Stream Logs
Out of the cyan sky, a giant red and white Chinook helicopter flies up over a Monmouth Peak foothill towing a giant Douglas fir, the tree trunk’s butt end in a clamp, its branches intact and swishing from the end of a 100-foot cable connected to the helicopter. Gently the helicopter sinks, swings the tree then slips it, top end down, through the tall hardwoods that make up the riparian area of the Luckiamute River. Below the noise at the river, consultant Steve Trask and the ground crew radio instructions to the airborne crew, swing the tree into place, release the cable and step back as the tree drops into the creek. The helicopter lifts, blowing golden, red and brown alder and maple leaves into the air as it turns back to the top of Monmouth Peak a few miles in the distance, for another tree. Against the bright blue sky, the helicopter looks like an airborne fish with two whirling dorsal fins. Its black nose is pointed upstream.
When white pioneers came to Polk County in the 1850s, they named the 3,232-foot peak in the Coast Range “Bald Mountain” for its dome, a treeless meadow. Today, the once-bald mountain that provided habitat for elk and other mountain wildlife is slowly growing “hair.” Douglas and noble fir trees are encroaching on the edges of the small meadows that are left. Its baldness gone, the mountain is now referred to on many maps as “Monmouth Peak.”
Last month, a group of logging companies, landowners, conservation and governmental officials cooperated in a project that will eventually restore the historic mountain meadow to Monmouth Peak, but the group had an additional objective. The trees taken from the mountain were placed in the upper reaches of the Luckiamute River to create fish habitat. Nearly 200 trees were logged from the top of Monmouth Peak and then placed by helicopter into the river nearby. About two miles of river downstream from the mountain is being improved with log jams that will create pools, shade and other habitat favored by spawning and resident winter steelhead in the Luckiamute River.
The $180,000 project was coordinated by the Luckiamute Watershed Council with a $92,000 grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, who ponied up state lottery funds for the helicopter logging job. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, owner of the meadow land, donated the logs. Boise, who owns land around the Luckiamute River, provided project development and technical staff and equipment. Polk Soil and Water Conservation District helped manage the grant.
The project makes bedfellows of groups that might otherwise be at odds with each other, but that’s not unusual in a watershed council, said Michael Cairns, volunteer chairman of the council and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency biologist. Councils like his all over the U.S. bring together people and groups who have an interest in watershed issues. The councils provide a forum for creating projects that improve the watershed for human and animal inhabitants. This particular project also fits in with BLM’s goal to restore mountain meadows in various locations throughout the Northwest. Boise was not required to participate in improving the Luckiamute River on its land, but its participation helps the company meet its internal environmental goals and the conditions of the Oregon Forest Practices Act and the Endangered Species Act, according to Dave Anderson, a Boise biologist who is also on the Luckiamute Watershed Council. Boise owns more than 300,000 acres of timberland in Western Oregon, nearly half of which is in the Monmouth Peak area.
In addition to the heartening show of cooperation, the project was also a show exciting enough to attract volunteers and forestry students who braved the 10 miles of narrow, dusty logging roads above Pedee to see it. After the chopping air explosion of the helicopter faded away, John Casey, Falls City forestry teacher, turned back to his class and told them what he knows of the project’s benefits. Also a forest landowner and a Christmas tree farmer, Casey’s course ranges from Lewis and Clark journals to instructions on tree planting. Later, Anderson and Cairns told the class about the benefits the logs will provide to winter steelhead. The students listen politely, but search the sky for the returning helicopter.
The log placement design is based on Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recommendations for salmon habitat projects like these. The Oregon Division of State Lands had to approve a permit to place the trees, Cairns said.
Coordinating the myriad agencies, businesses, interests and people involved was stressful but rewarding, said Eve Montanaro, coordinator of the Luckiamute Watershed Council.
“There were so many people involved,” she said. “It really was amazing.”