Join a Work Party!

The Lower Gales Creek Habitat Enhancement Plan (the Plan) is a study funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to evaluate and prioritize factors that limit the salmon populations in the Tualatin Basin, in particular, the winter steelhead trout population.  The study’s purpose was to identify a high priority area that would benefit winter steelhead trout in the Tualatin Basin and create a habitat restoration plan for it.

Why is the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation funding the plan?  The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation constructed Scoggins Dam and Henry Hagg Lake.  When the dam was constructed, fish passage was not provided.  Because winter steelhead trout became a threatened fish population in1999, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began to fund habitat enhancement and restoration projects that will help winter steelhead trout in other Tualatin River sub-watersheds. 

What is the Lower Gales Creek Habitat Enhancement Plan? The Plan’s high priority area is four miles of Gales Creek from where Clear Creek enters Gales Creek downstream to Stringtown Road and also includes two miles of Clear Creek and one mile of Roderick Creek (see map).  The Plan divided the streams into 13 sections, looked at the different factors in each section, and suggested projects that could help improve stream conditions.  These projects range from increasing shade on stream banks, engineering log jams to provide better fish habitat, to reshaping stream banks that would connect areas to floodplains.  (Details of the Council study are here)

Goals of the Current Studies The first study didn’t include any information about stream dynamics which could answer questions about the causes of stream bank erosion, the location of large wood debris and adjacent trees that may provide future large wood debris to the stream, or the locations and extent of Japanese knotweed or English Ivy on stream banks.  This information is needed to design projects that will help stream conditions.  Funding from the Bureau of Reclamation allowed the Council has hired several groups to help it with these studies.  See Project Staff profiles, 

Upcoming Lower Gales Creek work party:
TBA

For more information and to sign up, contact
April Olbrich, trwc@easystreet.net