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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2005)
Page ra y c 14 The INDEPENDENT, January 6, 2005 o _ Unoer Nehalem Watershed Council had many projects in 2004 ____ _ .___ lo n o n o c o been planted with native trees new watershed health and and shrubs, across 78 different salmon habitat improvement For the Upper Nehalem Wa ownerships. Since that time, projects in cooperation with lo tershed Council, 2004 was an we have installed 14 miles of ri cal landowners as a result of eventful year. The council con parian fencing and stabilized these efforts. The council continued a tinued to serve as an advocate multiple eroding stream banks for improving watershed health, with specialized planting and long-standing effort, initiated by basin-wide, and as a conduit staking techniques. Currently the Nehalem Valley chapter of through which thoughtful activi we are performing project the Izaak Walton League, to ties are conceived from identi maintenance in order to assure collect data on water quality and quantity. We are currently fied needs. The council has plant survival and fence integri been in existence for eight ty. We will begin planting new working to summarize 10 years years and has tunneled over a projects early in 2005 with na of stream temperature data, six million dollars into the local tive plants that we have grown, years of macro invertebrate economy for watershed health at the BLM nursery, from local data and four years of turbidity ly collected seeds as part of the data collected basin wide by and salmon recovery efforts. The year began with a new recently established Native council staff and volunteers. Stream Flow Gauges chairperson for the council, as Plant Nursery Cooperative. The Rock Creek flow gauge Bill DeJager was succeeded, East Fork Assessment after several years of dedicated In the spring the council be that was installed in the sum leadership, by Dennis Nelson. gan an in-depth assessment of mer of 2003 continues to func 2004 was also our first full year the East Fork Nehalem, familiar tion as planned and will serve as a 501 (c)3 non-profit cooper to anyone who has driven the purpose of measuring ation. The momentum contin Scappoose-Vernonia Highway. stream flows for many years to ued as we developed organiza The assessment will be com come. The US Geological Survey tional capacity to provide the pleted in Spring of 2005. The appropriate support needed to council will then initiate an ac installed a stream gauge sever identify and effectively accom tion planning process involving al miles upstream of Vernonia plish watershed improvements. interested stakeholders. As after the flood of 1996. Data As a result, many hours of vol sessment findings will be used collected from both of these unteer service were required to as a basis for identifying poten gauges will be useful in the city’s application of summer meet the council’s goals and tial new projects. the expectations of funding en We are looking forward to water conservation measures, continuing the watershed as and will provide early warning tities. sessment process in partner information for the community Riparian Reforestation Our riparian re-forestation ship with the Oregon Depart in case of rising flood water. efforts continued last winter as ment of Forestry as they move Noxious Weeds Interest in noxious, or exot the restoration crew was in full into conducting the Nehalem swing, planting over 6,500 Watershed Analysis on state ic, weeds began to take hold in trees and shrubs along high pri forest lands. At that time, we the area, with multiple weed ority reaches of the rivers and hope to branch off on a collab management groups formed in streams of the upper to mid- orative project with the City of the North Coast and Nehalem Nehalem valley. Since the Vernonia to perform a water Basin, Clatsop, Columbia and council formed in 1996 and be shed analysis of Rock Creek. Tillamook Counties in order to gan this effort, over three hun We eagerly anticipate develop coordinate eradication efforts. dred acres of riparian area has ing and implementing many Several exotic weeds exist in the Nehalem, including Hi malayan blackberry, Canadian thistle, Scotch broom, and High Speed Wireless Internet. Japanese knotweed. The Ne halem Knotweed Task Force As fast as DSL for less cost. formed specifically to work on By Maggie Peyton and Bill Lang- maid a n d Japanese R ia n t matter the and because Giant Knotweed invasion that is tak ing place at an alarmingly rapid rate. The council received fund ing early in 2004 from the Ore gon Department of Agriculture to survey, map and begin spraying Knotweed in the basin during the summer. The survey resulted in over 90 knotweed sightings and 44 infestations being treated with herbicide. We will seek to continue these efforts in the New Year, and in future years, as we have only begun to wage war on Knotweed. Above, Lee Wonder spraying knotweed, one of the noxious weeds that have taken hold of land in Columbia County. Coho Habitat A major underlying reason for the existence of the water shed council is the declining population of native coho salmon. Exact reasons for the decline are numerous, and Domain Services Low cost registration and hosting. Unlimited Dialup Surf up to 5x faster with dialup accelerator included FREE. Local Areas Wireless Internet Heather Ln. to Cherry St., Downtown Vernonia Timber Rd./Hwy 47 Jet. to the Golf Course Check your email from anywhere using Agalis' Webmail. All Agalis Internet accounts include: Email accounts, Email Virus & SPAM filtering, FREE Internet related support. W ebsite: www.agalis.net Phone: 503-201-1846 Owned and Operated in Vernonia since 1998 matter because they show they show what issues can be addressed if we want to encourage an in crease in the coho populations. Some of the things that can be done at the local level are to in crease the quantity of coho habitat, and then improve the quality of that habitat. The watershed council has worked with local landowners to open up more habitat for coho salmon by sponsoring re placement of undersized cul verts and improving habitat complexity with the introduction of large woody debris. During 2004, the council worked with “Shorùnq a co/n/niinuni io pAoiaci and. nuAiuAo iho anoiAonnmni!" Longview Fibre Co., Weyer haeuser, and Hancock to re place undersized or failing cul verts with either bridges or larg er culverts. Two new bridges were installed on Crooked Creek and numerous other cul verts were replaced, opening up more than 10 miles of aquat ic habitat in the upper basin. Several stream crossings were abandoned and the areas con verted to a more natural state through tree and shrub plant ings. We are continuing to work with the landowners named above, plus Forest Systems Inc. and the City of Vernonia to develop several similar projects on Cedar Creek, East Humbug and Bear Creek. We are work ing to have these new projects funded and implemented by the fall of 2005. See page 15
