Tualatin River Watershed Council Projects

The Tualatin River Watershed, showing the sub-basins. Click to see a larger version of the map.

Through watershed assessments and other studies including the Action Plan, the Watershed Council has identified protecting and restoring riparian areas as one of its highest priorities.

In 1998 the Council began its first restoration project at Moonshadow Park, located on Ash Creek in Southwest Portland (in the Fanno Creek sub-basin). The Council worked with other groups on this four-acre park to provide better habitat for fish by placing large woody debris in the stream, creating more shade and lowering stream temperatures through removal of invasive plant species, and replanting with native plants. The Council is now working with neighbors and other volunteers to complete restoration of the remaining two acres of the park. (See Moonshadow Project).

In March 2003 the Council completed a study on a four-mile stream segment of Lower Gales Creek in western Washington County. In July 2005 it launched a project to expand the scope of the study and to do restoration work in the area to improve winter steelhead and cutthroat trout habitat. (See Lower Gales Project).

In 2005, the Council worked with Oregon State Parks and Recreation in performing a culvert inventory and assessment for fish passage barriers in Oregon State Parks and Recreation L.L. 'Stub' Stewart State Park, through which upper West Fork Dairy Creek and its tributaries flow.  Three culverts were prioritized and the Council obtained an OWEB Technical Assistance Grant for evaluating removal of two culverts, replacement of a third culvert and enhancement of the stream. (See Upper West Fork Dairy Creek Project)

Since 2004, the Council has been working with landowners Pamm and Les Davis and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel to restore fish passage over a three foot dam water control structure on the Davis property. The project will provide and restore access for native cutthroat trout and winter steelhead trout to an additional two miles of high quality spawning and rearing habitat of Murtaugh Creek located above the dam. (see Murtaugh Creek Fish Passage Project).