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40 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, November 15, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 13, 2004 Bill Rittenhouse of Medford plants an ash seedling Friday morning along a reconstructed bank of the Rogue River below the Table Rocks. Such work will help strengthen rebuilt banks that will push the Rogue back into its historic channel at the site. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Wanted: One gully-washer Rogue River project shows some signs of getting the flow back in the right direction By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Geologists armed with bulldozers, boulders and thousands of native plants have succeeded in nudging a sliver of the upper Rogue River back to its proper channel abandoned by flood waters seven years ago. Now it’s up to nature this winter to steer more of the Rogue away from threatening future damage to private lands and back where it can reclaim more than a mile of key salmon habitat, authorities say. More than four years of work arewinding down on the $1.3 million project to repair damage caused when waters in the 1997 New Year’s Day flood blasted through a series of abandoned riverside gravel pits upstream of Gold Ray Dam. And so far, two new gravel bars have risen in the reach thanks to a series of jetty-like rock bars that have helped winter storm flows scour a river path north toward its historic path nearer the Table Rocks. Project designers hope a nice little gully-washer — the kind of relatively minor storm "event" that happens about 10 times every century — will build up the bars even more and push more water back to the pre-flood channel next year. Advertisement "It really was something to see those new gravel bars," says E. Frank Schnitzer, the state geologist overseeing the so-called Rogue River Stakeholders’ Group project. "We’d like to see a 10-year (flood) event here soon, hopefully this winter," Schnitzer said. "That will show what these structures we’ve put in will do." But Schnitzer and crew aren’t sitting around waiting for rain. Volunteers this weekend are helping plant 2,000 more native trees to further shore up a 75-foot earthen berm now keeping the Rogue from meandering farther from its pre-flood path. The Oregon ash, alders, cottonwoods, maples and pines will produce roots that will strengthen the berm. The trees eventually will help reduce erosion from future floods as well as provide refuge and even food for infant salmon. "I think this is great," says Bill Rittenhouse, a 70-year-old Medford man and one of several Rogue Flyfishers Association members who have volunteered tree-planting time for the project. "I’d like to come back 10 or 15 years and see these trees become a forest," Rittenhouse said. "Then all this work would be worth it." The Rogue historically has flowed north of abandoned gravel pits that once produced the rock used for much of Interstate 5. The pits, which were flooded, were separated by a 250-foot berm. Then a December 1996 flood punctured the berm, sending the Rogue gushing into an old state gravel pit. A week later, the New Year’s Day flood eroded the berm, sending half the Rogue flows through the pond, to reach the river’s old course about a mile downstream. Eventually, gravel blocked the old channel, which was once prime salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Seeing the danger of more erosion, a group of local, state and federal agencies as well as private businesses and volunteer groups formed the stakeholders’ group. They got the funding, designed the rechanneling project and earned the necessary permits for the effort. The idea was to create enough in-stream structures to entice the Rogue to push itself back into the old channel. Work began in 2002, and Schnitzer said at least some water flowed through the old channel throughout the summer. David Haight, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the results so far were encouraging, but a recent survey did not find any spring chinook salmon spawning yet in the old channel. The project could help jump-start projects in stretches of rivers like the Willamette, said Lance Clark, a natural resources adviser to Gov. Ted Kulongoski. "You’re always hoping to see a complex resource problem solved," said Clark, who recently visited the site. "It’s a blueprint for how to actually do the work and do collaboration among stakeholders." Volunteers needed this weekend You don’t need a green thumb to help with this project on the upper Rogue River. Volunteers are welcome today and Sunday at the Rogue Stakeholders’ Group tree-planting project off High Banks Road near White City. Volunteers will plant trees in pre-dug holes. Work begins at 8 a.m. each day, but volunteers are welcome to a 7 a.m. breakfast at the site. For information and directions, call E. Frank Schnitzer, the project’s coordinator, at (541)619-4651. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities