Marmot & Little Sandy Dam Removal
Final Report
August 2009
Bruce McCammon Photography 10691 NW Harding Ct.
Portland, OR 97229 www.bpmphotography.com
Contract Number AG-046W-P-07-0099
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Photopoint Locations ................................................................................................................................... 1
Field Technique .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Station identification ...................................................................................................... 4
Camera setup and photography ............................................................................... 5
Image Post-processing ................................................................................................................................ 5
RAW conversion ............................................................................................................... 5
Directory structure ......................................................................................................... 6
File naming convention................................................................................................. 7
Panorama creation .......................................................................................................... 8
Results ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 29
Site Reference photos ................................................................................................. 30
Camera setup .................................................................................................................. 32
1
Introduction
This report is submitted to the USDA Forest Service, Mount Hood National Forest as substantial
completion of contracted work. The contract was designed to provide photographic coverage of
channel, riparian and dam areas in the vicinities of the Marmot Dam and the Little Sandy Dam prior
to and after dam removal. This report contains photos and information that spans the period June
2007 to September 2008. This timeframe covers the pre- and post-removal periods at the Marmot
Dam site and the pre-removal and immediate post-removal periods at the Little Sandy Dam site.
Additional information will be added to this report when the final set of photos is taken in August
or September of 2009. The additional photos to be added will show conditions at the Little Sandy
Dam area after one high flow season as well as additional photos of the Marmot Dam sites.
The monitoring conducted under this contract was part of a coordinated monitoring plan involving
federal, state and private organizations. The primary photopoint locations were coordinated with
and accepted by the US Forest Service (Mt. Hood National Forest and Pacific Northwest Experiment
Station), the USGS, the City of Portland and the Sandy River Watershed Council. The photo
monitoring covered here was also coordinated with academic institutions that are involved in
monitoring and analyzing the effects of the removal of the Marmot and Little Sandy dams.
This contract was initiated by the Mt. Hood National Forest. Dan Shively is the designated
Contracting Officer Representative. Connie Athman provided contract inspection and coordination
service. Todd Parker, Zig Zag Ranger District, Mt. Hood National Forest provide valuable field
information and access coordination.
Photopoint locations
The photo monitoring strategy was pretty simple – establish a series of locations that could
be revisited to allow sequential photography to record changes in the channel and riparian
zones along the Sandy and Little Sandy Rivers in the vicinity of the Marmot and Little Sandy
dams. One of the coordinated monitoring group partners requested that the initial set of
photo point locations be increased to include shots from several bridges crossing the Sandy
River and Bull Run River. Five bridges were added – four crossing the Sandy River and one
crossing the Bull Run River. Figure 1 shows the general location of the photo points in
context with the Sandy River watershed.
Locating the photo points on the ground was complicated by the robust deciduous and
coniferous riparian plant community. While access to the areas is quite good, finding sites
that offered visibility of the channel in both upstream and downstream directions was
much more limited. Every attempt was made to locate the photo points so that the site
would not be affected by channel changes after dam removal. It didn’t always work that
way. Two sites, M1 and M2, were totally destroyed during the removal of Marmot dam or
shortly after the dam removal.
2
Site M1 was located above Marmot dam. The Sandy River channel adjusted tens of feet
laterally and 10 to 15 feet vertically after dam removal. The bank that site M1 had been on
was totally removed by these channel adjustment. Site M2 was initially located near the
dam in an area believed to be safe from dam deconstruction activity. This proved to be an
error since the entire site was totally regraded during dam deconstruction. The M1 and M2
sites were replaced with sites M1A and M2A, respectively.
Figure 1. Photopoint locations
Additionally, the first site located at the mouth of the Sandy River (SRD1) was replaced by a
location downstream to provide more elevation above the river and a more encompassing
view of the river and delta area.
