) Thrive SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE (
N ATIVE PL ANTING ALONG THE RE TENTION
BASIN AT MOUNTAIN ROSE HERBS
UP THE CREEK WITH TROUT
businesses sign on to protect water qualtiy in Amazon Creek
w
ould you believe there are beavers,
otters, herons and a variety of other
species living along Amazon Creek
in Eugene?
It’s true, thanks to a growing
number of local businesses that
are becoming certified by the Long
Tom Watershed Council’s (LTWC)
Trout Friendly Landscapes program.
The goal of the program is to make
habitat and water quality improvements in private lands
that will, in turn, support native aquatic life in Amazon
Creek and the Willamette River.
Cutthroat trout in the Willamette have begun to venture
into the Long Tom River near Junction City, though the
fish don’t make it far because the water quality is too poor
to support them. Conservation mascots have a successful
record of enticing adults to avoid polluting. Cutthroat trout
were chosen as the “sexy” species to attract the attention of
the Eugene community. The trout also act as an effective
indicator species to gauge the progress of the program.
As Eugene continues to grow and impervious surfaces
such as roads and parking lots become more common,
water needs a path to travel. As much as 70 percent of
stormwater runoff finds its way to Amazon Creek,
carrying with it pollutants such as motor oil, pesticides,
By Greg Butler
fertilizers, litter and heavy metals. LTWC finds that many
stormwater pollutants are coming from landscapes. This
is because the natural hydrologic processes have been
altered by replacing earth and plants with hardscapes —
those parking lots and roads — leaving “just those little
pieces of earth we have poking up through our urban
areas,” as Sarah Whitney with LTWC puts it.
As a licensed landscape architect and LTWC’s
stormwater specialist, Whitney heads up the Trout
Friendly Landscapes initiative. She works closely with a
growing number of commercial and industrial businesses
like Mountain Rose Herbs, Essex Construction, Thermo
Fischer and Joe’s Garage. Whitney walks each business
through all the steps in becoming a certified Trout Friendly
Landscape from landscape design to permitting and in
many cases matching costs through grants and incentives
from the city of Eugene.
Clinton Begley, LTWC development and communi-
cations director, explains: “Our goal is to go above and
beyond the city requirements. Serving human values can
also serve habitat functions.” The city of Eugene currently
requires that water quality remain at its current level. The
current status of Amazon Creek and the Willamette River,
however, is impaired.
According to a 2009 article in the Journal of
Hydrologic Engineering, the amount of impervious cover
in Eugene hinders Amazon Creek as “non-supporting,”
meaning it “no longer supports its designated use in terms
of hydrology, channel stability, habitat, water quality or
biological diversity. Non-supporting streams become so
degraded that it may be difficult or impossible to fully
recover redevelopment stream function and diversity.”
LTWC has been testing the presence and concentration
of pesticides in water and soils along Amazon Creek
regularly since 2011. This data is used to trace the
contaminants back to their industrial, commercial or
residential source. The information is regularly shared with
farmers and community members to increase awareness of
how specific contaminants adversely affect aquatic life.
For example, studies have shown that even trace amounts
of zinc can have detrimental effects on salmon and trout,
impairing their sense of smell and inhibiting their ability to
find food, mate, sense danger and lay eggs. This effectively
leads to increased mortality rates.
“We know that moss killers are a major source of zinc,”
Whitney says. “We also know that galvanized surfaces are
a very high source of zinc, and if you look at an aerial photo
you will notice that almost all of the roofs in the industrial
sector are galvanized. Stormwater planters are a great way
to treat them without taking up a lot of square footage.”
Whitney points out that “the most effective treatment is
also the cheapest — to run the water through soil and plants
before entering the waterways. That’s what we call Low
Impact Development (LID).” Examples of LID stormwater
facilities include rain gardens, bioswales, stormwater
planters, filter strips and sand filters. Native plants are a key
component of these facilities because they filter stormwater
and provide wildlife habitat.
“I’ve seen great pictures of bacteria really glomming
on to a little piece of zinc, and they’re actually munching
on it,” Whitney explains. “Healthy soil biota is where you
get pollutant treatment.”
Local commercial and industrial businesses interested
in implementing a Trout Friendly Landscape can look
to Mountain Rose Herbs as a benchmark. The company
uses such practices as conserving water with a satellite
controlled irrigation system, maintaining a pesticide-free
facility and utilizing bio-swale to naturally filter roof and
pavement runoff. They are also the first Eugene business
to become certified salmon-safe.
Eugene residents can reduce stormwater contaminants by
properly maintaining vehicles, using natural moss control
products from local companies such as Glass Tree Care and
installing rain gardens or other LID stormwater facilities to
slow and filter water before it hits the storm drains. ■
Greg Butler is an adjunct faculty member of Lane Community College,
lecturing in the Water Conservation and Watershed Management programs
as well as one of EW’s display marketing consultants.
eugeneweekly.com • A pril 21, 2016
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