Project is transforming creek

Sometimes it takes a lot of human intervention to make things natural.

That's what work crews are up to over about 176 acres of woods along Forest Service Road 16 south of Sisters. Now that Whychus Creek runs unfettered by irrigation dams, work crews are spending the summer helping Mother Nature create new, more natural stream channels and creating in-stream habitat with logs and gravel to make miles of stream more hospitable to fish.

They'll also be replacing the pedestrian bridge over Whychus Creek at the old Brooks-Scanlon Road.

The whole area is closed, with access roads gated and blocked off to prevent private vehicles or folks on foot from tangling with some of the massive heavy equipment rumbling through the forest hauling and pushing dirt and gravel and picking up and emplacing logs.

The closure, which has been in place since June, will end as soon as the bridge is completed, according to fish biologist Mike Riehle. That is expected to happen in late September.

The creek naturally wants to fan out in this area upstream of Pine Meadow Ranch, where a concrete irrigation diversion was removed last spring. The restoration work assists and enhances a network of braided channels. Riehle and Mathias Perle of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council told The Nugget that the project covers 1-1/4 mile of "valley length." With that comes three miles of perennial creek channel and five to six miles of seasonal channels that the water flows into during the winter.

Some of the heavy work involves filling in channels that were scoured many feet deep when the creek was confined. That involves some 40,000 cubic yards of gravel and a whole bunch of fill dirt.

Robinson & Owen Heavy Construction, who won the contract for the project, has eight personnel on site, operating two excavators, a bulldozer, several huge off-highway dump trucks and a water truck.

Marc Rickabaugh, who was out supervising on the job last week, said the work is fun. The operators don't have to deal with vehicle traffic and get to do work that they don't ordinarily do.

"These are good operators," he said.

They have to be to stay "light on the land" - to the degree that's possible with multi-ton equipment. And they are maneuvering around trees and on very uneven surfaces.

"It's definitely not normal construction work," Riehle said. "You have to think differently."

One excavator was at work last week picking up logs that had been cut during the initial phase of the project and depositing them into the stream channel, following hand signals from hydrologist Cari Press.

Her job is about engineering good, natural channels.

"I look at it more in (terms of) channel function," Press said. "The purpose of all our wood structures is to dissipate stream energy; to slow it down."

That has a beneficial effect for fish, Riehle explained, as the excavator operator swung the bucket of his rig into the butt end of a log to seat it amid a tangle of other logs.

"It splits the flow and creates gravel disposition," he said.

When the creek floods, it scours out areas around such obstructions.

"When the flood recedes, that's a nice pool," Riehle said.

And all of that creates good habitat for fish. The ultimate goal is to see Whychus become rearing habitat for young fish. And, perhaps we will see the return of steelhead runs.

It took a determined effort to begin to return the creek to a more natural state, and it took partnerships. Those partnerships include the Forest Service; Deschutes River Conservancy; the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council; the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; PGE; the Deschutes Land Trust; and a variety of private landowners, all of whom have worked separately and in concert to restore these waters.

Riehle and Perle emphasized the importance of last spring's removal of the PMR dam. PMR agreed to the removal and received assistance in establishing a new diversion point, along with more efficient irrigation systems that take less water from the creek.

"That's kind of what unlocked the process," Perle said.

There will be planting of riparian vegetation, but Mother Nature has already jumped into action as channels become more numerous and shallower, with water closer to the surface.

"We're already seeing things green up and the plants respond," Perle noted.

The replacement of the bridge will also enhance creek health. There won't be any center piers on the new bridge, so it won't pile up debris in heavy flows and become a pinch-point on the stream. The span will be much broader -

125 feet.

The closure area covers some very popular spots for forest recreation, and folks have had to be patient with being excluded from some favorite spots all summer. But the closure will end within weeks, and when people return to hiking the area and playing in the creek, it will be a healthier, more beautiful Whychus Creek than ever.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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