3
Station Latitude Longitude Description
M1A N45⁰ 23’ 56” W122⁰ 07’ 42” Uppermost station on Sandy River
M2A N45⁰ 24’ 01” W122⁰ 07’ 55” Upslope along low standard access road to
site M1A; in the Marmot dam vicinity
M3 N45⁰ 23’ 57” W122⁰ 08’ 13” Below Marmot dam near USGS gage
M4 N45⁰ 23’ 44” W122⁰ 08’ 55” ~0.9 mile downstream from Marmot dam
M4A N45⁰ 23’ 44” W122⁰ 08’ 58” ~ 100 yards downstream from site M4
MFB N45⁰ 23’ 58” W122⁰ 07’ 59” Midspan on the Marmot dam foot bridge
MS1 N45⁰ 23’ 58” W122⁰ 07’ 49” South bank of Sandy River, upstream from
Marmot dam footbridge
MS2 N45⁰ 23’ 58” W122⁰ 07’ 49” On top of a bedrock exposure in the center of the Sandy River channel; accessible only at low flow
SRD2 N45⁰ 33’ 36” W122⁰ 23’ 36” Near the mouth of the Sandy River; west bank
LS1 N45⁰ 24’ 55” W122⁰ 10’ 39” On the cutbank above the Little Sandy dam
LS2 N45⁰ 24’ 55” W122⁰ 10’ 40” Downstream from the Little Sandy dam; on a
terrace above the channel
LS3 N45⁰ 24’ 54” W122⁰ 10’ 34” At channel elevation at bottom of construction road access to channel; above dam
LS4 N45⁰ 24’ 53” W122⁰ 10’ 34” On south bank of Little Sandy River;
accessed from road above site
Table 1. List of photo point locations and station location code.
4
All the above stations, with the exception of the Sandy River delta site, are shown in greater
detail in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Station Locations
Field Technique Station identification
A variety of markings were used to identify the photo point locations in the field. When
possible a three foot piece of rebar was pounded into the ground and capped with an
aluminum cap that had the site ID stamped into the top. Bridge railings were marked by
filing a small notch into the railing. Paint was used to mark any site that is located on
bedrock. All sites except the bridge sites had location photos taken to document the actual
photo point location relative to local landmarks and topography.
5
Camera setup and photography
Many pictures have been taken during this photo documentation. The majority of the
images were made as a sequence of images panning across the scene to form a panorama of
the channel area. All panorama files were made with the same camera body and lens. A
Nikon D200 camera and a 20mm Nikkor lens were used exclusively for the panorama
images. I occasionally used a 10.5mm Nikkor fisheye lens at the photo points. This was
done to supplement the photo record and to provide a single image record of the scene
rather than a panorama formed by stitching together numerous images. None of the
fisheye images have been used in the results presented in this report. The fisheye image
files are included on the DVD of images and can be found in the “miscellaneous” directory
on the DVD.
A Manfrotto tripod fitted with a Manfrotto leveling base and Nodal Ninja panorama head
was used for the capture of all but the June 2007 images. The June 2007 images did not
utilize the Nodal Ninja head. The Nodal Ninja panorama head allows for more accurate
capture of the image sequence and a much better composite image after stitching.
After setting the tripod over the photo point mark the tripod was leveled using the leveling
base. The Nodal Ninja panorama head was checked for level across the range of the image
sequence and adjustments were made as necessary to ensure that the camera was level.
June 2007 images were captured with the camera in a horizontal (landscape) orientation.
After post-processing these images I decided to switch to vertical (portrait) orientation for
all subsequent images. This provides more scene capture in each of the individual images
and allows for more of the channel area to be incorporated.
Images were captured by setting the camera view to the left extent of the scene and
sequentially moving the camera through the series using the detent settings on the Nodal
Ninja panorama head. Image capture was made by using a cable release rather than
manually pushing on the shutter.
Post-processing Raw conversion
All images were captured as RAW rather than JPG files. This provides a great deal of
flexibility to adjust exposure or white balance prior to the creation of the panorama
composite. All RAW images were converted to JPG for delivery to the Mt. Hood National
Forest using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3
6
Directory structure
The digital files that accompany this report are divided into 5 broad categories:
1. Miscellaneous files – photos taken at locations other than the established photo
points or with different camera bodies or lens combinations
2. Breach Sequence – photos taken on October 19, 2007 during the breach operation at
Marmot Dam.
3. Bridges – all image files taken as either single views or panorama sequences at the
Revenue Bridge, Bull Run Bridge, Dodge Park Bridge, Troutdale Bridge or the Stark
Street Bridge
4. Panoramas – all images that have been stitched together to form composite views of
channel conditions at a given site. This set of images represents the most useful,
completely processed files delivered under this contract.
