mm
Ik Colored area represents portion of
the North Fork of Agency Creek js f
opened to fish by bridge project. t
r
Rese
J Brid9e replacement project in 1997 replaced A Y
V an old culvert with a new "fish-friendly" one (I
i tf A on the North Fork of Agency Creek.
NtH . , V? ' A L V
j 1 Two "bottomless" culverts were installed
Z L nn Hip Wpcf Fnrk nf Anpnrv Trppk in 1 QQft. v I
Colored area represents
portion of the West Fork
of Agency Creek that
has been opened to fish
as the result of culvert
replacement.
Making existing streams more accessible to fish has been a major focus of tribal efforts. Eighteen miles
of streams have been opened since 1997. Projects improve stream accessibility both inside and outside
of the 10,000-acre reservation, 6 miles north of Grand Ronde.
Watersheds are nature's boundaries for water resources.
When rain falls or snow melts, water flows downhill through
rivulets, brooks, wetlands and ditches into streams, rivers
and eventually to the ocean. Alternatively the water may
percolate through the soil to become ground water.
Watersheds are also sometimes called catchment areas or
drainage basins. Essentially, a watershed is the land area
that drains to a water body and affects its flow, water level,
and loadings of pollutants.
In both a real and figurative sense, a lake or river is a
reflection of its drainage basin. A stream is only as healthy
as its surrounding watershed. The amount of water carried
by a stream, the shape of its channel, the chemical
composition of its water, and its diverse life are determined
by its watershed and what happens there. To fully understand
a stream, you must look beyond its channels and learn about
the land that surrounds it.
Every square inch of land on earth is part of a watershed.
For example, the Joe Creek watershed is part of the Agency
Creek watershed which, in turn, is part of the Yamhill River
watershed. Joe Creek's watershed is about 1,504 acres. The
Yamhill watershed is 769 square miles.
Watersheds of the Reservation
South Yamhill
Watershed
River r- Reservation Boundary
W V j Watershed Jy r Watershed j
(CJZ 'J ' 1 "Yoncalla I
nk1 i West Fork "i ) - ? Creek VJ X V
A : of Agency I V. j , S Watershed j Burton Creek f A
Jtl Creek -V- .-.- 'TX.W. K 1 Watershed L J I j
j?Z?$L fMTy t J Mi!
fJr v -V (j Wind River VS Coast Creek I 1
If ' A- " Watershed I . Watershed !
YA J Watershr ) XpsT y Reservation Boundary
ii Nt Agency Creek w ' ; Cosper '
more about the coho this year."
Other fish in Agency Creek include
cut-throat trout, steelhead, pacific
lamprey eel, and rainbow trout. The
rainbow trout are stocked into the
river.
SCIENCE AND NATURE
COMBINED
Since rainbow trout are stocked
into Agency, their presence is known,
but how are other species found?
One scientific method of counting
fish is done by electroshocking.
Doerksen and Darcy have taken so
phisticated shocking equipment into
Agency and run a minor electrical
current through the stream. The
fish are then momentarily "shocked"
to the surface, and can then be col
lected and identified. After they are
identified for species type, they are
released back into the river. Nick
named "fish floating" by Doerksen,
this is a widely used method of
counting different fish species in dif
ferent river areas.
"Shocking temporarily immobilizes
the fish," said Doerksen. "It just trau
matizes them a little bit."
After determining what fish are in
the rivers, Doerksen and Feehan
now must try to keep those popula
tions from dwindling. One of their
main concerns is that the rivers have
proper areas for fish passage.
"Some of the culverts in Oregon
rivers were put in place for roads
years ago," said Doerksen, "before
people bothered to consider fish pas
sage important."
The Tribe tried to fix this problem
by replacing culverts.
Culverts are the metal cylinders
supporting roadways where rivers
run underneath. Typically, they are
simply a giant tube that are put into
the river to build a road across. But
some of the older culverts have
rusted on the bottom and were
placed too high, so that fish have a
hard time swimming through them.
Doerksen said that Agency Creek
now has two "bottomless" culverts,
which make fish passage easier.
Instead of a full circle, the metal
tubing is simply a half-circle, which
sits in the river, and the river bed is
the natural bottom.
Also important to the health of fish
populations is river temperature.
Feehan is very interested in moni
toring the rivers' temperature, in or
der to learn if over the warmer
months, the rivers are too warm for
the fish.
"Temperature of rivers is really an
important habitat characteristic,"
said Feehan. "We know that if a
river is too hot in the summer, that
can cause habitat degradation and
negatively affect fish reproduction."
Feehan said that if there are some
warm spots on the reservation, the
Tribe can do some things to those
areas to create shade and less direct
sunlight on the water.
Doerksen and Feehan are also in
terested in the different species of