Ash Creek, Independence Oregon
Scout works to spruce up park - LWC Article - click here
Scout works to spruce up park - Statesman Journal Article - click here
Time Lapse Photos of South Fork Ash Creek Project - click here
Signs at Moutain Fir Park about the Project - click here
Dam removal begins creek's rebirth
By Justin Much
Statesman Journal, Aug. 15, 2007
The old dam containing the former Mountain Fir mill pond on the south fork of Ash Creek in Independence looked rickety and run down.
But when Poe's Backhoe Service brought inheavy equipment to work over the weir, the dam proved stalwart, as if reinforced to withstand a high-level earthquake.
"There were logging cables, rebar, saw blades, chains -- all kinds of goodies in there," Luckiamute Watershed Council Project Manager Michael Cairns said.
Though threaded tightly with substantial strands of cable, the dam finally broke, and Poe's crew was able to reduce it to concrete blocks suitable for removal by the city's public works crews.
More aesthetic boulders were being carefully placed to mitigate erosion and provide a relatively gradual flow from where the pond water, six feet higher than the ensuing creek bottom, would gush into the tiny Willamette tributary. Native willow cuttings also were added for both erosion and aesthetic purposes.
Thomas Patterson | Statesman Journal
LWC is working with the city of Independence and other entities on multiple objectives, including developing a riparian area with a trail connecting a housing development while returning the fork's environment into accommodating habitat for a variety of native species.
Located on F Street between south Seventh and Ninth streets in Independence, the site is believed to have had a dam and pond for more than six decades. In the 1950s when Mountain Fir Lumber Co. bought the property from its former owners, a pond and wooden dam was in place.
"What I know is that Mountain Fir started at that mill site in the early '50s," said former Mountain Fir Assistant Secretary of Treasury Rick Cornish . "The Cooper mill was there before in the 1940s, and there was some sort of dam at that site with the Cooper mill."
Cornish's father, Richard P. Cornish, was Mountain Fir's general manager from its initial days in Independence into the mid 1970s; he retired from the mill in the early 1980s. The younger Cornish handled the firm's accounting from the early 1980s through the early '90s, when Mountain Fir departed. The mill was sold to current owners "D" Stake Mill Inc. in 1998.
"I believe it was originally a wooden dam, and it flooded over in 1964," Rick Cornish recalled. "Then a concrete dam was put in."
Site languishes
After Mountain Fir left Independence around 1992-93, the dam and east bank was deeded to Independence. A park was formed on the east bank, but with limited maintenance and attention, it languished as somewhat of an eyesore until recent years.
"It can be a wonderful park," Independence Mayor John McArdle said. "We're excited that after years of it just sitting there, we are finally able to step up and, with the help of some wonderful people, get that area fixed up."
In conjunction with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, LWC plans to reinvigorate the stream, bestowing a green area where residential developers can include a linear park or trail.
"We do a lot of projects like these up in the headwaters, and nobody gets to see them," Cairns said, noting that the LWC also is working on a similar project on Maxfield Creek, near Kings Valley. "Here the people get to enjoy it -- as well as the fish."
Fish will benefit
ODFW Stream Habitat Restoration Program Coordinator Joseph Sheahan welcomes the project.
"These native plants will basically provide shelter to a flood plain area like this," said Sheahan, on site as the crews disassembled the dam. "In the event of a big storm, this would create a winter refuge for juvenile fish."
Sheahan's main responsibilities with ODFW are focused on coordinating projects aimed at restoring fish habitat. Much of his work is directed toward tributaries of the Willamette, Santiam and McKenzie rivers, including this Ash Creek site where the objective is to invite salmon further into the headwaters where the dam would have thwarted their quest.
Historically, Sheahan said, these tributaries provided shelter to fish that migrated downstream in the winter, allowing them to hang out and then seasonally migrate. He believes the benefits could be even farther reaching.
"We have basically food for migrating birds, nesting habitats for resident birds and a multitude of opportunities for amphibians (frogs, salamanders, etc.) that are also native to get it into its proper balance," he said.
Cairns pointed out that LWC, Independence and ODFW have had the benefit of many sponsors and advocates, including Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Ash Creek Water Control District, and many private groups, including churches and individuals.
Volunteers vital
Volunteers planted 3,500 native trees and shrubs of 12 species in February, primarily inside the park and along the banks to the south. Part of the goal is to create a riparian area and green space between a new neighborhood and the current mill.
