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Together with Partnership for Umpqua Rivers, the Cow Creeks have designed plans to make Jordan Creek more habitable for fish.
By Adam Pearson
CANYONVILLE — Anadromous fish — ocean dwellers that swim upstream in fresh water to spawn — have had a hard time making a go in Jordan Creek ever since Interstate 5’s construction in 1966.
Just a few hundred yards west of where Jordan Creek empties into the South Umpqua River, lays the rumbling freeway.
The creek is a ribbon of water about four miles long that flows west to east. It experiences high flows during heavy rains and in the fall and winter rips a torrent through its 357-foot long culvert — which is a major problem for migrating fish.
With nothing in the square culvert to slow moving water, and nothing for fish to rest behind, the culvert becomes a chute of raging water that fish can’t swim against.
Yet that might all change with a project conceived by the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians.
With some stream habitat placement in the works upstream, the Cow Creeks have persuaded the Oregon Department of Transportation to bolt V-log weirs in the bottom of the I-5 culvert about every 10 feet so it becomes a man-made fish passage instead of a man-made fish obstacle.
“Ideally, we would like a bridge,” said Amy Amoroso, natural resource director for the Cow Creeks.
But since Jordan Creek doesn’t become so much of a torrent to justify bridge construction — at least it didn’t 40 years ago — and the work itself would cost in the millions — according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials — weirs it is.
Together with Partnership for Umpqua Rivers, the Cow Creeks have designed plans to make Jordan Creek more habitable for fish so it’s not left to just salamanders.
Jordan Creek flows through privately owned land before it reaches Cow Creeks land on the west side of I-5. But it’s in the Cow Creeks’ area where the stream loses some natural surroundings: it flows through the middle of a recreational vehicle park that is currently under construction by the tribe.
“What we’re looking to do is balance our economic plans with a steward aspect. We know we can get fish back in the stream,” Amoroso said.
The 191-space RV park can be an educational experience for tourists who stay there if habitat improvements to Jordan Creek bring back fish, Amoroso said.
Pending a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board of ODFW, Amoroso said information kiosks will be placed around the creek so tourists can learn about the migration patterns of steelhead and salmon. The grant would also fund tree planting alongside the creek for riparian improvements.
The RV park is located just north of the Seven Feathers Truck & Travel Center.
The Cow Creeks are currently placing some behemoth boulders in Jordan Creek so they will slow high flows and force debris such as pebbles and rocks to come to rest and create fish habitat.
“Overall, the goal is to create stream complexity,” Amoroso said.
Bill Cannady, a habitat restoration biologist for ODFW and the lead scientist on the Jordan Creek project, said the boulders will help create a scour in the stream channel and build a bed of stones above — with pools created behind the boulders.
On a recent trip Tuesday to view habitat work in Jordan Creek with Partnership for Umpqua Rivers, Dan Jenkins, a habitat restoration biologist for ODFW, spotted a few coho fry in the creek upstream of I-5.
Jenkins said the fry are evidence that spawning fish made it past the culvert this past winter, but their number is also evidence of what kind of obstacle the culvert presents when there’s nothing in it to slow stream flow.
“Thing is, you should have a lot of coho in here,” Jenkins said.
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