5. Source files – all the individual image files that were used to form the panoramas.
In past delivery of image files to the Forest Service I learned that some of the files were too
large to be used within some applications on the government computers. To accommodate
any future use by the Forest Service I include two sets of panorama and source image files.
The first set is the full size images for the stitched panoramas and the source files used in
each panoramic composite. The second set is comprised of panorama and source images
that have been resized to never exceed 1024 pixels horizontally or 768 pixels vertically.
There are over 1800 image files on the DVDs that accompany this report. Organizing the
files for future use was an important part of the entire photo documentation process. Since
the files were all generated over a sequence of field visits on different days, the easiest way
to store and reference the files was by day and then by station within any given day.
However, the real utility of the images is to show the change at a given station over time.
This required a different filing and organization strategy. The digital files included on the
DVDs are filed by photo point, by year and by day within the year. An example is shown
below.
7
Source Files
o Marmot Dam
Site M1A
2007
o M1A_070507_JPG
o M1A-070507_JPG_Small
o M1A_071607_JPG
o M1A_071607_JPG_Small
o M1A_082207_JPG
o M1A_082207_JPG_Small
o M1A_092607_JPG
o M1A-092607_JPG_Small
o M1A_102407_JPG
o M1A_102407_JPG_Small
2008
o M1A_070208_JPG
o M1A_070208_JPG_Small
o M1A_073108_JPG
o M1A_070308_JPG_Small
o M1A_091908_JPG
o M1A_091908_JPG_Small
File naming convention
The directories ending with “ _JPG” contain the full size image files. Directories ending with
“_Small” contain image files that have been resized to 1024 x 768 pixels. Within a directory
for any date the individual files follow the same naming convention as the directory. For
example:
M1A_070507_001.jpg (M1A = station ID; 070507= date of capture; _001 = sequence no.)
Files in the “Small” directories are labeled the same and an “s” is appended to the file name
(M1A_070507_001s.jpg)
The Marmot Footbridge, Revenue and Bull Run bridge sites have directories that contain
images for upstream and downstream views. The directory naming and file naming within
a directory include “D” for downstream and “U” for upstream. (e.g.,
MFBU_091908_JPG_Small).
8
Naming Convention – Bridges
I used an abbreviation for each bridge location as follows:
Abbreviation location
BRD Bridge – Revenue, downstream
BRU Bridge – Revenue, upstream
BBRU Bridge – Bull Run, upstream
BBRD Bridge – Bull Run, downstream
BDP Bridge – Dodge Park
BSS Bridge – Stark Street
BT Bridge - Troutdale
The date was appended to the abbreviation to form unique file names, e.g., BRD_071607.jpg
(Bridge- Revenue- downstream view, July 16, 2007)
Panorama creation
Sequences of individual image files captured at each site were stitched together to form a
composite panorama view. The program Panorama Maker Pro, version 4 by ArcSoft was
used to perform the stitching. This program uses advanced algorithms to match and blend
the image sequence into a final composite.
Figure 3. Blending 8 images into a single composite
Figure 3 is an example of the blending zones used to make a final panorama from site M1A
after the Marmot Dam was removed.
9
Results The following pages present a series of panoramic views for each station on 3 dates: July
16, 2007 (pre-breach), October 24, 2007 (5 days post-breach) and September 19, 2008..
The reader is referred back to Figure 1 and Figure 2 for location information for each
station.
Stations M1, M2 and SRD1 are not included since these stations did not persevere over
time.
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Marmot Dam breach October 19, 2007
29
Appendix
The following pages contain photographs taken at most of the field photo point sites. The intent is
to provide some visual context for the photo point to make it easier to relocate the photo points in
the future. Additionally, one photograph shows the full camera setup as used to make the
panorama sequences at each photopoint.
30
Site Reference Photos
Site 1A
Site 2A
Site 3
31
Site 4
Site 4A
Site MS1
Site MS2
32
Nikon D200 camera
Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 lens
Nodal Ninja panorama head
Manfrotto leveling base
Bogen double bubble level
Nikon cable release
Bogen Manfrotto tripod