"There's a housing development going in and there will be a linear park (through it)," said Independence Community Development Technician Shawn Irvine . "We're looking at around 4,000 (linear) feet of park."
Cairns, who lives two blocks from the site, sees multiple benefits.
"Shrubbery is important for bird species, and the overall greenway is important, especially since it's going in between a residential and industrial site," he said.
"Some call it a linear park, I call it a trail," Cairns added. "It will come from the south development and right along here (near the dam). And the interpretive signs that we will put up here will explain the fish, wildlife, plants, history. The first sign closest to the road will describe the restoration project and credit the sponsors."
jmuch@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6736
South Fork of Ash Creek Restoration
By Craig Coleman
Polk County Itemizer Observer, Oct. 18, 2005
INDEPENDENCE -- The view of Ash Creek's south fork as it crosses under the F Street Bridge is hardly inspiring.
The old Mountain Fir Lumber Co. dam that once controlled the stream flow sits in ruins today, large sections of its concrete frame collapsed inward. Soda bottles poke through the algae surrounding the debris.
To the immediate south is a mosaic of green and brown -- the muck and mire of a dried-out pond bed, overgrown with patches of invasive beggars tick.
Yet despite its appearance, the four-acre stretch of Ash Creek actually has the potential to thrive, said Michael Cairns of the Luckiamute Watershed Council.
There's an abundance of cottonwood, alder and other native plant species surrounding and stabilizing the stream banks.
The creek, like other tributaries of the Luckiamute River, is used as winter refuge for rearing salmon and steelhead, Cairns said.
It's this potential that has the LWC, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District and other agencies coordinating a wetland restoration of the site.
The roughly $50,000 project will be funded through grants from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation and other organizations.
"Because the dam has been there for about 40 years, fish haven't been able to go up the south fork of the creek," Cairns said.
"This will open up a couple more miles of stream habitat for the species and help restore the area to what it looked like before."
Joe Sheahan, an ODFW stream restoration program coordinator, said work would begin next fall when the water levels are at their lowest.
The project has two basic components, the first being cleanup and removal of what's left of the dam beneath the F Street Bridge.
It was constructed several decades ago by Mountain Fir to raise the water levels and create holding ponds for treated lumber.
The structure has deteriorated over time and collapsed last winter. The ponds dried out as a result.
The city of Independence owns the land that contains this section of Ash Creek, but had no plans to clean out the dam when the LWC approached town leaders this spring about a restoration of the area, Cairns said.
The LWC and its partners will remove the dam and place 40 to 50 boulders in its place, to stabilize the banks and create pockets of calm water that fish can use as refuge.
The beggars tick -- which has seed pods that can lodge in a fish's gills --- will then be cleaned out of the ponds and native native trees and shrubs planted around the perimeter to provide stream cover and enhance the creek, Cairns said.
Though much of Ash Creek winds through urban areas, it serves as shelter for juvenile trout and salmon before they are washed into the strong winter currents of the Willamette River, Sheahan said.
Rehabbing the area would allow fish to swim another five or six miles upstream. The plantings would cool the temperature of the stream in the summer.
"During the summer, the temperature of what's left in the pond has been recorded at about 80 degrees, way too hot for any fish," Cairns said.
One concern voiced during a city council meeting regarding the project is the issue of contaminants in the creek bed.
An assessment by the Department of Environmental Quality during the 1990s showed chemicals used by Mountain Fir to treat lumber had affected the pond water and seeped into the soil.
Cairns said the fear was that the restoration work would somehow mobilize the sediment, contaminate fish and create a risk of exposure for those who wade through the creek.
A DEQ evaluation on the Mountain Fir site states the danger associated from the contaminants to be "below levels of concern."
Cairns said he believes a restored wetland habitat would benefit the community. Once the plantings have matured, the area could be used as an outdoor classroom for Central High School and Western Oregon University students.
Students from both schools would handle monitoring of fish and invertebrate species in the years following the restoration work.
Cairns said he has also approached city officials about the possibility of somehow incorporating a rehabbed south fork into plans for the proposed Ash Creek Trail.
"You have a stream habitat in the middle of the Independence area ... I imagine that there's a lot of kids living in town that don't know what a real natural area looks like -- they could walk a few blocks from their homes and see some trout and salmon.
