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Lottery funds to help return Big Creek to natural channel to help salmon
Oct. 4, 2007
News Media Contact:
- Bud Henderson, Nicolai Wickiup Watershed Council 503-458-6111;
- Tom Shafer, OWEB program representative 541-528-7451
Editors/reporters: A complete list of funded projects by county is posted on OWEB’s Website at: www.oregon.gov/OWEB. Click on “News and Announcements.”
Private and public groups partner to undertake projects
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) has awarded $188,909 in Oregon Lottery funds to Nicolai Wickiup Watershed Council to return a portion of Big Creek to its natural channel to help fish gain access to upper reaches.
Partners in the project include Hampton Affiliates, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia Riverkeepers, Howard Kem (landowner), Clatsop County and the watershed council volunteers. Total project cost is about $353,000.
Big Creek, a 114-square mile tributary of the lower Columbia River, joins the Columbia in the community of Knappa. Big Creek supports populations of coho, fall chinook, chum, steelhead and cutthroat trout.
During the railroad logging days in the early 1900s, and subsequently when the railroad line was turned into a road, high water from Big Creek would occasionally wash out a section of the road. As a result, a new stream channel was blasted through the rock just east of the existing channel in the 1930s and the historic creek natural channel was blocked and the creek rerouted through the new chute. This new chute effectively blocked access to the upstream habitat for all types of salmon except the strongest and most energetic steelhead.
This restoration and enhancement project will involve re-establishing the historic natural channel and bridging the newly rerouted creek in two locations; placing large wood structures at several locations in the lower stream reaches in the Big Creek County Park; placing logs, rootwads and boulder structures in two sections of one landowner’s property in a still lower reach to deal with erosion and sedimentation issues; and planting roughly three acres of that same landowner’s streambank area with a mixture of native trees and shrubs.
Daniel Heagerty, Portland, and Jane O’Keeffe, Adel, serve as co-chairs of the 17-member Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Members represent the public at large, tribes, state natural resource agency boards and commissions, the Oregon State University Extension Service, and federal natural resource agencies. The board is supported by a state agency of the same name that provides grants and services to citizen groups, organizations and agencies working to restore healthy watersheds in Oregon. OWEB actions support the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, created in 1997. Funding comes from the Oregon Lottery as a result of a citizen initiative in 1998, sales of salmon license plates, federal salmon funds and other sources. For more information, visit www.oregon.gov/OWEB or call OWEB in Salem at 503-986-0178.
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