Prineville District employees restore creek, teach others to do the same

Over the summer, Prineville District employees jumped into the deep end of creek restoration—hosting a workshop and implementing a stream restoration project at the same time.

During the month of July, hydrologists, fisheries biologists, and other natural resource specialists gathered at Whychus Creek near Sisters, Oregon. In one section of the creek, Prineville District employees hosted a workshop that taught participating partner agencies to install low-tech, creek-restoring structures. In another, Deschutes Field Office employees worked with interns and student trainees to install some of those same kinds of structures over a mile-long stretch.

According to Wesley Noone, hydrologist, restoration projects like these help revitalize habitat for native species.

“Restoration creates better spawning, rearing, and migratory habitat for salmon and steelhead and enhances wildlife habitat for aquatic insects, birds, and mammals,” he said.

The workshop was part of a larger course on low-tech restoration techniques taught by Utah State University and the BLM National Operations Center.

At Whychus Creek, participants installed several dozen structures, including post-assisted log structures and beaver dam analogues. Put simply, post-assisted log structures are piles of cut wood while beaver dam analogues are essentially human-made beaver dams.

Participants from the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Resources Conservation Service, NOAA Fisheries, and the BLM learned the principles and techniques of low-tech restoration and how to design and build the structures in levels one and two of the course. Getting out to Whychus Creek and implementing those principles was part of the level two course.

According to Wesley, the workshop was a “huge success with over 50 participants.”

At the same time, Deschutes Field Office employees and USFS Deschutes National Forest staff worked with students and interns to install some post-assisted log structures and beaver dam analogues of their own.

Wesley and Christi Kruse, fish biologist, taught Baxter Milsap, Northwest Youth Corps intern, as well as Addison Schuette and Will Niskanen, BLM Natural Resource Monitoring student trainees, how to properly use their equipment, install the structures, and work under an adaptive management framework.

The project was particularly significant for Wesley, who was once a student himself at Whychus Creek. While in high school, Welsey planted trees in the same area to assist with stream recovery.

Wesley’s restoration work has been a part of Whychus Creek’s past and, he hopes, part of its future as well.

“A year from now, plants may begin to grow, beavers may move into the area and construct dams, and the creek may find its ‘natural’ course,” he said. “Ten years from now, a riparian forest may develop and provide shade for the creek, food for animals, and better quality habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species.”

There are many who share Wesley’s vision for the creek’s future.

“The restoration of Whychus Creek is a story of collaboration,” he said, specifically naming Portland General Electric and Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, who helped with funding, and the Deschutes Land Trust and Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, who facilitated access to the stream during the workshop.

“We are extremely grateful for the partnerships between watershed councils, universities, land preserves, and other agencies that help us accomplish this work,” Wesley continued. “We are also grateful for our interns who were a huge help this summer during the restoration and for our leadership staff at the BLM who supported these efforts.”