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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2018)
14 Spring 2018 Applegater A partnership for life BY BARBARA CHASTEEN As you drive up Thompson Creek Road, you pass a stretch of stream that looks as if it has been invaded by plastic pads and chopsticks lined up along the banks and the floodplain. The plastic pads surround new plants; the sticks protect them from brush cutters that will keep invasive competition like blackberries from returning. It takes some imagination to see a future riparian forest. When I arrived on this land two years ago, the creek looked battered, sunburned, and used up. Isolated old trees looked down on a stream that had been channelized, mined, and poisoned with herbicides. Blackberry thickets had taken over most of the banks and the floodplain. To me, the stream is not just a conduit for water or a sweet sound to hear on quiet evenings. It’s part of an interactive system, a life cycle. Thompson Creek begins when water rises out of the Pacific Ocean into clouds that drop rain and snow onto Grayback and Steve Peak. It runs off the rocks and percolates down through the forest soils that filter and slowly release it downstream. Some of it sinks into groundwater basins to replenish wells and springs. As it moves downstream, the water supports wildlife and farm animals, irrigates crops, and nurtures trout, salmon, and many species of birds before joining the Applegate, the Rogue, and the ocean once again. Another life cycle enriches the land as well as our plates: the salmon that are born in the stream grow large enough to head for the ocean and eventually return to spawn and die, bringing back essential nutrients, especially phosphorus, from the sea. To me, it was a priority to restore this riparian area to a healthy condition. I imagined tall cottonwoods, pines and cedars, aspens and maples shading the stream, with shrubs and bunch grasses scattered on the banks to shelter and feed a host of animals. How to make restoration a reality? It requires not only money but knowledge, energy, and extra hands. I was fortunate enough to connect with the Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council (APWC). Once we found endangered coho salmon clustered in a sheltering pool, there was a strong impetus for finding grant money to add this stretch of the stream to the ongoing restoration projects along Thompson Creek. An enterprise like this takes a team. As the landowner, I am responsible for providing a “good faith” cash contribution, a source of summer irrigation water, other support such as space and shelter for materials, and long-term access for contractors I� Experience fresh fruit and 1�:.'-:1 \ berries from your own backyard!, .,. -· . f1 ' ,, �l SHOOTING STAR JNURSERY wholesale • retail • design & consultation • 7-acre nursery specializing in deer-resistant & drought-tolerant plants • Large selection of fruit trees and berries, as well as ornamentals • Delivery options and knowledgeable staff ~ Newest Spring Class ~ Fruits of Persia: Figs, Pomegranates, & Persimmons, March 3 Register for this and more at roguevalleynursery.com. and observers. I am also committed to stewardship of the plants that are putting down roots in their new and improved home. APWC has 25 years of experience in riparian restoration partnerships. The project team has listened to my ideas and questions and been respectful of our privacy. I’ve been kept in the loop as the stages of the project moved forward. As a citizen scientist, I am pleased that this project includes studies of various planting techniques. Top photo: Before restoration work looking downstream from I was (and still Thompson Creek Road, March 16, 2016. am) impatient for Bottom photo: After restoration work, maintenance, quick results, but and planting, December 1, 2017. neither nature Photos: Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council. nor partnerships work that way. APWC is committed to a number of the banks, the weasel that braves the projects that need to be coordinated with open to drink, the deer that step carefully staff, volunteers, and contractors, with between the stakes (and hopefully are the weather and the seasons, and with discouraged from eating new shoots availability of machines and materials. by deer repellent), the beaver that help Considering all these factors, our project engineer a healthier watercourse. We have is moving forward well, and I know that created a living and ongoing partnership those thousands of young plants are as we work for leafy shade, healthier soil, growing as fast as they can. cooler water, and cleaner air. We share the stream with our neighbors, Barbara Chasteen not only humans but the birds that equiline@sonic.net continue to float, fly, feed, and nest along 707-217-4626