2005 Spring Current News, Clackamas River Basin Council

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the Clackamas the Clackamas the Clackamas the Clackamas the Clackamas Winter/Spring 2005

CURRENT NEWS CURRENT NEWS CURRENT NEWS CURRENT NEWS CURRENT NEWS The New sletter of the Clackamas R iver Basin Council

Over Two Tons of Refuse Cleanedfrom the Clackamas

What do a shopping cart, thirty-seven mismatchedflip-flops, a giant zucchini, a duck decoy, a bicycle,and eighteen hefty bags of aluminum beer canshave in common? Theyre just some of the itemsvolunteers pulled from the depths and shores of theClackamas River during the second annual Downthe River Clean Up on the Clackamas at the endof the summer recreation season.

Volunteers Come TogetherOn September 12, over one hundred and twentyvolunteers assembled at Carver Park in ClackamasCounty to be assigned a river section and given trashbags. A diverse gathering of the river community; localriver outfitters, kayakers, rafters and anglers stoodshoulder to shoulder with high school students,Clackamas County Marine Sheriff Department divers

and landowners - with the common goal to help carefor their river. With sections of the Clackamas seeingmore use over the years, long time river users havenoticed an increasing accumulation of trash alongriver. With a growing sense of concern, the communitycame together to take action. The group was organizedinto flotillas and assigned a river section to clean. Driftboats, oarboats and rafts were designated as garbagescows, and each was attended by a pod of kayakers.

Rolling on the RiverWhitewater kayakers showed their stuff as theydemonstrated their rolls, coming up with aluminum cans.Driftboats landed dripping bags of refuse rather thanshimmering steelhead. The volunteers scoured thirteenmiles of riverbanks and pools, from Barton Park toClackamette Park. Clackamas County Marine Sheriff Department divers cleaned several deep pools of spawned out aluminum cans. What these volunteersaccomplished in a manner of eight hours is nothing shortof phenomenal. Between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 5p.m. they removed over 4480 pounds of garbage fromthe waterway!

Staff from eNRG Kayaking,the Clackamas River BasinCouncil, and Portland State Universitys Outdoor

Recreation Program spearheaded the organizationaleffort that drew on the talents and resources of a diverseand motivated pool of volunteer river users that includedlocal residents; steelhead and salmon anglers; Estacadaand Grant High School students; PSUs OutdoorRecreation Program; the Oregon Kayak and Canoe Club;and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists .

Date Set for Third Annual Down the RiverClean Up on the ClackamaseNRG Kayaking and the CRBC have set a date for the

Third Annual Down the River Clean Up on theClackamas...Save this date: Sunday September11th.

Please join us! Volunteer to be involved on shore or onthe river. Well celebrate with a community barbecue atCarver Park when we finish the cleanup.To volunteer or for more information [email protected] or call 503.558.0550

Driftboats landed dripping bags of refuse rather than shimmeringsteelhead.


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InSeptemberthecouncilpartnered

witheNRGkayakingand PSUOutdoor

Recreation Program to organize and stagethe 2nd Annual Down the River Clean Upon the Clackamas . Over 120 communityvolunteers joined a flotilla that removed overtwo tons of refuse from the river betweenBarton and Clackamette Park. For moreabout thecleanup, seearticle on pagethree.

We held our4th AnnualWatershedCelebrationand Salmon

Bake at thePhillip Foster Farm in Eagle Creek.In spite of cool rainy weather over sixtycommunity members feasted on freshColumbia River Chinook, enjoyed thewatercolor paintings of riverside residentVirginia Rice, participated in an exciting

silent auction, andlistened to old timemusic by strollingmusician Mike

Gilbert. Manythanks to thehistoric PhillipFoster Farm andthe Jackknife-Zion-

Horse Heaven Historical Society for hostingus, to Dick and Donna Carlson for cooking,and to the Friends of Clyde Rice for joiningus.

Streamside ImprovementsWith a grant from the Oregon WatershedEnhancement Board the council leveragedgrant funding from several other sources toimplement instream stewardship projectsin partnership with streamside landownersand ODFW.

