Metolius restoration completed

It may have been nothing more than "All in a day's work..." for jammer-operator Jacob Kugler, of C&B Construction out of Hillsboro, but to Mike Riehle and Nate Dachtler, USFS fish biologists, last week's days were "big days."

Before the week was out, over 900 small-diameter dead trees had been placed in the river, from Riverside Campgrounds all the way to Bridge 99, about nine miles, on both sides of the river.

Because the river is unique in terms of fisheries, stream characteristics, ease of access, recreational uses and environmental diversity, Riehle and Dachtler, along with soil scientists, hydrologists, wildlife biologists and other land managers considered ways to place the woody material in the river.

Anyone standing near Riehle and Dachtler would have overheard the constant dialog between the two biologists as they discussed each log that was placed in the river. "What do you think, Nate?" Mike would ask, as Jacob carefully lifted each log and placed one end of it on the bank and the other "just so" in the river.

"Yeah, that looks pretty good..." Nate would answer, "but how about putting the end of the log against that little island?" And so it went for the placing of each tree that once had been a "hazard tree," standing too close to a cabin, road, or trail.

As a tree was either dropped into position to better anchor it, or eased against an existing island or boulder, Riehle would remark, "Look at the way the water is scooting under that log, in a short time it will create pools where young salmon will be able to feed and thrive, and then it won't be long before an island will be formed there..."

Trees were also placed in such a manner and location to encourage boaters and floaters to stay away from the prime fish-rearing habitat closer to the banks. To do this it was necessary for Kugler to ease his machine into the river, but only infrequently. Even then, in order to reduce the disturbance to the river bottom and banks, Kugler placed logs against the fragile shoreline and riparian areas to reduce damage as the machine's crawler tracks rolled into and out of the river.

To further reduce soil damage, Kugler would place the bucket of the jammer on the earth in front of the equipment, then use that force to lift part of the crawler's tracks off the ground to make a turn, thereby reducing soil disturbance and avoid pine seedlings.

Restoring in-stream woody materials in the Metolius River will provide benefits for Chinook salmon, redband trout, bull trout, and other native fish populations and wildlife.

The project is expected to create approximately 30 percent more pool habitat.

The total cost for the tree placement and woody material project will exceed $600,000, and is supported by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Portland General Electric, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Deschutes National Forest.

Long-term monitoring over the next 10 years will provide valuable information about the success of the project as to improvement to fish habitat, recovery of the restoration sites, other wildlife uses and human impacts.