ADAM PEARSON
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it August 27, 2006

The individual members of Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers may not always see eye-to-eye, but their collaborations have earned a 2006 Take Pride in America award.

Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, comprised of landowners, industrialists, ranchers, conservationists, recreationists and other interest groups, strives to improve water quality and fish runs in the Umpqua watershed.

Because the watershed is a hodgepodge of federal, state, county and privately owned lands, the partnership’s main obstacle is bringing different interest groups together on a level playing field.

“That’s what we do — irregardless of who the landowners are,” said Bob Kinyon, executive director of Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers.

On Sept. 14, the partnership will be recognized for its workings — with over a dozen other Take Pride in America award recipients from around the country — at a formal awards ceremony at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

Take Pride in America is an initiative of the U.S. Department of the Interior and is a nationwide partnership program. Its goal is to inspire the care of public lands by citizens.

The announcement earlier this month that the partnership had been chosen for the award took its members off guard. They weren’t even aware their organization had been nominated.

“We were tremendously surprised,” said Jake Gibbs, president of the partnership’s board.

Jake Winn, restoration coordinator for the Roseburg-based Bureau of Land Management, nominated Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers for the Take Pride in America award because, he said, the organization is instrumental in BLM’s stream improvement projects.

“We’ve been partnering with them closely in restoration work that spans ownership boundaries,” Winn said, which “allowed us to restore entire streams instead of bits and pieces.”

Because BLM land exists in a checkerboard format on either side of the Umpqua Valley, a myriad of land ownership exists in the in-between gaps.

Winn said the BLM had not undertaken the complexity of approaching numerous landowners for collaborative streamenhancement projects before the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers’ formation, more than 10 years ago.

Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers was previously known as the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council, until changing its name in December 2005. The organization originally formed in 1992 and called itself Umpqua Basin Fisheries Restoration Initiative.

Now, Winn says, the organization serves as the federal agency’s essential intermediary with landowners. “They’re all at the table,” Winn said.

Over the last decade, the partnership has worked closely with a wide variety of landowners and agencies for projects such as tree planting, fencing, livestock crossings, stock water, in-stream log and boulder structures, culvert replacements, volunteer water-quality testing, watershed assessments and public education and outreach.

Kinyon said the partnership completed $2 million worth of restoration work this past fiscal year. BLM provided $639,000 of that funding with other sources, providing $1.3 million in matching funds.

“With their help we have been able to accomplish work that previously seemed out of reach,” said Jay Carlson, the BLM’s Roseburg district manager, in a press release.

This year’s Take Pride in America award winners were chosen from nominations representing individuals, groups and projects from 32 different states. Representing Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, Gibbs, Debbie Thornton, the partnership’s fiscal manager, board member Sandy Lyon and treasurer Chuck Schnautz will travel to the nation’s capitol to accept the award. Winn will travel on behalf of the BLM.

“It’s a big deal to us,” Gibbs said.

You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ADAM PEARSON
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it April 21, 2006

UMPQUA — The bedrock channels of Hubbard and Buffalo creeks are smooth as granite and often angled like water park slides — funneling water in chutes that migrating fish can’t navigate for spawning.

But that was before last fall.

A few miles south of the main Umpqua River, where Buffalo Creek flows into Hubbard Creek, newly placed boulder clusters provide current breaks for migrating fish. Debris collects in front of boulders and creates natural cover for juvenile fish to hide under from predators. And pebbles rest in pools behind boulders as spawning grounds where none existed before.

“What we’re doing here is mimicking nature,” said Dan Jenkins, habitat restoration biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Roseburg. “Prior to it, there was nothing here. It was just bedrock.”

The fish habitat improvement project replaces debris that was taken out of the channels decades ago, when it was believed that faster-moving water was more beneficial to spawning habitat.

“It turned out that was not the case,” said Bob Kinyon, executive director for Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers.

When fish biologists realized that migrating fish need debris in stream beds to hide and rest behind, ODFW and Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers came together to improve fish habitat on public and private lands.

Landowners who see a need for habitat improvement in streams that pass through their property can contact either agency to survey the situation.

In the fall of 2004, Sandy Clifford contacted Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers — which was then known as the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council — and informed it that coho salmon were unable to migrate from Hubbard Creek and into the opening of Buffalo Creek adjacent to her house.

The tributary’s opening is steep and narrow, with a torrent of water passing through it. She said if a fish made it past the torrent, it often found itself getting swept back down the chute after not being able to find a spot to rest.

Above the chute, water moved rapidly across bedrock so smooth “you could skateboard down it,” Clifford said.

So Jenkins surveyed the situation. He found only 40 yards of spawning habitat in 14 miles of Hubbard Creek, upstream from the main Umpqua River and above Buffalo Creek. And he also found the mouth of Buffalo Creek to be swift, a challenge for fish to get past and reach a couple of miles of spawning habitat above it.

“It was good habitat but the fish couldn’t access it,” Jenkins said of the rest of Buffalo Creek.

Clifford had lived in her house for a couple of years before contacting Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers about the migration problem fish had in Buffalo Creek. Each fall she noticed about 50 salmon collected in a pool at the opening of the creek, repeatedly trying to swim up the chute.

Sometimes a fish would be successful, but it would eventually get swept away because there was more swift water to deal with and nowhere to rest.

Hubbard and Buffalo creeks flow mostly through private lands that were cleared for development many years ago. Without thick forest on either side of the creeks, the chances for the creeks to collect fallen trees and debris as natural fish habitat over the years were greatly lessened.

Last summer, ODFW and a habitat-improvement crew placed boulders in Hubbard Creek — below and above Buffalo Creek — and also in Buffalo Creek above the chute.

A couple of months later, Clifford noticed coho salmon passing the Buffalo Creek chute and staying above it.

“There’s a lot more pools for them to rest in before making it up that chute,” Clifford said of Hubbard Creek’s new conditions.

Since boulders were placed, Jenkins said debris and pebbles collected at a much higher rate than expected. This year’s early floods pushed debris downstream and deposited it around boulders at a rate that would have normally taken about three or four years to collect.

The boulders’ size — with some averaging 1.5 to 2 cubic yards, at a minimum requirement of 1 cubic yard — allowed them to stay in place during the floods.

On Wednesday, salmon fry could be seen swimming in pools behind boulder clusters and underneath debris in Hubbard and Buffalo creeks. They were the spawn of salmon that had navigated the creeks just a few months before.

“That’s our future swimming around in there,” Jenkins said.

You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .