Army to help repair Camp Polk site

Deschutes Basin Land Trust Executive Director Brad Chalfant, right, studies Camp Polk features with volunteers Karen Allen and Reid Schuller.

In 1865, a volunteer U.S. Army contingent from Polk County established the first non-native outpost in the Sisters area. One hundred thirty seven years later, the army is back -- with a mission to help restore Squaw Creek.

George Medina is a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was in Sisters last week to survey the old site of Camp Polk, which is now owned and managed by the Deschutes Basin Land Trust.

Actually, this isn't the army's first return to the site.

In 1964, a major flood rampaged down Squaw Creek, damaging property near the water and inundating much of the creek's meager supply of flood plain. Fearing the potential for further damage, the Army Corps of Engineers responded by scouring new, straighter and deeper channels for the stream.

The effect was to hurry the water off the land before flooding could occur. In the process, unfortunately, the Corps also wiped out the riparian habitat and wetlands bordering the creek.

With the stream hurtling by at a lower elevation, the soils in the flood plain dried up, destroying the natural water reservoir that had saturated the basin for centuries. The meanders and backwaters were gone and, with them, historic steelhead spawning grounds vanished.

The new partnership between the Land Trust and the Corps, however, may mean that the steelhead runs are not gone forever.

"There was a different mindset at the time," said Medina. "We thought we were doing the right thing. We know differently now, and we have an opportunity to help make it right."

Referring to the post-flood alterations nearly 40 years ago, the Land Trust's Executive Director, Brad Chalfant, said, "We lost the ability of those meadows to act as a sponge and control the level of the creek."

Over the years, many of the area's streams, including Trout Creek and lower Indian Ford Creek, were similarly channelized, drying up adjacent wetlands.

"The meadows have been manipulated pretty heavily over the last almost 140 years," Chalfant said.

With the acquisition of Camp Polk meadow last year, the Land Trust took over stewardship of the historic site and has been looking at ways to restore the wetlands and steelhead potential ever since.

"We're really excited about working with the Corps, as well as the Forest Service and the state," Chalfant said.

Last week, an early step was taken toward restoration of Camp Polk's wetland habitat potential. With Medina and other federal and state officials in tow, Chalfant and a handful of Land Trust volunteers led a walking tour of the site.

"We're looking at riparian restoration," said Medina, "and possibly realigning the streambed allowing it to flood the plain."

He pointed out that there is precedent for such projects and cited the Corps' "multi-billion-dollar" project to restore portions of Florida's Everglades that the Corps drained many years ago.

The Land Trust hopes -- with the Corps' assistance -- to return portions of Squaw Creek to its meandering historic path.

In doing so, officials expect to see the wetlands rejuvenate and fish spawning beds reestablished. Chalfant said that some of the old channels are still visible in the contours of the land, and existing topography will be used to the greatest extent possible.

He said that the Land trust will rely heavily on the Corps' recommendations. Medina, for his part, stressed "collaboration" and pledged to remain "open to all ideas."

He also offered to do everything he could to facilitate moving the project along quickly. The Corps will match funds with the project's boosters to achieve their mutual goals.

Chalfant praised Portland General Electric's continuing participation in the project, and pointed out that the 145-acre preserve had been slated for subdivision and development prior to the Land Trust's acquisition of the site last year.

"Together with PGE, we're hoping to restore steelhead runs," Chalfant said. "There are a host of other resources we're interested in conserving, but the fisheries aspect is the highest priority for us. We think this is the beginning of some really great things for the stream and for the community."

As the tour neared its end, Medina scanned a dried up area of former wetlands that is now covered with bare earth and rabbitbrush.

He nodded thoughtfully.

"It's a good project," he said. "I like this. There's a lot of potential here. This is good."