A Basin Wide Effort
Near Seal Rock, Oregon, the ocean tributary Beaver Creek provides year-round habitat for endangered Oregon Coast coho salmon, as well as Chinook, winter steelhead, and other fish. Stretching from its headwaters in protected old growth forests to Ona Beach where it flows into the sea, the Beaver Creek watershed covers 21,532 acres and 42 miles of stream habitat. Despite harboring one of the healthiest existing coho salmon populations in the Midcoast region, it has been subject to extensive human alteration that reduced fish habitat over the last 100 years. MCWC has been working with a diverse group of partners to improve habitat in this basin through riparian planting, Large Woody Debris (LWD) placements, and reestablishing complex streams.
Michael and Sharon
Michael, MCWC Administrative Board Member, and Sharon live near South Beaver Creek where they enjoy wildlife watching and doing restorative home projects.
As is the case for many of Oregon’s coastal streams, North and South Beaver Creeks were converted for agricultural practices and simplified to best suit crop production. Areas “over by 101 [were] covered in fields, you know, it was pastureland.” says long-term resident and MCWC Administrative Board Member Michael Meagher. Many people in the area still derive livelihoods and family practices from agriculture.
Segments of lower North and South Beaver Creek and their riparian zones are now part of the Brian Booth State Park. The acquisition of the land occurred from 2007 to 2009, private parcels being purchased with roughly $1.3 million in Lottery dollars and $400,000 from the USFWS Coastal Wetland grant. The headwaters reside in the protected Siuslaw National Forest, and private lands are settled between this management region and the protected stream mouth at Ona Beach. Private landowners in the Beaver Creek Basin have been crucial to restoration efforts that Midcoast and partners have been involved in.
Kate
Kate, a long-term MCWC volunteer, has lived along the North Beaver Creek for 51 years and is passionate about having conversations on the importance of protecting natural processes and wildlife.
Kate Scannell, who moved to her current property along North Beaver Creek in 1972, has been a dedicated volunteer with MCWC for years and recognizes that in order to have successful restoration, “You are going to need the cooperation of the landowners.”
While she has not collaborated with MCWC on her property, she’s implemented restoration on her own, volunteered with MCWC, and supported a backbone of trust within her community.
“In essence, once you get to know somebody, you also get to hear a bit of how they feel and you know, “I should think about that, you know I should see how I can help them see a way to keep our paradise the way it is.”
In collaboration with other organizations, people, and communities, MCWC has been slowly but surely completing restoration projects across the entire Beaver Creek Basin with a shared goal of protecting this space which is home to people and wildlife.
South Beaver Creek
Drone photo of the Beaver Creek Community site on South Beaver Creek during restoration.
This ongoing project has increased the complexity of a drainage channel artificially straightened for agricultural purposes. The previous drainage channel restricted the stream’s access to the smaller tributaries and seasonal floodplain. After restoration, the tributaries, freshwater wetland, and broad floodplain offer complex habitats for fish and aquatic organisms.
After removing about two acres of invasive Reed Canary Grass (RCG) by scraping with an excavator, the drainage ditch was filled in and the historic channel reconnected. LWD were placed in the new channel, and the scraped area was heavily seeded and replanted with native species.
The most recent restoration on the South Beaver Creek and neighboring streams has been dependent on collaboration from 7 private landowners. These properties, which lay between protected lands in the headwaters and downstream, are crucial to creating a mosaic of restoration projects throughout the South Beaver Creek water system.
North Beaver Creek
Claire and Eric
Claire and Eric have owned their North Beaver Creek property since 2000 where they have independently, and in collaboration with MCWC, restored the space through plantings and LWD placement.
This ongoing project seeks to address poor stream habitat on the privately-owned, low-gradient sections of North Beaver Creek to increase habitat value for coho salmon and other aquatic species from the headwaters to the mouth. Through a combination of work on protected public lands and private collaborators, the North Beaver Creek restoration project will help realize crucial coho rearing habitat and boost watershed-wide resilience.
When Claire Smith and Eric Horvath purchased their North Beaver Creek in 2000 they already had big plans to restore the area.
“We’ve planted western red cedar, Sitka spruce, and western hemlock, probably 2,000 of each,” says Eric, because the property had been a clear cut.
Through MCWC they were able to source many of those trees and in 2007 MCWC and partners placed LWD along their section of the North Beaver Creek to promote complex habitats. When we revisited the LWD placements this month, one of those logs placed in 2007 had been used by a beaver for their dam.
Beaver dam built on log placed in 2007 by MCWC and partners on Claire and Eric’s property. (photo taken on 08/18/2023)
The ongoing results of prioritizing environmental restoration on their property, such as seeing salmon populations grow, is something that Claire sees as potentially impactful across the community.
“. . . I feel like there are these things that are absolutely shared experiences that many many people have, like seeing the salmon in the water and it’s an experience that people really, really appreciate and, you know, look forward to.”
The ongoing restoration work by MCWC and partners on North Beaver Creek has already involved cooperation with multiple private landowners and collaborators such as Claire and Eric hope that projects such as theirs could increase visibility and interest in environmental restoration.
Shared goals
Private landowners have been key to the environmental restoration that has taken place across the Beaver Creek watershed so far. As MCWC and partners continue with the most recent projects, the cooperation of community members will not only create a wider area of land that has seen restoration actions, but will potentially strengthen the visibility of such work and connect people with resources that can assist restoration on their property.
In addition to the private landowners, project partners in this basin include The Wetlands Conservancy, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Seal Rock Water District, The Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District, and the US Forest Service.