Project to restore Deer Creek salmon habitat that began in 1996 enters its final phase
A successful salmon habitat restoration project on a McKenzie River tributary is beginning its final phase.
Since 2016, the U.S. Forest Service and the McKenzie Watershed Council have worked to revitalize a stretch of Deer Creek so it can support salmon as it once did.
The project requires using heavy machinery to pull down large trees into the creek to foster better spawning habitat, which will temporarily make some nearby areas inaccessible.
McKenzie River Watershed Council described the tributary that flows into the upper McKenzie River downstream of Olallie Campground near river mile 80 as "significantly degraded" before the project began. Large pieces of wood had been removed, berms had been built to channel the creek and the stream bed consisted of large cobble and boulders with little of the gravel and deep pools salmon need to spawn.
"A lot of our streams have been impacted from a variety of practices, whether that was stream cleaning because they thought having wood in the stream was impacting fish passage or manmade berms to dry out areas to have logging roads," Watershed Council Restoration Program Manager Jennifer Weber said. "You end up with a very narrow, channelized system with a lot of energy acting like a firehose pushing out that finer sediments needed for habitat."
Phases of work
The restoration work so far has been done in three phases, Weber said.
In 2016, contractors removed 10,000 cubic yards of berms and fill from the project area and used it to match the elevation portions of the channel with the surrounding valley bottom to improve hydrological connectivity.
In 2017, contractors pulled 16 stream-side trees into a nearly half-mile section of Deer Creek to further improve the habitat.
New mapping technology became available after the original work was done, which allowed crews to return in more recent years to more thoroughly treat the area.
"After we did that original work in 2016, in 2019 we actually went back and used that tool," Weber said. "Each year we've been able to go back in and re-treat those areas to bring them up to where the target should have been."
In 2020, the project benefited from a partnership with the Eugene Water and Electric Board, which was building a power line corridor nearby. More than 1,000 large trees were harvested from the corridor and used in the project.
After harvest, 17,000 cubic yards of berms and fill material were removed from the valley bottom and redistributed to adjacent fill areas. Contractors then placed more than 900 pieces of large wood throughout the project area.
In 2021, contractors removed and redistributed 20,000 cubic yards of berms to fill incised portions of Deer Creek to elevations matching surrounding valley bottom before then placing 525 pieces of large wood in the project area.
'If you build it, they will come'
Weber said there are already successes.
High winter flows have deposited gravel around logjams and over the floodplain. Multiple channels and deep pools have formed. Beaver and vegetation are flourishing around the site.
During fall 2017, spring Chinook salmon were seen spawning in Deer Creek for the first time since the early 1990s.
"If you build it, they will come," Weber said.
Read more:Chinook salmon return from Pacific Ocean to find part of the Oregon's McKenzie River restored
The project's fourth and final phase covers the last quarter mile of the creek where it reaches the McKenzie River.
The area, visible from the McKenzie River Trail footbridge over Deer Creek and from various locations along Deer Creek Road, will be closed between June 13 and July 22, according to a U.S. Forest Service news release. The closure covers about 1.5 miles of Forest Road 2654 (Deer Creek) from the junction of Highway 126 north on Road 2654 to Road 2655. The closure includes both sides of the road along that stretch.
The news release said visitors to the area may notice a high level of sediment in Deer Creek and the McKenzie River downstream of the waterways' junction. High sediment levels are expected to decrease once the work is completed.
The McKenzie River Trail, closed since the 2021 Knoll Fire burned about two miles of it, will open again once the habitat restoration project is completed, according to the Forest Service news release. One mile of the trail will be repaired by volunteers, and the other will be restored using equipment from the Deer Creek restoration project.
Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Deer Creek salmon habitat restoration begins final phase
