'Littering' for the health of the Metolius River

A little natural litter can be a good thing. The Forest Service is launching a project to deliberately place trees into the Metolius River. The project will restore fish habitat to the wild and scenic river, which has steadily lost habitat from five decades of instream wood removal.

With the introduction of the fish passage program at the Pelton Round Butte Dam, chinook salmon will at last have access to the Metolius after a 40-year absence. Studies have shown that habitat for the salmon juveniles on the Metolius River is only considered "fair" and steps need to be taken to insure the successful reintroduction of the salmon.

As soon as winter is a memory, the project will begin in a coordinated effort that goes beyond the work of the Forest Service.

"We will start on this project this summer, and our partner is the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council," said Mike Riehle, fish biologist for the Forest Service.

The undertaking will benefit several species of fish, but the main focus is for the salmon.

"The project that we are proceeding on is to restore the wood in the stream to create habitat for Spring Chinook. This will be seasonal rearing habitat, and the reintroduction is already underway. A few weeks ago over 100,000 chinook fry were released into the Metolius," said Riehle.

The research for the project was complicated and required considerable study of the impact on other species in the area. The Northern spotted owl habitat was a concern, as well as that for the bald eagle. The results of the study showed that there would be no impact on the spotted owl and that, as the project begins to show success, it is expected to actually benefit the bald eagle.

Other concerns were the potential for the spread of invasive plant species. The main worry is for the spread of ribbongrass, which is an ornamental grass. It is believed that ribbongrass was introduced to the Metolius River about 50 years ago and often uses river islands to establish itself. The project will be monitored over the next five years, and, if it appears that ribbongrass is spreading, it will be removed and native species will be planted.

The project will be orchestrated to create as little damage as possible to the forest floor through the use of existing roads and trails to aid in the access to the areas where the wood is to be placed instream.

Fish will periodically be added to the river as the project continues.

"The release of fry and smolt will continue over the next few years to restore the population. This will happen concurrently with the project to restore wood to the Metolius," said Riehle.

The project will only affect the upper part of the river.

"The downstream limit of the project is Bridge 99, and we will only be placing wood in the stream down to that point. Downstream from Bridge 99, we will depend upon the natural infall of trees, and it will take a lot of years to restore that area because it is a very slow natural process," said Riehle.

The decision to limit the restoration project to the upper river reaches is based on several factors.

"There were two reasons to limit our project to the upper part of the river above Bridge 99. One is the concern over boater safety, and the other is that the portion below that point gets into the scenic portion of the river, and we want that to be a more natural accumulation of instream wood," said Riehle.

No more fish fry or smolt will be placed in the Metolius this year, but next year will see a fresh seeding of salmon in the river.

"The next time that Spring Chinook will be placed in the river will be next winter during the February-March time frame," said Riehle.

He also indicated that there would be steelhead fry placed in Whychus Creek this summer that will expand their reach nearly to Sisters.