SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 | 7A
PROJECT from page 1A
egon coast for fishing and
harvesting when it’s sustain-
ably doable,” Emigh said.
“Fishermen can catch one
per day and a total of five for
the whole year, so it’s a lim-
ited fishery. We get plenty
back, but it’s all contingent
on the salmon being able to
go up and spawn in these
small creeks.”
Emigh pitched the proj-
ect to the STEP members as
an opportunity to increase
Coho fish count in the trib-
utaries and lakes nearby,
which will allow for more
sustainable fishing in the fu-
ture.
He also just enjoys the
hands-on experience of vol-
unteering.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Emigh
said. “You’re in the mud in
waders for the day with a
bunch of young Forest Ser-
vice people and it’s just a
good day’s work out in na-
ture.”
He encouraged anyone in
the community, young or
old, who is passionate about
enjoying fishing for many
decades into the future to
get involved. He added the
Florence STEP group par-
ticipates in many volunteer
opportunities and is always
looking for new members.
For more information
about STEP or to become a
member, go to www.face-
book.com/FlorenceSTEP/.
This summer is the last of
the major excavation work
at the Fivemile-Bell Res-
toration Project, and then
planting will continue for
three or four more years with
maintenance.
“We’ll see what the next
step is for this but we’ll be
moving on to some other ar-
eas,” Burns said. “We’ve got
some potential sites up in
Deadwood creek that we’re
looking at doing next.”
For more information
about the Fivemile-Bell Res-
toration Project, visit the
USFS at www.fs.usda.gov/
land/siuslaw/landmanage
ment and Siuslaw Watershed
Council at siuslaw.org.
A look back at 130 years
RS
2020
INSIDE EACH EDITION
S IUSLAW N EWS
THROUGH O CTOBER
OF
E
EA
CEL
SN
BR
vative project feasible. The
Oregon Watershed Enhance-
ment Board, Siuslaw Insti-
tute and Confederate Tribes
of Coos, Lower Umpqua
and Siuslaw are just a few of
the many organizations that
partnered with USFS.
The Siuslaw Watershed
Council has also been in-
volved as a major partner
from the beginning phases
on the project, when it ap-
plied for funding and fo-
cused on sourcing contrac-
tors locally.
“In every phase, people
from the coastal area have
worked on this project, and
that’s millions of dollars that
have gone back into the local
economy,” Burns said.
The other role of the wa-
tershed council is to manage
and carry out the replanting
of native vegetation.
“It’s a big job,” said Mizu
Burruss, recently named ex-
ecutive director of the Siu-
slaw Watershed Council.
“There have been tens of
thousands of plants planted,
and once you plant them, you
don’t just immediately walk
away and leave them. They
get regular maintenance for
several years to be able to
survive and thrive.”
Burruss said she is blown
away by the
success
of
the revegeta-
tion process
and wants to
recognize the
importance
of all the
partnerships
that made it
happen.
“I
think
the
most
impressive
thing about
this project
is the level of
partnership
and the num-
ber of people
and organi-
zations that
have
been
involved,
which
has
really contributed to the suc-
cess of the project,” she said.
A more recent partner
on the project is the Flor-
ence Salmon and Trout En-
hancement Program (STEP),
a local volunteer-run fish
conservation group that got
involved in Fivemile-Bell
two years ago during the
fourth phase. This summer,
the group is coming back to
the site to help relocate more
creek critters for the final
stage of the project.
“I think we’re going until
about Labor Day and we’re
trying to bring up three vol-
unteers three days a week,”
said Roger Emigh, vice pres-
ident of STEP’s board of di-
rectors. “It just makes it go
faster and also gets people
in our STEP group involved,
contributing volunteer hours
and feeling like they’re mak-
ing an impact.”
According to Emigh,
people often don’t pair
“fisherman” with the word
“conservationist,” but he un-
derstands that without mak-
ing the fish supply sustain-
able, there will eventually be
no more fish to catch.
