Big Tom Folley Structure Placement
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| Construction of structures. |
Middle ground view of log structures in North Fork Big Tom Folley Creek. |
(Photos by Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers)
Within the Elk Creek Watershed, Big Tom Folley Creek serves as an important refuge for salmonids. The creek was identified as a priority for instream habitat work because the creek and its tributaries lacked large woody debris, which creates rearing and spawning habitat by enhancing deposition and scour. As a whole, the streambed was mostly bedrock and lacked spawning and rearing habitat.
To address the historic impacts to Big Tom Folley Creek from road construction and stream cleaning, a multiple-phased project was designed with the goal of improving the production capacity for Coho, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. Earlier projects had replaced six culverts, removed one culvert, and placed boulder structures along a 3/4-mile reach of mainstem Tom Folley Creek.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board provided funding for this project, which built on the previous work by adding large wood and boulders to the creek. Partners providing matching funds and in-kind support included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Joe Merchep Umpqua River Foundation, Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Seneca Jones Timber Company. The project was located about 13 miles northwest of Sutherlin and completed in September of 2004. Using a track-mounted excavator, 73 logs were placed at 15 sites on BLM lands in North Fork Big Tom Folley Creek. A total of 811 boulders were placed in the mainstem on Seneca Jones ownership.
The boulders and logs are functioning as designed. One 10-year and one 25-year storm event occurred in the county in 2005 providing ample opportunity to see how these structures function. They retained a great deal of gravel and accumulated small woody debris. The increases in instream habitat complexity, spawning gravels, and fish access have and will continue to benefit resident salmonids.
Lee Creek Culvert Replacement
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| Conditions before project construction. |
Replaced culvert on Lee Creek. |
(Photos by Bureau of Land Management)
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has emphasized restoration efforts in Myrtle Creek, a major tributary to the South Umpqua River. Past smolt trapping has indicated that this watershed produces large numbers of Coho salmon, winter steelhead, and cutthroat trout. For several years, five separate culverts hindered fish from fully utilizing Lee Creek, one of the tributaries to North Myrtle Creek. These culverts blocked areas that used to be highly-productive salmon and trout habitat.
To replace the culverts, the BLM worked with multiple partners, including the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, Seneca Jones Timber Company, and several private landowners. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife provided technical support. In addition to federal funding, funding for work on private lands came partly from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and from private landowners’ in-kind donations. The BLM’s replacement of the last two culverts in summer 2004 completed the Lee Creek project.
In early December 2004, one of the area landowners noticed several adult Coho salmon above the fourth culvert. No salmon had made it that far up the stream for over 40 years; therefore this partnership effort to restore fish passage was a resounding success.
Leitel Creek Road Decommissioning
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| Road decomissioning. |
After bridge removal. |
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| Coho salmon in Leitel Creek. |
Coho salmon in Leitel Creek. |
(Photos by the U.S. Forest Service)
Leitel Creek enters Tahkenitch Lake along the lake’s southeastern shore. Tahkenitch Lake, which lies between Florence and Reedsport, is home to one of the state’s healthiest Coho salmon populations. The lake and associated marsh areas provide abundant summer and winter rearing habitat for juvenile Coho. Leitel Creek, with 1,327 Coho salmon counted in the spawning survey reach (0.8 miles) in 2002, has the highest spawning density of any stream in the central coast region—a distinction that makes Leitel Creek highly valuable.
While some reaches of the creek provided high-quality spawning habitat, other reaches were cut down to bedrock due to the lack of structure to capture gravel and the lower reaches had heavy deposits of silt and were unsuitable as spawning habitat. Access to the high-quality habitat in Leitel Creek’s tributaries was also severely limited by four undersized, failing, and/or perched culverts that lay under a poorly-maintained road running alongside the creek. The landowner, the Campbell Group, decided to permanently decommission the streamside road.
Partners in the decommissioning project, which occurred in August of 2005, included the Campbell Group, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Siuslaw Watershed Council, and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.
The road was permanently decommissioned. All the culverts and log bridges were removed. These log bridges then became the ten key pieces in five large wood structures placed throughout the project reach. In addition, 2.5 miles (3.5 riparian acres) of conifers were planted in the riparian area.
