Linking logs (for the fish)
Native trout and salmon are reclaiming their river home

BY DEBBY DE CARLO

The Forest Grove News-Times, Dec 19, 2007

CHASE ALLGOOD / NEWS-TIMES

While many Washington County residents watched this month’s rising floodwaters and wondered about a dry route home or the safety of relatives on the coast, April Olbrich was thinking about some logs.

Less than two weeks before the Dec. 3 deluge, Olbrich was on a bridge at the entrance of Stub Stewart State Park just south of Vernonia.

She and a small cluster of onlookers were watching a giant Boeing Vertol 107 helicopter hover over a pile of logs the size of telephone poles just beyond the bridge.

A giant vise-like pincher dangled from the craft, closed over a pair of logs and the load was immediately flown south a half mile or so where the pilot, getting cues from people on the ground, carefully dropped the logs into the upper west fork of Dairy Creek which ultimately flows into the Tualatin River.

The chopper repeated this routine for six hours, ultimately placing 218 logs in a 1.1 mile section of the creek.

The log placement was the culmination of several steps undertaken by a group of workers led by Olbrich, coordinator of the Tualatin River Watershed Council. The council includes people from local governments, business and citizens all concerned about water quality and fish habitat in the Tualatin River and its tributaries.

In the spring of 2005, members of the council, along with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the Tualatin Valley chapter of the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, examined a one-mile stretch of the west fork of Dairy Creek that flows through a segment of the park. The group was focusing on a couple of culverts, to determine if they prevented fish passage.

Two in particular were problematic, with 8- to 10-inch barriers fish couldn’t get over. Using a lottery-funded Oregon Watershed Enhancement grant the culverts were removed last month.

“They weren’t necessary anymore because of the two bridges now in the park,” said Dan Lucas, park manager.

But removing barriers for migrating fish is just part of the process, according to Issac Sanders, a stream restoration biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. That’s where the logs come in.

“In the 1950s, many logs were pulled from streams and rivers in part because we didn’t appreciate the benefit they have,” said Sanders. “Normally, a stream like this would have plenty of dead trees.”

The idea was simple: Add some logs to the creek. Execution was a bit trickier. A large helicopter had to be used to place the logs because the creek banks were too steep to allow for ground machinery.

“The logs provide hiding places for young fish. When they’re just one-inch long, the little guys are vulnerable to critters,” said Paul Johnson, a member of the Steelheaders and a retired chief engineer for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who often advises Olbrich and the council. “Insects tend to breed there too, providing food.”

Johnson said the logs also help create pools in the creek, which in most spots is less than eight inches deep.

“Pools keep the water cooler,” Johnson said. “A pool is also a still place, and gives fish a rest from the velocity of fast-moving water.”

It was that fast-moving water that had Olbrich thinking during the first week of December. Watching the news of the flooding, Olbrich wasn’t too worried. After all, the west fork of Dairy Creek is not part of the Nehalem River watershed, which was inundating Vernonia. And the logs had been placed with possible flooding in mind.

“So much planning went into this whole project. We really tried to mimic nature, placing the logs diagonally and wedged into the banks,” Olbrich said “That’s what some of the people on the ground were doing as the logs were dropped.”

Two weeks ago, Olbrich went out to the creek to see how the logs had fared during the flood. While some had moved, most were still in place.

The logs will make a huge difference to fish in the stream, including steelhead and cutthroat trout and coho salmon.

Next spring, Johnson and volunteers from other groups, including Olbrich’s council and SOLV will plant trees where the culverts where removed.

The last part of the project is just the beginning for Heather Currey, interpretive park ranger at Stub Stewart. She says she will link the log work with the larger story of watershed stewardship.

“We’ll connect what we’ve done here with signs along our trail system so people can learn about stream restoration and its importance for fish and other species,” she said.

For Olbrich, it’s been a particularly satisfying project. “Part of the excitement has been working with the staff from Stub Stewart and a downstream private landowner,” she said. “And it’s great that the work we’ve done will be an education component in the park.”