles in the Middle Applegate
and, as of a 2004 assessment, has chinook
salmon to reach Mile 1, coho salmon to
reach Mile 9, summer and winter steelhead
to reach Mile 10.8, and trout to reach Mile
12.8. In addition, numerous Thompson
Creek tributaries, such as Tallowbox Creek,
Jamison Creek, Ninemile Creek, and
Darnell Gulch, are also fish-bearing.
The suitability of Thompson Creek
for fish habitat is largely due to its wide
valley and low gradient. From Ninemile
Creek to the Applegate River, over 56%
of Thompson Creek has less than a 4%
gradient. The valley form of Thompson
Creek points to the historical existence of
a gentle meandering stream that deposited
the deep fertile soils prized by farmers in
the valley.
Despite its innate potential for fish
habitat, Thompson Creek, like most
of the low-elevation waterways in the
Applegate Valley, is critically degraded in
condition. Elevated stream temperatures
and dissolved oxygen severely limit
water quality important for aquatic life.
This has placed portions of Thompson
Creek on the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality’s 303(d) list for
water-quality-limited streams. Thompson
Creek also lacks important fish habitat
conditions, such as large wood, off-channel
alcoves, and complex pools, which create
conditions that fish need for rearing, refuge
and spawning.
Thompson Creek is not unique in its
degraded condition. Across the Applegate
Valley, logging or clearing of riparian
areas, pasture encroachment, and stream
straightening have interfered with the
benefits of a functioning riparian area.
Riparian zones are the transitional areas
between land and streams. They provide
shade, pollution control, and large wood
to improve water quality and conditions
for aquatic life. An example of the effect
of riparian areas on stream condition is
that many Applegate Valley tributaries
have elevated temperatures due to lack of
streamside shading.
Since 2004, the Applegate Partnership
and Watershed Council (APWC) has
recognized Thompson Creek as one of
the priority areas for restoration work. In
2008, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement
Board funded the development of a
restoration action plan to identify the most
One of the
key factors
in successful
restoration
work is the
participation of
engaged and
enthusiastic
landowners...
important actions to improve conditions
on Thompson Creek.
One of the key factors in successful
restoration work is the participation of
engaged and enthusiastic landowners
who are interested in improving the
condition of riparian and aquatic systems.
Thompson Creek is fortunate enough to
have a large group of such landowners, who
value stewardship of the creek and their
role in it. Because of this, the APWC has
been working with landowners along two
contiguous miles of Thompson Creek to
implement riparian restoration work and
OSU Small Farms to offer online course
by GARRy StepheNSON AND MAUD pOwell
Oregon State University (OSU) Small
Farms is offering a hybrid version of its
flagship farm business course, Growing
Farms, at the Southern Oregon Research
and Extension center in Central Point this
winter. The course will run on Monday
evenings from January 28 to February 25
with two additional field trips.
Small farms, ranches and vineyards
shape the character and landscape of the
Applegate Valley, and the Growing Farms
course helps to ensure that new businesses
can become financially viable.
Growing Farms Online converts and
expands OSU’s highly successful beginning
farmer workshop series, Growing Farms:
Successful Whole Farm Management, into
an online course. Like the workshops, the
online course fosters holistic planning by
integrating the physical, biological, family
and business components of farms and
ranches. The online course will be ready for
full use in late 2013, and will be offered in
combined online and face-to-face, as well
as other methods.
In Oregon, geography, distance
and driving time can be an obstacle for
farmers to attend educational programs.
For instance, the OSU Small Farms
Program has offered its eight-week face-
to-face beginning farmer and rancher
workshop series since 2007. Although the
workshops are highly effective, they are
limited to several sites per year where OSU
Small Farm Program faculty are located.
Also, in the face of shrinking resources,
distance education is vital to accessibility
of extension educational programs.
The process of converting what we
teach face-to-face into a form for delivery
online is challenging and time-consuming.
The OSU Small Farms Program has been
working closely with an online curriculum
specialist and OSU’s Professional and
Non-Credit Education division to develop
the content and appearance of the course.
Content areas for Growing Farms have
been refined in workshops since 2007. The
framework and titles are:
• Dream It: Strategic Planning
• Do It: Farm Operations
• Grow It: Production
• Manage It: Farm Finances
• Sell It: Marketing Strategies
• Keep It: Managing Risk and
Entrepreneurship Developments
Online learning technology now
makes it possible to create and deliver a
very high-quality educational product, one
that is graphically rich and engaging. A key
part of the online course is six “case study”
farms and ranches. Through in-depth
vi d e o s , the s e g rowe rs o ffe r t h e i r
first-hand experience and advice.
The case studies represent a variety of
production systems and scales.
Our preferred method for offering the
course will be a blended or hybrid online
and face-to-face approach. Participants will
instream habitat improvement.
This project has attracted the attention
and support of numerous agencies and
partners, including the US Forest Service,
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
the Bureau of Land Management, and
the Freshwater Trust, because of the effect
that this scale of restoration work could
have on stream condition as a whole. This
winter, riparian restoration will begin on
the downstream portion of the project
area with money from Pacific Power’s Blue
Sky Habitat Fund. Funding is pending
for planned future phases of the project
that could begin as early as summer 2013.
The APWC and the Thompson Creek
community look forward to the start of
this exciting project, which promises to
be a model of community-supported
restoration and the strategic prioritization
of restoration to benefit Applegate Valley
fisheries as a whole.
For more information on riparian and
fish habitat restoration in the Applegate
Valley, please contact Elizabeth Murphy
at riparianprogram@arwc.org or 541-
890-8458.
Elizabeth Murphy
541-890-8458
Applegate Partnership and
Watershed Council
use the online course for basic learning
while face-to-face meetings will be used for
discussions, hands-on learning and farm
tours. Another option will be a standard,
fully online method supported and
facilitated by instructors.
The project is supported by a USDA/
NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher
Development Program grant and is a
powerful partnership between nonprofits
Ecotrust, Mercy Corps Northwest and
OSU’s Small Farms Program and Austin
Family Business Program. The project is
also part of the innovative partnership
between Oregon Tilth, Inc. and the OSU
Small Farms Program.
For more information and to register
for Growing Farms, contact Shaina
Bronstein. To register online, go to
https://secure.oregonstate.edu/osuext/
register/488.
Garry Stephenson and Maud Powell
OSU Small Farms
541-776-7371 ext. 208
ED. NOTE: Parts of this article were
previously published in the Oregon Small
Farm News (Vol. VII No. 4 Page 11).
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