NEW S
BY STACEY M. HO LLIS
COWS AND CREEKS
Rivers to Ridges restores Jordan Creek
J
ordan Creek runs through the Mattson
family’s land at Polyrock Ranch. The creek
is located in the out in the open hills of
southwest Eugene, in the Coyote Creek
sub-basin of the Long Tom Watershed. The
creek is symbolic of the Rivers to Ridges (R2R)
partnership, a collaboration of public and private
entities working together to acquire and manage
natural open spaces in and around Eugene. While
cattle can damage streams, and ranchers and
environmentalists are often portrayed as at odds
with one another, the story of the restoration of
Coyote Creek is one of collaboration.
“My family has always been interested in
stewardship of the land and conservation,” ranch
owner Deborah Mattson says. “It goes in line with
our family values.” Polyrock Ranch has been in
operation, in the cattle industry, for about 31 years.
In restoring Jordan Creek, R2R partners Long
Tom Watershed Council (LTWC) and the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) worked
together with the Mattson family to address the
health of this watery ecosystem and its greater
contribution to its surroundings.
The Mattson family regularly allows watershed
council members to access habitats on their land
that are critical to a healthy watershed system to
test environmental quality factors that contribute to
both environmental and human health. “We bring a
private lands perspective to the R2R partnership,”
says Dana Dedrick, watershed coordinator and
executive director at LTWC. And, she says, they
bring private-land conservation accomplishments
that are a necessary complement to those achieved
on public lands.
“I met Cindy almost 10 years ago,” Mattson
says. LTWC Restoration Team Director Cindy
Thieman would come out to the ranch to do
temperature analysis of Coyote and Jordan Creek,
both of which run through the Mattsons’ property.
“It just kind of evolved and got started from there,”
Mattson says.
They started by fencing off the creek,
Mattson says, to get the cattle out of the water.
“The immediate change in the water was just
tremendous,” she says, “It went from icky muddy
green to nice clean cool streamy looking water, right
off the bat.” By keeping the cows from defecating
in the stream, their fi elds could retain the nutrients
important to the local ecosystem cycles.
“You can see the effects of grazing,” says
Thieman, referring to a photo of Jordan Creek
before the ranch installed fencing in 2007.
“Animals defi nitely keep things cropped pretty
close.” By keeping the cow’s hooves out of
the stream, bank stability improved and native
vegetation repopulated the area, both naturally and
through management and planting efforts made by
the watershed council. Pointing out what she called
a “series of riffl es and pools” on a section of Jordan
Creek, Thieman explains about a section they re-
vegetated: “We put erosion fabric on the banks and
native grass seed underneath it to help stabilize
everything” she says. Without the stabilization, she
says, the creek would have washed out, especially
in the winter.
But thanks to managing the habitat in a way
that allows for the channel to hold together while
avoiding impact from livestock, and importing
gravel — a key habitat feature for cutthroat trout —
the rehabilitated section could remain in place and
continue to serve.
LTWC worked on many improvements to the
two streams located on the 440-acre ranch over
years. On Coyote Creek and, more recently Jordan
Creek, they did extensive work to enhance fi sh
passage, improving ecosystem fl uidity by opening
up clogged waterways. They removed culverts
and replaced them with solutions including “fi sh-
friendly culverts” that matched the width of the
stream which allowed water to move through easily
“In the past, you use the smallest culvert you can
get away with,” says Karen Han of ODFW, “and it
didn’t just cause problems for fi sh passage, it caused
problems for the whole hydrology of the creek.”
According to LTWC’s report, by unblocking
the streams on the Polyrock Ranch property, fi sh
populations can now access an additional 46 miles
of habitat on Coyote Creek.
But getting to this point wasn’t easy. Funding
for these kinds of private land operations can be
hard to come by. “We have to be really effective
with public funding and with grant funding because
there’s never enough to go around and we have to
match our local needs to state and private funding
priorities,” Dedrick says. But by being economical
in obtaining resources and staying determined
through times of limited support, LTWC has been
able to obtain its goals along with the help of the
Mattson family, volunteers and ODFW to help the
job get done. “It’s been a saga,” Theiman says.
The key was the habitat that was being
rehabilitated and reopened. “Jordan Creek is one of
three tributaries that are coming in from the Coast
Range into Coyote Creek that actually provide
cold water habitat. It’s really rare,” Theiman says.
“The fact that we had cold water like that that met
the state standard all summer long, there’s just not
that many sites in the entire Long Tom that we’ve
monitored that are that cold,” she says, “and so we
wanted to bring that cold water all the way down
through Jordan Creek and down Coyote Creek and
open up all that good habitat that was upstream; it
was a big priority for us.”
Reconnecting this cooler water source to the
Coyote Creek drainage gives species like the
cutthroat trout back the kind of habitat that so closely
resembles healthy ecosystems of the past. “We were
pulling out really big cutthroat from this creek in
August,” Thieman says. Large fi sh weren’t thought
to reside here, she says, but having determined their
presence and implemented key improvements such
as importing gravel into this section of the system,
“we might actually get some trout spawning here.”
Through the kind of intensive, hands-on
work provided by members of Rivers to Ridges
collaborating with each other and with private
landowners, more spaces like these are being
identifi ed and put under management for the benefi t
of humans and wildlife. And it’s because of the
expertise that organizations bring to the table that
work can be done to most effi ciently determine
the best solution for the land. The kind of the work
they’ve done, Theiman says, has been “invaluable
in assessing the big picture in terms of fi sh passage
and not doing it in a patchwork. We’re trying to be
really systematic and we’ve had good luck.”
