August Highlights

As a consequence of the second muddy flow in as many months on Beaver Creek (the first caused by BLM unblocking a clogged culvert, and the second caused when the same culvert, newly replaced, washed out), BLM will be sampling the creek this month for cutthroat trout. Results will be shared with the council.

Stan Gregory was our guest speaker. Stan's talk is available on video tape through the council coordinator. Before he began he invited council members to participate in the Oak Creek Action Team meetings which happen the third Wednesday of every month through November. The next meeting is scheduled for September 15th at 7:00PM. at the Corvallis Public Library. Using multiple sampling methods, Stan sampled for fish at multiple locations from Eugene to Portland. Samples were taken from different channel types (straight vs. braided). Stan noted that the proportion of exotic fish species to native species became progressively higher for samples taken more downstream. At the confluence of the Marys River 17 species of native fish and 7 exotic species were found. Specimens caught further downstream (closer to Portland) had more lesions, tumors, and other abnormalities. Around Portland, greater than 70% of the fish had such abnormalities. At the mouth of the Marys River approximately 35% of the fish had such abnormalities. Examining maps from 1850, 1895, and 1932, and comparing with 1995 remote sensing data, Stan was able to study the changes in the river channel over time. North of Salem there historically was a single channel and the channel status has not changed much in the last 100 years. Most of the changes have occurred upstream of Albany, where 100 years ago a complex network of braided channels existed. These have gradually simplified to mostly a single channel. Most of the riparian forests along the Willamette River were lost in the Portland area, with a 70% loss. 40% loss of riparian forests were observed in the upper section of the study. Stan described some film footage produced by the Isaac Walton League in the 1930s, which documented that fish died within minutes when placed in Willamette River water. Stan noted that in those days the river had extraordinarily low pH levels, low Oxygen levels, and high concentrations of raw sewage. The river actually is much improved from those days, though more subtle problems still exist.

Steering Committee Report.

The steering committee recommended Orin Nusbaum as a steering committee rep. for small agriculture. Orrin was voted in by the council by consensus. - Coordinator's Report As of July 1 we are fully funded by OWEB, and we've obtained additional funds. The US fish and wildlife service will provide $500 for outreach and education.The national Fish and Wildlife Foundation will likely award $2300 to the each of the 2 watershed councils who work with the Siuslaw national Forest. This grant would also be for outreach and education.

Additional Agenda Items:

Rob Williams, has volunteered to put together a database for the council, also presented the council with a memorandum discussing database privacy and 2 stages to the database project. He proposes to write a grant to fund to a more detailed database project. He expects that funding should be around $2,000. He proposes eventually to add the database to the council website in the form of a clickable map of the watershed tied to a database query engine. Rob sought council approval for this project, which he received by consensus of a quorum of the membership present.