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WILD SALMON RECOVERY Fallen tree debris at Howard Prairie is being used to create habitat for infant wild coho Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Aug. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Aug. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News ASHLAND — Who would have known that 80 mph winds that thrashed a Howard Prairie campground two winters ago would become just the ticket for wild salmon in the Bear Creek Basin while saving a little green in the process? But that's just what is happening this month, with nearly 100 large trees and root-wads salvaged from the February 2015 massive tree blowdown at the Howard Prairie Resort being transformed into wild coho salmon habitat. The trees and root-wads along with boulders and other woody debris are being strategically placed in Neil Creek outside of Ashland as well as portions of Little Butte Creek near the town of Lake Creek to improve salmon habitat. The structures will create cool pools for infant wild coho to survive and even thrive during their more than a year in freshwater before heading to the ocean as smolts, a time identified often as tenuous for Bear Creek Basin's wild coho. "If the trees just sat there, they would rot and become a fire hazard," says Denis Reich of The Freshwater Trust, which is overseeing this $1.5 million project for the federal Bureau of Reclamation. "Now these trees are doing what they're meant to do — rot in the right place and create habitat," Reich says. It's also coming at the right price. Using the blowdown instead of buying the logs for this project saves the bureau about $100,000, says Doug DeFlitch, the bureau's Bend Field Office manager. "It's a great deal for the taxpayer and the fish will love it, too," DeFlitch says. This is not, however, the benevolence of government at work. The projects are designed to help satisfy an agreement between the bureau and NOAA-Fisheries on how the Talent, Medford and Rogue River Valley irrigation districts can operate without harming wild coho. Wild coho in Southern Oregon and Northern California were listed in 1994 as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, which requires that federal activities and operations cannot kill or jeopardize protected species or their habitats. The bureau's Rogue River Project provides water to the three irrigation districts, and NOAA-Fisheries' 2012 biological opinion outlines ways to reduce impacts to wild coho and their habitat to keep the irrigation districts afloat. The opinion concludes that Bear Creek and Little Butte Creek sport plenty of spawning habitat for coho, so it focuses improvements — particularly in Bear Creek and tributaries like Neil Creek — on rearing habitat. The low summer flows leave Bear Creek too warm and oxygen-starved for young coho, and the lack of complex habitat, such as side-channels and woody debris, provides little refuge during winter freshets. Along with mandatory minimum summer stream flows and improved diversions such as the replacement of the Oak Street fish ladder in Ashland, the bureau already has spent more than $7 million toward fulfilling the terms of the biological opinion by the 2020 deadline, according to the agency. The Neil Creek work is being done where the creek flows through the historic Dunn Ranch, where nearly 18 acres of streamside riparian improvements were made last year. Non-native Himalayan blackberries and noxious Japanese knotwood were removed and replaced with native plants and new fencing to keep cattle from this working ranch out of the creek, Reich says. The trees are being positioned in the stream and anchored either by current trees or new boulders and cables, Reich says. Also, two stretches along the creek used to run cattle from one pasture to another will be graveled and fenced to reduce erosion and sediment runoff while being used, he says. The idea is to not only give Neil Creek wild coho a fighting chance but also help the landowner, a key symbiosis that makes fish habitat projects on private lands work for both sets of denizens, Reich says. "It's awesome to do a project where we can take care of the landowner and the creek," Reich says. "You give them the tools to be good stewards and they'll be good stewards." Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Aug. 10, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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