"Our hope is that this site gets used by hikers, birdwatchers and other people in the community."
Scout works to spruce up park - Statesman Journal Article - click here
Time Lapse Photos of South Fork Ash Creek Project - click here
Signs at Moutain Fir Park about the Project - click here
Dam removal begins creek's rebirth
By Justin Much
Statesman Journal, Aug. 15, 2007
The old dam containing the former Mountain Fir mill pond on the south fork of Ash Creek in Independence looked rickety and run down.
But when Poe's Backhoe Service brought inheavy equipment to work over the weir, the dam proved stalwart, as if reinforced to withstand a high-level earthquake.
"There were logging cables, rebar, saw blades, chains -- all kinds of goodies in there," Luckiamute Watershed Council Project Manager Michael Cairns said.
Though threaded tightly with substantial strands of cable, the dam finally broke, and Poe's crew was able to reduce it to concrete blocks suitable for removal by the city's public works crews.
More aesthetic boulders were being carefully placed to mitigate erosion and provide a relatively gradual flow from where the pond water, six feet higher than the ensuing creek bottom, would gush into the tiny Willamette tributary. Native willow cuttings also were added for both erosion and aesthetic purposes.
Thomas Patterson | Statesman Journal
LWC is working with the city of Independence and other entities on multiple objectives, including developing a riparian area with a trail connecting a housing development while returning the fork's environment into accommodating habitat for a variety of native species.
Located on F Street between south Seventh and Ninth streets in Independence, the site is believed to have had a dam and pond for more than six decades. In the 1950s when Mountain Fir Lumber Co. bought the property from its former owners, a pond and wooden dam was in place.
"What I know is that Mountain Fir started at that mill site in the early '50s," said former Mountain Fir Assistant Secretary of Treasury Rick Cornish . "The Cooper mill was there before in the 1940s, and there was some sort of dam at that site with the Cooper mill."
Cornish's father, Richard P. Cornish, was Mountain Fir's general manager from its initial days in Independence into the mid 1970s; he retired from the mill in the early 1980s. The younger Cornish handled the firm's accounting from the early 1980s through the early '90s, when Mountain Fir departed. The mill was sold to current owners "D" Stake Mill Inc. in 1998.
"I believe it was originally a wooden dam, and it flooded over in 1964," Rick Cornish recalled. "Then a concrete dam was put in."
Site languishes
After Mountain Fir left Independence around 1992-93, the dam and east bank was deeded to Independence. A park was formed on the east bank, but with limited maintenance and attention, it languished as somewhat of an eyesore until recent years.
"It can be a wonderful park," Independence Mayor John McArdle said. "We're excited that after years of it just sitting there, we are finally able to step up and, with the help of some wonderful people, get that area fixed up."
In conjunction with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, LWC plans to reinvigorate the stream, bestowing a green area where residential developers can include a linear park or trail.
"We do a lot of projects like these up in the headwaters, and nobody gets to see them," Cairns said, noting that the LWC also is working on a similar project on Maxfield Creek, near Kings Valley. "Here the people get to enjoy it -- as well as the fish."
Fish will benefit
ODFW Stream Habitat Restoration Program Coordinator Joseph Sheahan welcomes the project.
"These native plants will basically provide shelter to a flood plain area like this," said Sheahan, on site as the crews disassembled the dam. "In the event of a big storm, this would create a winter refuge for juvenile fish."
Sheahan's main responsibilities with ODFW are focused on coordinating projects aimed at restoring fish habitat. Much of his work is directed toward tributaries of the Willamette, Santiam and McKenzie rivers, including this Ash Creek site where the objective is to invite salmon further into the headwaters where the dam would have thwarted their quest.
Historically, Sheahan said, these tributaries provided shelter to fish that migrated downstream in the winter, allowing them to hang out and then seasonally migrate. He believes the benefits could be even farther reaching.
"We have basically food for migrating birds, nesting habitats for resident birds and a multitude of opportunities for amphibians (frogs, salamanders, etc.) that are also native to get it into its proper balance," he said.
Cairns pointed out that LWC, Independence and ODFW have had the benefit of many sponsors and advocates, including Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Ash Creek Water Control District, and many private groups, including churches and individuals.
Volunteers vital
Volunteers planted 3,500 native trees and shrubs of 12 species in February, primarily inside the park and along the banks to the south. Part of the goal is to create a riparian area and green space between a new neighborhood and the current mill.
