Volunteers measure health of Whychus Creek

Last Saturday, 16 dedicated volunteers met at Creekside Park in Sisters to learn more about the health and welfare of Whychus Creek, which flows through Sisters Country.

The goal is to monitor aquatic macroinvertebrates - the aquatic life stage of familiar arthropods such as stoneflies, caddisflies, and mayflies, all excellent indicators of stream health. On Whychus Creek, where extensive restoration work is taking place to improve habitat for returning steelhead and salmon, the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council (UDWC) is using macroinvertebrates to measure how stream conditions are changing as restoration progresses.

Aquatic biologists from the Xerces Society - the leading invertebrate conservation organization of the Northwest - along with the UDWC, has been conducting water ecology studies in Whychus at this time of year for over four years.

Celeste Mazzacano, aquatic conservation director for Xerces; Lauren Mork, monitoring coordinator for UDWC; and Michele Blackburn, staff scientist at Xerces, brought the equipment needed to conduct the aquatic invertebrate studies to Creekside while Mork and Mazzacano brought the volunteers up to speed on how to go about conducting the research.

During the introductions and before getting to understand the equipment everyone would be using, Lauren Mork presented a capsulated report of what's been going on with macroinvertebrates in Whychus.

•â¯Downstream reaches (Alder Springs to Rimrock Ranch) improved significantly from 2005 to 2009 and stabilized, with no significant improving or declining trend, from 2009 to 2013.

•â¯Camp Polk sites, in good or slightly impaired condition from 2005 to 2009, deteriorated to a moderately impaired to poor condition in 2011, with modest improvements observed in 2012 and 2013. Whychus Creek was diverted to the restored meadow channel in February 2012.

•â¯Upstream reaches, in the city of Sisters and immediately upstream, show mixed results. The simplest measure of biological integrity, abundance, proportion, and number of species of sensitive EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera) species, which are mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, showed a significant improvement from 2005-2012 and a decline from 2012-2013.

This was followed a lively show-and-tell by Celeste Mazzacano, Xerces Society Aquatic Conservation Director that concluded with lots of questions regarding protocols and procedures. After a short refueling of donuts, goodies and coffee - thanks to donations from Angeline's, Strictly Organic, Nancy P's Bakery, Great Harvest and Picky Bars - the volunteers split up and traveled to various stretches of Whychus from above Sisters to below Camp Polk and the Rimrock Ranch.

Mike Tripp, 68, an avid fisherman and member of Trout Unlimited, volunteered. Mike is also on the Bend Trout Unlimited and Deschutes River Conservancy boards. Helping right along with him was Herb Blank, also 68 and one of several volunteers who have been helping with the aquatic macroinvertebrate study right from the get-go, in 2010.

Another volunteer, Michale Slater, a grad student who is attending the Bend campus of OSU, was linking her Natural Resource & Sustainability course to the procedures of conducting the invertebrate study in Whychus.

"The sampling methods will help me with my degree," she said while resting from the soggy efforts of collecting samples from the creek.

At the end of the day, volunteers returned to Creekside Park with the collecting equipment, and Celeste and her team departed with thousands of macroinvertebrates and data she will use to take another look at Whychus Creek to further understand what's going on within the ecosystem of the creek.

Among the volunteers was Ted Wise and his 14-year old son, Lukas Strauss-Wise. Lukas is a student enrolled at REALMS in Bend, and like his dad, who is a fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, has more than a passing interest in freshwater ecology.

Lukas Strauss-Wise and his dad explored the stretch of Whychus Creek downstream from Camp Polk Meadow, recently restored by the Deschutes Land Trust.

"I wanted to jump on the opportunity to go out with my dad to see all the wonderful things that have happened to Whychus Creek," he said. "To see it restored to the meadow after being jammed against the bank for so many years.

"It's very important that we care about our creeks and rivers. We talked to people walking by, asking what we were doing when we got back to the park with the equipment and samples. We told them about all the work being done with Whychus to restore the fishery - and how great the place is."

Anyone interested in seeing the results from the last four years of work can contact Lauren Mork at [email protected]