At Bargefeld Creek near Fishers Mill, aculvert that hindered fish passage at a Cohospawning area was removed and replacedwith a bridge. On Richardson Creek andUpper Clear Creek three large woodprojects were implemented to addcomplexity and structure for salmon andsteelhead habitat. We hired local contractors

to do thew o r k , bringingdol la rsinto thel o c a leconomy.

StrategicPlanningfor the FutureOver the past two years the council hasestablished a strong foundation forcollaborative partnerships in the watershed by engaging over a hundred landowners andcommunity organizations and agencies inour Watershed Assessments. TheAssessment compiles scientific informationabout the Clackamas Basin. It will providea scientific basis for prioritizing actions. Welook forward in the next few months and

coming years to working with communitygroups and watershed residents to developand implement a Watershed Action Plan; anadaptive plan of action that will guideprotection and enhancement of our waterquality and fish and wildlife habitat whichare so important to our quality of life and ahealthy sustainable economy.

Current Wit h the Watershed- The Clackam as River Basin Council in Action


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What Can I DoAbout Knotweed?

Streamside Stewards M ake A Difference

Streamside Restoration Crew Keeping Waterways WeedFree and Full of Trees

The Clackamas River Basin Council is pleased to announce thehiring of a new Riparian Projects Coordinator, Greg Ciannella. Gregcomes to us with experience working in streamside restoration,noxious weed management, and Geographical InformationSystems. Before coming to the council, Greg worked with MetroRegional Parks and Greenspaces co-managing Japanese KnotweedControl in the Clackamas Basin and leading invasive plant mappingon Metros Open Spaces. Accompanying Greg this year will be anAmeriCorps crew of three; June Mohler, Lacey Collins, and ChantEicke. As a team their focus will be to continue knotweed controlefforts and conduct riparian restoration along areas identified ashigh importance for water quality and fish and wildlife habitat.

Riparian Planting Takes Off Live on a Stream, Plant a Tree!

The winter and early spring months were busy for the StreamsideRestoration Crew as they worked with streamside landowners toget native trees and shrubs in the ground. Just upstream of thenewly replaced culvert along Bargefeld Creek, our crew andAmeriCorps volunteers planted hundreds of Western Red Cedarsand willow cuttings. The crew also worked with the CedarhurstNeighborhood Association along Spring Creek to remove invasive blackberry and plant native cedar and fir trees. Along Foster Creek,the crew helped three landowners to plant a total of 238 native

trees along the streambanks. In the City of Sandy, the crew workedalong Tickle Creek with a class from Portland State Universityplanting native trees and shrubs and removing English Ivy. Theprogram has also been working with Clackamas County work crewsplanting hundreds of trees along the banks of Goose Creek andEstacada Lake.

Streamside Restoration Incorporates Knotweed Control

The councils Streamside Restoration Program will shift gears inthe summer months to focus on knotweed control efforts along the

Lower Clackamas and its tributaries. We will continue to monitorprevious knotweed sites on the mainstem Clackamas and alongEagle, Bear, Delph, Dubois, Wade, Goose, and Clear Creeks. Ourgoal is to revisit previous knotweed sites to assess and treat if need be. This will also mark the first year entering the Deep Creek Basinto battle knotweed. We will embark on an outreach and educationcampaign to streamside landowners in the Basin, beginning in theheadwaters working downstream. Our goal is to work withvolunteer streamside landowners to identify knotweed locationswithin the Basin and to begin treatment.

Check Your Property.If you have Knotweed call usfor recommendations and helpwith control.

Avoid spreadingKnotweed.Be careful working around itas small fragments can easilyresprout if it gets into machin-ery or slash piles or are left inmoist places.

Because of Knotweeds largeroot system and strongability to resprout followingcutting, care must be takento successfully control it -Especially around water. Callour Knotweed Team at503.658.2708 for free assis-tance in eradicating thisnoxious plant from yourproperty.

If you are a streamsidelandowner in the Deep Creek Basin and have knotweed onyour property, we can provideyou free assistance for gettingrid of it. Please call GregCiannella, our RiparianProjects Coordinator, at503.658.2708 [email protected] for moreinformation.


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Board MemberSpotlight: Tw o BoardMem bers Honored

This fall, at our annual SalmonBake/Watershed Celebration, theClackamas River Basin Councilrecognized two special boardmembers for their exemplary con-tributions to the council.

Local educator Andrew Gilford ,was awarded The Cole Gardiner Stewardship Award.

Andrew represents Educationand Youth on our board and

serves as chair of the OutreachCommittee and as a member ofthe executive committee. He canalways be counted on to help staffcommunity outreach activities.

A Clackamas High School biol-ogy teacher, Andrew instucts ina way that inspires as well as edu-cates. His students say that An-drew helps them to actively ex-plore the world and to under-stand ecological relationships ina real, rather than theoretical way.This sometimes means gettingtheir feet wet and encountering bugs, but as student KrizthineGutierrez says, this is the bestclass!

Class activities might include vis-iting local creeks to take watersamples, teaching hands on sci-

ence activities to younger stu-dents, using the latest computertechnology to map natural re-sources, or interviewing local el-ders about the Clackamas theyknew in their youth. Last summerthe council sponsored Andrewstwo week long summer Water-shed Ecology class for fifteen lo-

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Many Thanks to Our Partners and Donors of 2004:

All Star Raft Company, The Art Institute of PortlandAunt Fannies Old Egg Shoppe & Mercantile, Baja Fresh, BarbaraColburn, Backyard Bird Shop, Baskin Robbins 31, Blue Sky RaftingCompany, Camp Collins, City of Estacada, City of Lake Oswego, City ofMilwaukie, Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, ClackamasCounty Department of Transportation and Development, ClackamasCounty Marine Sheriff, Clackamas County Soil and Water ConservationDistrict, Clackamas Fire District, Clackamas County Parks, ClackamasCounty Soil & Water Conservation District, Clackamas High School,Clackamas River Water, CM Meyers, Coho Productions, ConcordiaUniversity, Damascus Civic Club, Dave Harmon, Eagle Creek BartonCPO, Earlean Marsh, eNRG Kayaking, Estacada High School, Friends ofClyde Rice, Friends of Tickle Creek, Goddess Gallery, HigginsRestaurant, Jacknife Zion Horse Heaven Historical Society, JacquelineTommas, John L. Scott Realty, Lauren and Ken Rector, Lowell HannaStudios, Oak Lodge Water District, Oregon Department of Agriculture,Oregon Department of Fish and Game, Oregon DEQ, Oregon Parks andRecreation, Oregon Trout, Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation, OSUExtension, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Metro, NOAA, NW

Service Academy-AmeriCorps, Northwest Steelheaders, Papa MurphysPizza, The Philip Foster Farm, Pittock Mansion, PGE, Portland StateUniversity, River Network, Riverview Guest House Bed & Breakfast,Sandy Watershed Council, Sleepy Hollow Tree Farm, South Fork WaterBoard, Student Watershed Research Project, Sunrise Water, Three RiversLand Conservancy, Timberline Lodge Tim Simpkins & Family, TraegerIndustries, Trout Unlimited, USGS, USDA Forest Service, WaterEnvironment Services, Water Cycle Inc., Willamette Falls Hospital,Willamette Restoration Initiative

cal high school students. Get-ting fifteen high schoolers tovoluntarily take a summertimescience class is testimony to anoutstanding educator. ThanksAndrew, and to his wonderfulfamily who share him with us;wife Debra, son Asher anddaughter Elia.

Jacqueline Tommas wasawarded the Stevens River Watch Award . This award rec-ognizes the work of Stanley andthe late Hazel Stevens, long timeriver residents who worked toprotect the Clackamas River andwere instrumental in a Wild andScenic River designation for thismuch loved waterway.

Jacqueline is a local attorney whogrew up near Fishers Mill. Sherepresents the Friends of Central

Clear Creek on the CRBC board. Jackie is active on the boards ex-ecutive and land-use committees.Besides her legal expertise shehelps staff our outreach boothand shares her considerable skillsin pie baking and flower arrang-ing- something we all enjoy at ourannual watershed celebration.Thanks Jackie!


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Your Clackam as RiverWatershed Reflections

In our last newsletter we invitedfolks to share their thoughts, wordsand musings about the river andlandscape of the Clackamas RiverBasin. Below are some haiku thatmembers of the watershedcommunity submitted.

Quickly past my landa racing tributary

anxious to go home.-Jaime Daimon; Eagle Creek

Watching the fish spawn fulfillment at its finestdevotion yields bliss.

