Gardening for Birds Watch the video with Bill Proebsting and find a wealth of information and links.
Willamette River Virtual Tour watch this video with Laura Brown and Heath Keirstead, BSWCD staff. Learn about invasive aquatic weeds and control efforts.
Aquatic Plant ID Virtual Tour watch the video on aquatic native plant identification with Rich Miller, Portland State University Center for Lakes and Reservoirs.
For more information on Benton SWCD work:
Teresa Matteson
Dairy Creek Bridge
Sturgeon Lake on Sauvie Island provides important aquatic habitat for numerous fish and wildlife species as well as recreation opportunities for people. Columbia River dams and island levees restricted natural flow to the lake which increased sedimentation and the risk of the lake becoming an isolated body of water. West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District and partners worked for decades to restore a stream system that allows natural flow from the Columbia River through Dairy Creek channel into the lake and out the Gilbert River. This hydrologic connection will increase water quality in the lake and wetland. Past efforts to restore a direct hydrologic connection between Sturgeon Lake and the Columbia River were thwarted by a flood in 1996 that deposited sand and woody debris at the mouth of Dairy Creek and blocked the flow of water from the Columbia River. The solution was to replace two failed culverts under Reeder Road with a new bridge, remove the sand and debris plug from the mouth of Dairy Creek, and create a permanent channel for low flow and high flow water levels, planted with native trees, shrubs, and grasses. After over a decade of partnership building, planning, fundraising, and engineering, and just over four months of construction, the Dairy Creek channel reopened to tidal flow between the Columbia River and Sturgeon Lake in November 2018.
McCarthy Creek flows from NW Skyline Boulevard to Multnomah Channel across from Sauvie Island. This creek is unique to the area in that it is considered essential salmonid habitat, especially for coho and Chinook salmon. At the bottom of the watershed is 121 acres of privately owned land – most of which is wetlands and within the 100-year floodplain – protected by a conservation easement. West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District (WMSWCD) manages the land on behalf of the landowner and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), the federal easement holder. We continue to actively restore native wetland and oak habitat on this site. The District secured funding in 2015 from NRCS to improve approximately 5 acres of riparian (streamside) area and 3 acres of uplands. Since then, we’ve been treating invasive blackberry and reed canary grass, Canada thistle, and other weeds to restore riparian areas and create Oregon white oak savanna and native plant “hedgerows” for pollinators and other wildlife. We took 2 years (2017 – early 2019) to plant 12,000 woody and herbaceous wetland plants along the creek and followed with upland plantings. We did this with the help of paid crews and area native plant nurseries. The total NRCS project is valued at $123,000, which includes $100,000 of NRCS funds and contributed District staff time. We had the good fortune to find additional partners and funding that allowed us to embark on a new phase of restoration, which was begun in 2017 and completed in February 2020. In this project phase, we removed two culverts that were no longer needed, one of which impeded fish movement; added habitat features such as basking logs for turtles and structures to encourage and mimic beaver dams; and performed 4.8 acres of “marsh plain lowering” which greatly enhances wetland habitat. Invasive reed canary grass and more than 15,000 cubic yards of soil were scraped away to lower the surface elevation 2 to 3 feet in key wetland areas and to make the streambanks less steep. See more stats at: https://wmswcd.org/update-on-restoration-of-lower-mccarthy-creek-wetland-and-oak-habitat/
Read West Multnomah SWCD’s Annual Report for inspiring 2020 updates.
Page 9 features West Hills’ resident Ashley Offensend, the WMSWCD Rural Cooperator of the Year. Ashley is working with WMSWCD to create oak savanna on his property.
Sturgeon Lake Restoration Project – video
Read more about the culvert replacement and bridge construction that reopened Columbia River flow through Dairy Creek.
Healthy Streams project at lower McCarthy Creek – video
Read more about the partnerships that collaborate to restore McCarthy Creek wetland and oak savanna.
Stormwater Stars – a program WMSWCD helped fund through partners – video
Read more about workshops that help folks manage rain that falls around home, school, workplace, or place of worship.
For more information on West Multnomah SWCD work:
Renee Magyar
Communications & Outreach Manager
Phone: (503) 238 4775 x101