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Bear Creek wildlife abounds photo by Jim Craven By MELISSA MARTIN Jerry Vogt watched a white egret scoop a minnow into its beak. He spotted a green heron camouflaged against a willow tree. And he smiled at the merganser lined up with the mallards. But then his trained eye saw the unmistakable splash of a fall chinook salmon's strong tail creating a redd, or gravel nest, for its eggs. "Look at her use her tail to dig a hole in the gravel," the fish biologist said. "This has been a good year for chinook." The life cycle Every fall, adult chinook salmon leave their expansive Pacific Ocean home to begin a journey up the Rogue River to return to their birthplace. They travel up the tributary where their parents spawned, find a riffle and soft gravel bed, lay and fertilize the eggs and then die, their carcasses releasing nutrients into the stream. The eggs incubate, hatch and, in March or April, smolt migrate down the tributary and Rogue River, arriving in Gold Beach in late summer or fall. They feed on aquatic insects and small fish for three to six years, growing as big as 40 to 50 pounds. Then they journey back to their spawning grounds, just like their parents did. In Bear Creek in downtown Medford, the salmon jump wooden steps that replaced a major migration barrier - the Jackson Street dam. "It's amazing how many obstacles they have to overcome to get back to the stream where their parents spawned," said Jerry Vogt, fish biologist for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. With freeway traffic roaring on the viaduct above and businesses operating nearby, fall adult chinook salmon make their way through downtown Medford to spawn in Bear Creek this month. Each female will lay 3,000 to 5,000 eggs in the riffles of the urban creek, a male will fertilize them and then the pair will end their homeward journey in death. "We've seen some pretty big fish out here," said Ann Palasch, director of housekeeping at the Red Lion, situated on Bear Creek's banks in downtown Medford. "You'd think civilization would have driven them away by now," Palasch said. "But here it is, a peaceful spot in the middle of a hectic day." Volunteer surveyor Jim Hutchins counted 14 adult chinook near downtown and the Rogue Valley Mall and eight nests during a Wednesday creek walk. The adults were six to eight inches bigger than last year, including one carcass measuring 37 inches long, said Hutchins, a teacher with Oregon Stewardship, which involves elementary through high school students in wildlife habitat improvement projects, public access programs and other environmental education activities. "That tells me that ocean conditions are right and there is good food for steelhead and salmon to feed on," he said. Downtown shopkeeper Randy Geroux said he and his sons watch for spawning salmon when they walk to work in the mornings. "It always surprises me to see wildlife in a creek that has so much pollution in it," said Geroux, owner of Messinger Shoe Repair. "We're starting to see more wildlife - muskrats, ducks, frogs. But when you're on the bridge looking down, you can also see a bicycle and a shopping cart in the water." Urban pollution doesn't bother chinook spawning runs as much as one might expect, Vogt said. More important is whether there are ample midges and other insects that can tolerate the water's low oxygen levels and whether the water is cold enough. On Wednesday, it measured 59 degrees Fahrenheit, said Hutchins, who walked the creek wearing waders to survey fish. "Trash and high bacteria levels in the creek are more of a problem for humans," Vogt said. "What impacts fish more is development along the stream, when sediment is stirred up and disturbs the incubating eggs. Also in highly-urbanized streams, storm drains entering the water may contain contaminants. At low flow levels, (the chemicals) are not diluted." Water quality is an issue in a creek that runs through the middle of town, picking up runoff water from streets and parking lots as it flows. But chinook battle natural predators too - king fishers, great blue herons and raccoons that dine on juvenile salmon and steelhead. And non-native shiners and mosquito fish, used to keep mosquito populations down in many Jackson County ponds, also compete with the treasured species. But the Bear Creek salmon survival rate is a success story, biologists say. Out of this polluted urban creek came 47,000 chinook smolt counted in a trap at the mouth of Bear Creek last March through June. (A 25-river-mile stream, Bear Creek flows from its head at Emigrant and Walker creeks near the Ashland airport to its mouth at the Rogue River near Gold Ray Dam.) "A lot of people in Medford don't realize this creek is filled with fish and wildlife," Vogt said. "If they did realize it, they might not take it for granted and they might take better care of the habitat." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.