This project was simple and straightforward. U.S. Forest Service analyses had identified lack of complexity and large wood, passage issues, and sedimentation as limiting factors in the coastal lake systems. This project addressed all three. Now that the road is decommissioned, one of the major sources of sediment influencing spawning habitat quality in the lower reach of the stream has been eliminated. Removal of culverts and log bridges allows unrestricted fish access to the entire naturally available habitat in the mainstem and tributaries. Finally, the large wood placements provide additional complexity and trap migrating gravels in order to increase the availability of spawning habitat. Leitel Creek is now poised to strengthen its status as the central-coast stream with the highest Coho spawning density and contribute to Coho recovery.
Slide Creek Restoration
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Large wood placed in Slide Creek. (photos by Bureau of Land Management)
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In the past, natural large wood was removed from Slide Creek, a tributary to North Myrtle Creek. Pools filled and the gravels necessary for fish spawning and insect production washed out. The resulting habitat was not conducive to the production of salmon and steelhead, which historically thrived in the creek.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) teamed up with the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Seneca Jones Timber Company, Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to improve the instream conditions at Slide Creek. In the summer of 2004, 53 trees were added in an effort to mimic the small log jams that are extremely important to juvenile fish survival. Meanwhile, Seneca Jones Timber Company removed a problematic culvert on their property and BLM removed another on a public road. The large wood placement and culvert removals work together for the benefit of salmon productivity.
After the placement of in-stream large wood, roughly one mile of the adjacent riparian area was manually treated to eliminate Himalayan blackberry, an invasive plant that impedes the growth of native plants vital to healthy riparian areas. Immediately following the Himalayan blackberry removal, hundreds of native tree and shrub species were planted with the help of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps. These plants have survived, and soon the complexity of the stream will be better suited to fish production. Plants continue to be added to the riparian area in order to further enhance instream conditions at Slide Creek. This project is one of the many efforts in the Umpqua Basin to restore salmon habitat and increase salmon productivity.
Umpqua Fish Habitat
 Photo by Partnership for Umpqua Rivers.
This project, completed in September of 2004, placed fish enhancement structures into four tributaries and two miles of the mainstem of Big Creek, Slide Creek, and Huntley Creek.
- Big Creek, tributary to Smith River, lies about 10 air miles northwest of Elkton. The project was a continuation of wood and boulder placement that began in 2001. Big Creek suffered from a lack of winter refugia (suitable natural habitat) and spawning gravel recruitment due to stream cleanout.
- Huntley Creek, a tributary to the North Umpqua River, is located 30 miles northeast of Roseburg. This small basin is gravel rich but lacks floodplain interaction and deep pools for summer cover. The overall stream had badly degraded due to years of agricultural practices.
- Slide Creek, a tributary to Myrtle Creek, is 14 miles east of the town of Myrtle Creek. This is a gravel-rich basin that lacks winter and summer refugia.
These projects involved an effective partnership among Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby, the Bureau of Land Management, Seneca Jones Timber Company, Roseburg Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Joe Merchep Umpqua River Foundation, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.
Within these three streams, the lack of large wood, reduced habitat complexity, and reduced floodplain interactions were identified as factors limiting salmonid production. Placement of logs and boulders increases habitat complexity, winter refugia, and floodplain interaction. In addition to changing habitat complexity, logs and boulders trap detritus (disintegrated or eroded matter), providing increased food sources for macroinvertebrates. These projects are typical of efforts to reintroduce stream habitat complexity into degraded streams for the benefit of coastal Coho, winter steelhead, and cutthroat trout.
Umpqua Fish Passage
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| Conditions before project. |
Replacement culvert on Fortune Branch Creek. |
(Photos by Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers)
Five culverts located throughout the Umpqua Basin blocked fish passage and were identified for replacement. The project improved fish access to nearly ten miles of stream on Rattlesnake Creek, French Creek, Bachelor Creek, and Fortune Branch Creek. All projects were completed in 2004.
- Rattlesnake Creek, located near Glendale, flows into Cow Creek, a tributary to the South Umpqua River. It had a failing, extremely undersized, five-foot diameter culvert that created a velocity barrier for coastal Coho, cutthroat trout, and winter steelhead. Construction of the new culvert began August 24, 2004, and was finished by September 13, 2004, providing complete fish passage to over 2.5 miles of habitat that was previously inaccessible.
- French Creek is a tributary to the North Umpqua River. At this site, a 40-foot long, 6-foot diameter corrugated metal culvert had a two-foot drop at the outlet, and the bottom was rusting through. Although French Creek has large runs of Coho salmon (400-500 spawning adults in a given year despite the barrier) and winter and summer steelhead, these fish could only access the creek under ideal flow conditions. The culvert is at the mouth of the creek and therefore critical in the watershed restoration process. On September 14, 2004, construction began on the new, 80-foot long culvert. The landowner provided a one-mile long bypass road through his hay fields during construction. The project was completed September 23, 2004, and now allows for complete fish passage to 2.5 miles of upstream habitat.
- Bachelor Creek, which flows into Calapooya Creek, is located nine miles northeast of Oakland. The five 18-inch diameter culverts (side-by-side) had a five-foot drop at the outlet. The crossing had constricted the channel and created a pond on the upstream side of the crossing, resulting in a six-foot layer of fine sediments. Coastal Coho, cutthroat trout, and winter steelhead use the creek; Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists found numerous Coho fry below the culvert site but only resident cutthroat trout above it. Beginning September 10, 2004, the five old culverts were pulled from the roadbed and replaced. By September 15, 2004, a large, fish-friendly culvert, which will pass all fish during all flows, was installed to open up one mile of stream.
- Fortune Branch Creek flows into Cow Creek, a tributary to the South Umpqua River. The stream is home to coastal Coho, cutthroat trout and winter steelhead. The culvert was a partial barrier to adult fish and a complete barrier to juveniles due to its outfall. Culvert replacement was completed the first time in October of 2003, but the following winter and spring, the road approaches on both sides of the culvert slumped about six inches. In October 2004, repairs were made, which involved excavating the approach fill back four feet from the culvert wall and the width of the road, filling the void with concrete slurry, and then repaving the road.
Partners in these projects included Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby, Bureau of Land Management, Douglas County, Seneca Jones Timber Co., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Richard Baumgartner, Joe Merchep, Umpqua River Foundation, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Anadromous fish passage is now assured at all four sites, and landowners have observed Coho and/or steelhead above all the culverts.
Marsh and Vincent Creeks Culvert Replacement
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) replaced culverts along several creeks that flow into the Smith River, a tributary to the Umpqua River. Many were the original culverts, often 30-40 years old, and virtually all were both undersized and perched, meaning that they had outlet drops that impede fish passage. All the culverts were on BLM-managed roads. BLM worked in partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to replace them.
The first project site was on an unnamed tributary to Vincent Creek, which enters Smith River near River Mile 33. The existing 5-foot culvert was not, in this case, the original culvert, but one that BLM had installed in 1997 in an effort to assist fish passage. In the past few years, though, BLM discovered that the internal weirs were not functioning satisfactorily; sometimes fish, particularly juveniles, were unable to pass through. In summer of 2005, BLM implemented a retrofit project to fix the culvert. They modified the notches in the weirs within the culvert to reduce the jump height to the next pool above so that fish have a chance to pass through. They also placed boulders instream to reduce water velocity. After this work, each step in the pipe was six inches or less. Thus, all fish, and juveniles in particular, have a better chance of successfully passing through the culvert.
The second project site was on Marsh Creek at River Mile 51, which flows into the Smith River. When roads were constructed in the past, this stream was rerouted to accommodate forest management. This change forced fish to pass through an area that was not naturally formed, making it difficult for adults from Smith River to enter this system. Complexity, too, had been reduced. In the summer of 2005, BLM put in a culvert larger than the active channel width and below grade. They also added complexity to the stream above the culvert so that fish would have resting areas, and they installed weirs to control water height and velocity in the culvert. Because the water velocity was reduced, gravel and other natural material have the opportunity to accumulate in the culvert. The result is a large, below-grade culvert that collects natural material, thereby creating a tube of habitat within the culvert. Habitat for adult and juvenile fish as well as amphibians has now been created.
The 2005-2007 Biennial Report provides more information about accomplishments in each watershed basin.
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