-Danette Ehlers; Clackamas FishBiologist

Think like a raindrop, fall and bring offerings to us

Clackamas River.-anonymous

To submit your ClackamasReflection for possible postingin future newsletters or on ourwebsite send to:[email protected]

When you drink the water, rememberthe spring.

-Chinese Proverb

Your Hom e May be Waterfront Property!

When it rains on your propertywhere does the water go?Some water may enter yourlawn and garden, but whatabout the rain that hits yourroof and driveway? If you livein a rural area the water thatflows off your gutters anddriveway may go into a ditchor drainageway that leads to acreek or wetland. If you live in amore residential part of thewatershed, the stormwater flows intostormdrains which typically drain directly to creeks.

Storm Drains Are Not a SewerI peered into those mysterious gaps on the curbs when I wassmall, dropping sticks down and wondering where they went.One day, my brother told me about the sewer monster thatmight grab me, and from that point on I assumed thesestormdrains went into the sewer. It was not until much laterin life that I realized that they drained to creeks and rivers.

If your driveway is near a stormdrain you have waterfrontproperty. How we treat our yards, gardens, roofs, streetsand parking lots determines how clean or dirty stormwaterrunoff is. Anything poured or discharged into a stormdrain

can flow directly into a creek or river with no treatment toprotect people, fish or wildlife from pollutants. This type ofpollution from diffuse sources is sometimes called non-pointsource pollution. While many people think that industry isthe biggest source of water pollution, the majority of impactsto our water comes from runoff that travels over urbanlandscapes, roadways and agricultural land. No matter wherewe live, we can positively or negatively impact our waterways.Some of the tributaries in our watershed are showing signs ofimpact and degredation. But the good news is that there aremany actions we can take that will help minimize these effects.Here are just a few.

Keep Your Lawn Green, the Stream Clean, and SaveMoneyBefore you purchase and reach for weed killer and chemicalfertilizer consider using less toxic alternatives. There are greatresources to help you go easy on the chemicals and get startedwith this sort of yard care. The Clackamas County Soil andWater Conservation District (CCSWCD) offers workshops onhow to keep your lawn green and remove moss and weeds

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without using too many expensiveand toxic products. FreeNaturescaping workshops willintroduce you to plants that areattractive and require less laborintensive care and water. By usingnaturescaping techniques you canoften lower your water bill whileproviding a safer habitat for bothpeople and wildlife. (Continued back)


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Clackamas River Basin CouncilP.O. Box 1869 Clackamas, OR 97015Phone: 503.558.0550Email: [email protected]

(continued from Page 5)Keep Soapy Water off the StreetsAs for your car, it is best washed at a carwashwhere the soapy water is recycled or sent to thesewer. However, if you must wash your car at

home, try to direct the water to a soil, lawn orgravel area rather than pavement. Try to sweepyour walks and driveway rather than hosing themdown. For more ideas on how you can make adifference at your waterfront property and helptake care of your watershed visitwww.cleanriversandstreams.org

Clackamas River Basin Council Watershed Calendar

June 19 Thunder Mountain Watershed View Hike Join us for a hike to the top of Thunder Mountain. This 5185 ft. peak is a remnant of a once large volcano. The broad top has some nice wildflower areas and views of the Cascade Range from Hood to the Three Sisters. Thishike is at the hard end of moderate with a continuous 1200 foot climb over two miles.Meet to carpool or caravan at 8:45 AM at the SE corner of the Clackamas Fred Meyers at 16301 SE 82nd near Exit12 (12A if from the North) off I-205. A 2nd meeting place for those east is 10 AM at Ripplebrook Ranger Station,61431 E Highway 224, 25 miles east of Estacada on the Clackamas River Road Highway 224. Bring water andpicnic lunch. Dress appropriately for the weather and have hiking footgear.

Citizens Snapshot Water Quality Monitoring Event- Rock and Richardson Creeks - July 16

Third Annual Down the River Clean Up on the Clackamas- Sunday, Sept. 11Join the CRBC, eNRG Kayaking and the Oregon Kayak and Canoe Club to clean up our river!

Documents

2005 Spring Current News, Clackamas River Basin Council