|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 click photo to enlarge |
Pine Creek Ranch in north Central Oregon is being transformed steadily from cattle ranch to wildlife habitat.
Through the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, the 35,000-acre ranch was acquired in 1999 and 2001 as partial mitigation for the impacts of hydropower dams on fish and wildlife. Today the ranch is managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, and the once-productive habitat is being restored.
Pine Creek flows into the John Day River near Clarno, Oregon. Pine Creek Ranch includes about 10 miles of steelhead spawning and resident trout habitat on Pine Creek. Pine Creek provides spawning and rearing habitat for one of the few remaining native steelhead populations in the lower John Day River Basin. Wildlife observed on the ranch include mule deer, pronghorn antelope, Rocky Mountain elk, black bear, cougar, bobcat, mink, river otter and bighorn sheep. The ranch provides important wintering habitat for deer and elk.
Periods of uncontrolled cattle grazing, particularly along the stream banks, degraded habitat for fish and wildlife in and along Pine Creek by causing severe erosion. The erosion covered spawning gravels and decimated steelhead and trout populations, according to a 1987 report by the Wheeler Soil and Water Conservation District. The loss of streamside vegetation and the trampled banks caused by cattle, combined with flash floods caused by summer thunderstorms, resulted in deep downcutting at many places along Pine Creek — up to 10 feet in places.
| "This
is natural growth and recovery after removal of livestock. We have
seen extensive growth of riparian vegetation." Mark Berry, habitat manager Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation |
|
 |
|
Through its management of the ranch, the Warm Springs Tribes are improving habitat for fish and wildlife and also protecting the water, archeological and geological resources on the property. The tribes removed livestock from the damaged streamside areas and are working to control noxious weeds and juniper trees, which consume groundwater year-round.
The tribes' work follows on work already accomplished by the Conservation District. In 1987, the Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) funded the district to carry out a two-phase restoration project that included grazing plans, removal of juniper trees, fence construction, construction of rock structures to control erosion, willow planting along the stream banks and irrigation management.
Two examples of the restoration work are shown below. The culvert on Pine Creek, photographed in February 2002, was a fish passage barrier and contributed to bank erosion. It was removed and replaced with three rock weirs and juniper rootwads to prevent further erosion. The culvert removal was a cooperative project between the Conservation District and the tribes, with design funding from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and construction funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bonneville Power Administration, which funds the Council's fish and wildlife program.
 A Pine creek culvert that was contributing to erosion |
 The same area after removing the culvert and rebuilding the creek channel |
|
 Pine Creek in 1990, damaged by livestock overgrazing |
 Pine Creek in 2003, after livestock were removed and vegetation grew back |
|
The two photos above, taken from the same location on Pine Creek in 1990 and 2003, show what can happen when cattle are removed and streambanks — the riparian area — are allowed to revegetate naturally. The photo on the left was taken in 1990 by Oregon Trout and provided to OWEB to demonstrate that grazing management practices needed to change. Year-round cattle grazing was negating the benefits of an earlier habitat restoration project undertaken by the Conservation District. A subsequent management change led to better grazing practices — cattle were kept away from the creek — and allowed riparian vegetation to recover. The photo on the right shows the same location in 2003.
"This is natural growth and recovery after removal of livestock. We have seen extensive growth of riparian vegetation," said Mark Berry, the tribes' habitat manager at Pine Creek Ranch.
Habitat restoration is a slow process, particularly in an arid area like north Central Oregon. While riparian areas can revegetate quickly once the damaging impacts are corrected, other elements of habitat recovery, such as improving the water table by removing junipers and noxious weeds that soak up groundwater, will take much longer, Berry said. The tribes expect fish and wildlife populations to rebound over time, but it is too soon — most of the work has been accomplished since 1999 — to see specific population increases, Berry said.
Over the long-term, the ranch has potential to serve as a model for watershed recovery and wildlife habitat management in the lower John Day Basin.
home