“These streams are im-
portant to what’s a threat-
ened species that we very
much prize here on the Or-
T HE W EST ❖ T HE S IUSLAW N EWS ❖ F LORENCE T IMES ❖ T HE S IUSLAW O AR ❖ T HE S IUSLAW N EWS ❖ S IUSLAW N EWS
AW NE
S
1890
SL
W
SIU
“For the fish that lived in
there, when the flows came
up, it was like a fire hose or
being in a culvert because
water would push those fish
downstream without any
place for them to escape to
for rearing,” said Paul Burns,
Fisheries Biologist and USFS
project manager.
Over time, many people
moved out of the valley and
into towns for employment,
and by the 1960s many of
the old homestead parcels
used by dairy farmers were
bought out by the govern-
ment when there was a glut
of milk products on the
market. Still, the lands con-
tinued to provide timber for
harvesting until 2003 when
Davidsons Industry Inc. sold
the 640-acre-parcel to the
USFS.
“We acquired the par-
cel with Pacific Northwest
streams acquisition money
through the Land and Water
Conservation Fund,” Burns
said.
The funding program
helped state and federal con-
servation agencies like USFS
acquire land that provides
key habitat for at-risk fish
species.
Sixty people came together
in 2005 from various federal,
state and local agencies, uni-
versities and conservation
groups to evaluate the land
and begin brainstorming a
restoration plan.
“We examined what would
be the best way to restore the
function of the land and kind
of repurpose it for anadro-
mous fish and other aquatic
species,” Burns said. “One of
the big pushes as well was to
restore the native plant com-
munities that were out here,
because the pasture that was
here when we acquired it was
98 percent non-native spe-
cies, so a lot of reed canary
grass, Himalayan blackber-
ry, velvet grass and pasture
grasses that were planted for
feeding the cows.”
When ground broke on
the project
in 2011, the
plan was to
complete the
restorat ion
in five phases
spanning a
decade. The
area was split
into five sec-
tions, each
being the fo-
cus of its own
phase.
In the first
PHOTOS BY LENA FELT/SIUSLAW NEWS
phase,
the
USFS Fisheries Tech-
Forest Ser-
nician Kiley Graham
vice and the
and Hydrologic
Siuslaw Insti-
Technician
Jeremy
tute removed
Milana carry buckets
the
levees
that prevent- full of young Coho and
ed the creek
crawdads to a reloca-
from mov- tion site downstream.
ing
freely
while the Siuslaw Watershed
“A stream shouldn’t be
Council began to restore the something that is pretty and
native plant communities.
flows in this kind of one cer-
“One of the nice things tain channel for all of time,”
about doing this project in he said. “The stream needs to
phases is it gives you the be a dynamic, chaotic system
opportunity to learn what to be able to function prop-
works well and what doesn’t erly. And you know, when
because this is a fairly new you come out here and walk
restoration technique; it’s through the vegetation and
kind of cutting edge,” Burns see all the life, it really shows
said.
why it’s all worth it.”
The process of each phase
Burns noted that people
begins with relocating any are often shocked when they
critters such as young Coho, see the amount of ground
brook lampreys, crawdads, disturbance that goes on
Pacific giant salamanders, with a project of this size, but
freshwater mussels and he’s confident the long-term
stickleback minnows from benefits outweigh the initial
the area before the stream is impact.
emptied and filled in. Then
“It’s not that there aren’t
all the non-native vegetation impacts initially on this, be-
is scraped off the floor and cause when you scrape off
replaced by native vegetation. the vegetation, you get a lot
“It’s amazing how fast the more solar radiation on the
native vegetation has come shallower water,” Burns said.
back,” Burns said. “The wil- “But that’s something we dis-
lows which were planted at close in our environmental
the start of the project are assessment for the project.