"There's a housing development going in and there will be a linear park (through it)," said Independence Community Development Technician Shawn Irvine . "We're looking at around 4,000 (linear) feet of park."
Cairns, who lives two blocks from the site, sees multiple benefits.
"Shrubbery is important for bird species, and the overall greenway is important, especially since it's going in between a residential and industrial site," he said.
"Some call it a linear park, I call it a trail," Cairns added. "It will come from the south development and right along here (near the dam). And the interpretive signs that we will put up here will explain the fish, wildlife, plants, history. The first sign closest to the road will describe the restoration project and credit the sponsors."
jmuch@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6736
South Fork of Ash Creek Restoration
By Craig Coleman
Polk County Itemizer Observer, Oct. 18, 2005
INDEPENDENCE -- The view of Ash Creek's south fork as it crosses under the F Street Bridge is hardly inspiring.
The old Mountain Fir Lumber Co. dam that once controlled the stream flow sits in ruins today, large sections of its concrete frame collapsed inward. Soda bottles poke through the algae surrounding the debris.
To the immediate south is a mosaic of green and brown -- the muck and mire of a dried-out pond bed, overgrown with patches of invasive beggars tick.
Yet despite its appearance, the four-acre stretch of Ash Creek actually has the potential to thrive, said Michael Cairns of the Luckiamute Watershed Council.
There's an abundance of cottonwood, alder and other native plant species surrounding and stabilizing the stream banks.
The creek, like other tributaries of the Luckiamute River, is used as winter refuge for rearing salmon and steelhead, Cairns said.
It's this potential that has the LWC, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District and other agencies coordinating a wetland restoration of the site.
The roughly $50,000 project will be funded through grants from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation and other organizations.
"Because the dam has been there for about 40 years, fish haven't been able to go up the south fork of the creek," Cairns said.
"This will open up a couple more miles of stream habitat for the species and help restore the area to what it looked like before."
Joe Sheahan, an ODFW stream restoration program coordinator, said work would begin next fall when the water levels are at their lowest.
The project has two basic components, the first being cleanup and removal of what's left of the dam beneath the F Street Bridge.
It was constructed several decades ago by Mountain Fir to raise the water levels and create holding ponds for treated lumber.
The structure has deteriorated over time and collapsed last winter. The ponds dried out as a result.
The city of Independence owns the land that contains this section of Ash Creek, but had no plans to clean out the dam when the LWC approached town leaders this spring about a restoration of the area, Cairns said.
The LWC and its partners will remove the dam and place 40 to 50 boulders in its place, to stabilize the banks and create pockets of calm water that fish can use as refuge.
The beggars tick -- which has seed pods that can lodge in a fish's gills --- will then be cleaned out of the ponds and native native trees and shrubs planted around the perimeter to provide stream cover and enhance the creek, Cairns said.
Though much of Ash Creek winds through urban areas, it serves as shelter for juvenile trout and salmon before they are washed into the strong winter currents of the Willamette River, Sheahan said.
Rehabbing the area would allow fish to swim another five or six miles upstream. The plantings would cool the temperature of the stream in the summer.
"During the summer, the temperature of what's left in the pond has been recorded at about 80 degrees, way too hot for any fish," Cairns said.
One concern voiced during a city council meeting regarding the project is the issue of contaminants in the creek bed.
An assessment by the Department of Environmental Quality during the 1990s showed chemicals used by Mountain Fir to treat lumber had affected the pond water and seeped into the soil.
Cairns said the fear was that the restoration work would somehow mobilize the sediment, contaminate fish and create a risk of exposure for those who wade through the creek.
A DEQ evaluation on the Mountain Fir site states the danger associated from the contaminants to be "below levels of concern."
Cairns said he believes a restored wetland habitat would benefit the community. Once the plantings have matured, the area could be used as an outdoor classroom for Central High School and Western Oregon University students.
Students from both schools would handle monitoring of fish and invertebrate species in the years following the restoration work.
Cairns said he has also approached city officials about the possibility of somehow incorporating a rehabbed south fork into plans for the proposed Ash Creek Trail.
"You have a stream habitat in the middle of the Independence area ... I imagine that there's a lot of kids living in town that don't know what a real natural area looks like -- they could walk a few blocks from their homes and see some trout and salmon.
"Our hope is that this site gets used by hikers, birdwatchers and other people in the community."