» Watershed council helps make homes for fish

While there has been much damage done to nature over the years, there’s a co-operative effort under way along the Smith River to change that.

The Smith River Watershed Council, along with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Roseburg Resources Company (part of Roseburg Forest Products), the Oregon Salmon-Trout Enhancement Program and Reedsport Junior/Senior High School are helping return lost fish habitat on the Smith River and the creeks that feed it.

Watershed Council Coordinator Troy Turney said the work to restore fish habitat for coho and steelhead is being done in an area that was devastated by fire more than 40 years ago.

“The work is up in the Oxbow area, which had a fire that burned 44,000 acres back in 1966,” Turney said. “The resulting damage to the watershed in the area left both Bum and Jeff creeks with exposed bedrock bottoms.”

Turney said the absence of sand and gravel meant the fish that usually spawned in the area had little or no cover from predators or the current.

“It became a situation over the years where less and less fish were surviving in the area,” he said. “So now, we’re attempting to recreate the habitats that once existed in these creeks.”

ODFW Habitat Biologist Dan Jenkins has been working with Turney and the council to identify and reconstruct the habitats, which are mainly boulders and logs placed in the creeks to form pools for hiding as well as breeding areas for the fish return to to the streams after spending up to five years at sea.

“The logs and boulders hold onto the gravel and help form pools where the fish can survive,” Jenkins said. “This is the area they’ll return to after their swim to the ocean and we’re just making it more livable for them.”

The cooperative effort is necessary for both manpower and funding of the $130,000 project, Turney said.

“In order to qualify for grants, 25 percent of the project must be already funded and that’s where Roseburg Resources comes in,” Turney said. “They furnish the boulders and logs which would easily come to a quarter of the cost of the project.”

Other partners involved in the program include the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Umpqua Fishermen’s Association.

“The Reedsport kids will be helping with the monitoring process over the next five years,” Jenkins said. “They’ll be working with a STEP biologist and help with fish counts, water quality studies and whatever else is needed and they’ll gain school credit as well as experience.”

Although the lower area of Jeff Creek still is a work in progress, Bum Creek,  underwent the same revitalization process almost two years ago with startling results.

The creek now has gravel over its once stark bedrock bottom. There are several crystal clear pools with coho and steelhead fingerlings darting about. Large boulders, logs or a combination of the two and lush vegetation along the banks to offer protection as well as a food source for the maturing fish that call the creek home.

“It really looks like a Garden of Eden and it’s only been a short time. This is what we’re trying to accomplish at our other location,” Jenkins said. “It is something that a habitat biologist would drool over.”

So far, the project has renewed about 4.5 miles of fish habitat and Jenkins said that’s a little more than half way of what’s planned.

“We still have about 3 miles to go in the South Sisters area,” Jenkins said.

Unlike other types of restoration projects that can take several years to show results, Turney likes that there are almost instant results with the infrastructure restoration.

“Because it’s an ongoing process of the creek bringing down the materials, you see a payoff within a few months,” Turney said. “and usually the treated area is completely back to normal in a little over a year. It’s great to see the fruits of your labors so soon.”

Jenkins is hoping that future generations also will benefit from today’s work.

“I really see a day when people will be able to watch salmon jumping up falls to get upstream. That’s what we’re working towards,” he said. “And that work won’t be finished until we have salmon coming out our ears.”