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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News AP Entertainment Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Holiday Guide Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend December 22, 2006 Click image for larger view Volunteers Bob Bessey and Jerry Burke check a fish trap at the start of Lazy Creek, (Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli) Life on Lazy Creek 'It looks like a storm drain, a nothing creek,' but look closer — you'll find juvenile steelhead seeking refuge By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune East Medford's Lazy Creek offered little evidence Thursday of its potential to nurture wild steelhead in the Bear Creek drainage. Its water, when flowing, appears more like a lukewarm latte than a cold-water steelhead stream. Its riparian zones are ravaged by nonnative Himalayan blackberries or mowed clean, and those are the least of its issues. A long-abandoned concrete dam not 40 yards from the creek's mouth blocks upstream fish passage in all but the highest of flows, while box culverts under city streets put a double-whammy on fish attempting to run this concrete gantlet. "It looks like a storm drain, a nothing creek," says Bob Bessey, a retired federal Bureau of Land Management biologist. "It appears so insignificant." But a little fish trap nestled downstream of the five-foot dam is showing Bessey and others that Lazy Creek could become an important player in the basin's ability to produce more wild steelhead for the Rogue River. Advertisement The trap is breaking records for the numbers of juvenile steelhead captured as they turn to Lazy Creek for refuge from high, cold Bear Creek winter flows. During one 25-minute span Thursday, five 4-inch steelhead swam into the trap. That brought the total to 211 juvenile steelhead since the experimental trap was installed Nov. 9. That's far more fish than trapped last year at nearby Larson Creek, Lazy Creek's more respected upstream neighbor. "This is one of the most exciting samplings I've ever done," says Chuck Fustish, a 30-year veteran biologist of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who is overseeing the sampling. Now Fustish and Bessey hope to parlay their excitement into action. The pair have joined with a host of others in exploring ways to raise money to remove the dam and redesign the culverts to make them more fish-friendly. Removing the dam and improving the unfriendly culverts could open the lower mile of Lazy Creek for use by juvenile steelhead during winter storms, Fustish says. That means baby steelhead hiding out in Bear Creek Park, behind the Human Bean coffee stand and behind a series of houses and apartment complexes all the way to a culvert where the creek disappears underground at the intersection of Siskiyou Boulevard and Black Oak Drive. "It could be used to a point of saturation — one fish per cubic yard of water," Fustish says. Lazy Creek doesn't have to be a full-fledged spawning creek to aid wild salmon in the Bear Creek basin. Native salmon spend up to two years in freshwater before migrating down the Rogue River to the ocean as smolts. They require complex habitat for food and space, with even small tributaries such as Lazy Creek playing a role. While Bear Creek chugged along from storm runoff this week, steelhead darted from the muddy, 36-degree stream in favor of the slower, 42-degree water of lower Lazy Creek. "All these little things add up," says Bessey, one of a group of volunteers who regularly check the trap. Organizers hope data collected there throughout the winter will add up to grant money to remove the old dam and rework the culverts. Craig Harper, water resources program manager for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, says he is trying to put together a coalition of government agencies and non-profit organizations to fund the design, dam removal and alterations to the culverts. The Washington-based advocacy group American Rivers has expressed interest in helping fund some work. The city of Medford also will consider some in-kind assistance and possibly some money from its upcoming biennium budget, says Brian Sjothun, director of the Medford Parks and Recreation Department. Harper says he plans to apply for grants through the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and other sources next spring. If funding comes through next fall, then the project will be designed next winter, he says. "The plan is to take that dam out in the summer of 2008," Harper says. "I hope that's how it happens. We'll see." In the meantime, trapped young steelhead get carried in a bucket of water past the dam and the culverts for release in Lazy Creek behind two apartment complexes. The trap will remain in place until late February, when it will be turned around to trap fish escaping Lazy Creek for Bear Creek, Fustish says. "You never know what you're going to get," Fustish says. "That's what makes this cool." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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