The partners of Rivers to Ridges continue to carry
on work they’ve done with thoughts of what’s best
for the land on multiple levels. “We’re not suppose
to wait until the crisis moment to do anything,”
Dedrick says. “The whole point is backing up.” By
considering not just the one species when it’s at
the critical moment, groups like these and other
Rivers to Ridges partners are putting in the time
and effort to combat the problem together. ■
SLANT
• Former ACLU field director Claire Syrett took the Eugene Ward 7 city
councilor position vacated by Andrea Ortiz, and we were delighted at the
choice. We still have high hopes for Syrett as a much-needed addition to the
progressive voices on the City Council, but we’re a bit puzzled by a couple of
her votes so far. She voted to sell the 1.89 acre Courthouse Garden property,
which donates about 6,000 pounds of food each year to feed Lane County’s
homeless and hungry, without any public discussion or a plan in place for a
new garden site. She also voted (and lost) with Councilor Mike Clark to select
EWEB as the new City Hall site rather than rehabilitate our centrally located
City Hall. We appreciate that Syrett doesn’t stick to a party line, but we’re
hoping in the New Year our new councilor is a voice for the underrepresented,
the environment, downtown and local foods and farmers.
• Now that former EWEB commissioner Joanne Ernst has settled her
lawsuit with the city over the cops who raided her home with a SWAT team,
a battering ram and percussion grenades early one morning in 2009, we’re
hoping she runs for public office again. The city didn’t admit liability and
maintain Ernst’s suit was without merit, but settled for $87,000. We hope
EPD learned a lesson here from this expensive blunder. EPD didn’t find the
coke, weapons and heroin they thought her son was dealing, though they
did find some pot — Ernst was getting a medical marijuana card, which she
now has. Ernst has been unafraid to stand up for the environment, even
when it’s annoyed fellow commissioners, such as her protesting of Seneca’s
old-growth logging, and we need more strong voices for progressive causes
in our elected officials.
• Looking ahead to 2013 and beyond, how about an independent
performance auditor to look at every Eugene city function, starting with the
EPD, the largest department? Other cities have used performance auditors
to save money, avoid lawsuits and build credibility and trust with their
citizens, which is critical to passing new revenue measures. The idea of an
independent auditor, elected or appointed by the City Council, has been
kicking around for years and was highly recommended by a citizen charter
review committee in 2002, but every city manager in recent history has
resisted it, saying it costs too much. Not cost effective? Independent
auditors in other cities have saved taxpayers big time. “In many cases, audit
work leads to new revenue, cost recovery and economic impact well beyond
the audit department’s annual budget,” according to Berkeley’s elected City
Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan. “Many independent performance audit
departments pay for themselves many times over.” Read her Viewpoint
titled “Better Government” in our archives from Aug. 19, 2004 at wkly.ws/1er
• Oregon men’s basketball coach Dana Altman has shown that he can
bring players from far-flung locales to Eugene and mold them into winning
teams. In Altman’s three seasons, players hailing from Canada, Iran,
Germany, Illinois, Alabama, Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Nevada,
Ohio, Georgia, Washington, Rhode Island, California and Oregon have come
together as Ducks. Altman can coach hoops — his players and teams have
improved over the course of each season and finished with strong winning
runs in post-season tournaments. This year’s Ducks have started strong. If
they follow Altman’s pattern and keep getting better, they could contend for
a Pac-12 title and roll into the Big Dance, also known as the NCAA Tournament!
• A lot of political activity goes on behind the scenes in Lane County
with dozens of groups large and small getting together to talk about
candidates, ballot measures and various campaigns to influence public
policy and public opinion. Some of the better-organized groups actually get
grants to assist in their work. We the People-Eugene is one of these groups,
originally focused on corporate personhood, but now looking at coal trains,
forest spraying, GMOs and other issues. The group is examining what other
communities, such as Corvallis, Bellingham and Spokane are doing, and
seeing if Lane County is ripe for some relevant county ballot initiative. Going
straight to voters is one way to counteract the Tea Party domination of the
Lane County Commission. The group’s next meeting is at 6 pm Wednesday,
Jan. 9, at Grower’s Market, 454 Willamette, next to the train station. To get on
the mailing list, email willamettedams@q.com
• The homeless advocates of SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency
Places to Sleep) aren’t getting much sleep lately. The unhoused are often
roused from the places they find to curl up in on cold nights, and they often
lack the resources to protest unfair treatment. SLEEPS with its almost
nonstop camps, candlelight vigils and protests is highlighting not only the
lack of safe housing for the homeless — it’s taken of a year of hard work to
get Eugene to get a homeless village under way — but First Amendment
rights as well. Lane County Administrator Liane Richardson’s accusations of
poop in planters in order to get protesters out of the Wayne Morse Free
Speech Plaza ironically highlights the kind of discrimination the homeless
face every day. It’s a new year; we’d like to see Eugene and Lane County ring
it in with a respect for free speech rights and by making sure everyone in
this county has a safe place to sleep.
SLANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHASING NOTES COM-
PILED BY THE EW STAFF. HEARD ANY GOOD RUMORS LATELY?
CONTACT TED TAYLOR AT 484-0519, EDITOR@EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
eugeneweekly.com • January 3, 2013
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