Story by: Gail Oberst

Date Published to Web: 11/11/2008

PEDEE -- Six Chemeketa Community College students earned their biology credits the hard way last weekend, planting native trees and shrubs in the pouring rain on the banks of Ritner Creek.
   The project, sponsored by the Luckiamute Watershed Council, is aimed at replacing plants that had been damaged on private land while removing railroad pilings downstream from the historic Ritner Creek Bridge.
   The pilings in Ritner Creek, which hadn't been used as a train trestle for decades, had meanwhile attracted a 10-foot high log jam that threatened to divert the flow of the creek, causing erosion problems. It also may have stopped some fish -- winter steelhead, for example -- from moving upstream, according to Michael Cairns, the council's project manager.
   "And, it could have eventually endangered the bridges," Cairns said of the historic covered bridge and Kings Valley Highway bridges upstream from the logjam.
   The council and the landowner, Dieter Wehner, received $16,000 from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to remove the pilings. This fall, Bateman Forest Management of Monroe removed four of the six pilings -- 80 cubic yards of cement surrounding 2-inch diameter steel bars. It took 11 dump truck loads to haul away the material, Cairns said. The two pilings closest to the banks were left intact.
   To get to the pilings, the trucks had to clear some trees and brush from Wehner's property, which is across from a Polk County park. Cairns said that Douglas Ure's Chemeketa biology students are replacing more than was damaged.
   Despite pouring rain and sticky mud, the students planted red cedar, fir, Pacific nine bark, red osier dogwood and western hemlock at the confluence of Ritner Creek and the Luckiamute River. Cairns said the wet, rainy season is the perfect time to plant trees.
   "We got wet, we had fun, and hopefully those trees will live," said Dominic Eason, a Chemeketa student from McMinnville.
   The log jam is already breaking up and is moving slowly into the Luckiamute River, unfettered by the trestles.
   "Ideally, by next summer, they'll be all gone," Cairns said of the logs.
   Kings Valley or Pedee landowners interested in help with projects on their lands are welcome to call Cairns of the Luckiamute Watershed Council, 503-838-4275. The council's web page is available at http://luckiamute.watershedcouncils.net/