now over 20 feet tall. It’s like And based on our experi-
walking through a bamboo ence, within three to five
jungle, it’s so thick in there, years you start seeing those
and the water is everywhere temperatures drop down un-
with juvenile fish throughout til they’re back at pre-project
the area.”
temperatures that are desired
The goal of this all is to al- for Coho salmon rearing.”
low the water to move freely
Burns put an emphasis on
and find its own path, ac- how many partners it took to
cording to Burns.
make such a large and inno-
AT I N G 1 30 Y
1930
1931
Chamber Meeting
Tuesday is Peppy
—The Siuslaw Oar
Vol. 40, No. 43
April 28, 1930
1933
Talking Pictures Here
Next Week
— The Siuslaw Oar Vol. 41,
No. 50 May 15, 1931
Next week Saturday is the opening
day for talking pictures in Florence,
according to C.L. Kezar, who has been
working away for the past couple
months getting the Princess in shape
and in
estab-
lishing
a hook
up for
t h e
b e s t
p i c -
tures.
I n
tryouts
which
a r e
being
made, Mr. Kezar is satisfied that the
sound pictures will prove exception-
ally satisfactory in the Princess.
The necessary changes have been
made to assure this, and as rapidly as
possible improvements will be made
in the theatre for the comfort and
convenience of its patrons.
T
Sea
Lion
Caves
C
aptain Cox purchased the land
containing the Sea Lion Caves in
1887 from the State of Oregon. He and
his heirs owned the property until 1926.
R.E. Clanton acquired the land in
1927, with the specific intention of
opening the Caves as a business.
In 1930, when it became probable
that U.S. Highway 101 would be com-
pleted, Clanton was joined by J.G.
Houghton and J.E. Jacobson. The three
partners decided to risk all that they
owned and could borrow to build a safe
access to the cave.
A trail 1,500 feet long was excavated
by hand into the face of the cliff and at
its lower termination a 135 stair-step
wooden tower was extended down to
the north entrance of the caves. Despite
the difficulty and danger of the con-
struction, the trail and stairs provided
safe access for visitors and Sea Lion
Caves was opened to the public by this
route in August 1932.
The traffic was light at first. The
highway was only a graveled road un-
til 1934, and until 1937 there were five
ferry crossings within 100 miles. How-
ever, word of the amazing phenomenon
spread and the number of people vis-
iting Sea Lion Caves slowly grew until
1942, when virtually all such travel was
halted by World War II.
The Year
1932 Sponsored
by Sea Lion Caves
SP
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Let
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12
9,
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SIN E CO RN
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At the adjourned
meeting of the Siu-
slaw Chamber of
Commerce Tuesday afternoon a re-
port of Secretary Ponsler stated that a
reply had been received from his let-
ter to the Oregon Art Society wherein
he has stressed the advantages of this
locality as a suitable place for an art
colony. A promise was made to visit
this section before selecting a definite
site. …
A general discussion was had over
the destruction of rhododendron
plants along the highways. Tour-
ists and others frequently dig up the
plants and carry them off. It was re-
vealed that such action is against the
law when taken within 500 feet of any
highway. The chamber proposes to
protect the scenic beauty of the lower
Siuslaw. …
President Hill suggested that the
Chamber hold a picnic and a big bas-
ket dinner at Heceta Beach. The idea
was met with favor by all present.
Siu
1932
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How would you like to be at the most exciting place on the
Oregon Coast? At Sea Lion Caves you can do just that. With
rock ledges outside, the largest
and most beautiful sea cave in the wold is home to wild,
golden Steller Sea Lions. It’s not oft en you can see these
animals and so many of them this close. In season, Sea
Lion Caves is a great viewing for seabirds: pigeon guil-
lemots, coremorants, even rhinocerous anklets, and
fabulous scenery.
On Scenic Coast Hwy. 101 North • Open 9 a.m. year round • 541-547-3111
Look for current weather on web page: www.sealioncaves.com