Calapooia Watershed Council

Working to Improve the health of the watershed

Map of the Calapooia Watershed- Click for Full Size Image

About the Calapooia

While there has been significant loss of habitat within the Calapooia Watershed, many natural features that historically promoted high fish and wildlife productivity are still intact. In addition to timber harvesting in the upper watershed, the watershed has been drained and used extensively for grass seed farming. Fortunately, many of the processes that have been altered by humans over the years are reversible.

The best riparian zones are found just east of Interstate 5, near Tangent. Backwater sloughs and native stands of Sitka and Pacific willow are also found throughout the basin. Courtney Creek contains mudflats that are the largest vernal pool communities remaining in the Valley. Many shorebirds also use the saturated soils, ponds, and low vegetation cover for winter habitat.”

Fish Populations

The Calapooia River is home to two species listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act: winter steelhead and spring Chinook. The Calapooia watershed steelhead represent the uppermost distribution of steelhead in the Willamette system. The steelhead population in the Calapooia is native and has never been supplemented or augmented with hatchery stock. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife conducts annual redd surveys to determine the steelhead population, and the Calapooia Watershed Council performs bi-annual surveys for redds in the upper Calapooia river.  Spring Chinook salmon are also native to the basin however, spawning habitat was degraded throughout the 1940s to 1970s due to mass erosion and land movements from timber harvesting. By the 1970s, the natural production of spring Chinook was thought to be minimal or non-existent. Today’s population is from hatchery stock.  Click here for Map of Fish Distribution.

Stakeholders

Land ownership in the Calapooia watershed is approximately 94% private, making private landowner participation in improving watershed health very important.
Private stakeholders include agriculture, rural and urban landowners, timber resources (Weyerhaeuser, Inc. – 44,000 acres), businesses, and natural resources.
The public stakeholders include the US Forest Service (6,000 acres), Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Parks, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Linn County, and Small Communities including Holley, Crawfordsville, Brownsville, Tangent, Shedd, and Albany.

Read about Oregon’s Plan for Salmon and Watersheds

Cultural Resources Presentation

by The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon Cultural Resources Department.

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