Courtney Creek-Sub-Basin Planning and Restoration

The Council and its partners, namely the Linn County Road Department, BLM, private landowners, and Cascade Timber Consulting Inc., have focused restoration and conservation activities in the high priority sub-basin, Brush Creek, over the last three years. All high priority fish passage barriers as identified by the Council’s Fish Passage Assessment (OWEB, 2004) have been restored, in-stream aquatic habitat has been enhanced with structural measures on both public and private lands, and riparian buffer restoration has occurred at five private landowner sites along with pasture management improvements and exclusion fencing.

Following the successful completion of high priority fish passage, aquatic habitat and riparian buffer restoration projects with federal, county and private landowners in Brush Creek sub-basin, the CWC Projects Committee has selected as a high priority the Courtney Creek sub-basin to be the focus of future strategic restoration and conservation planning and projects.

Courtney Creek Planning and Prioritization

Courtney Creek Sub-Basin, a large tributary system located in the southern portion of the Calapooia Watershed, is predominately privately held, and has been recognized by agencies and organizations for its unique ecological attributes including vernal pools and valuable upland oak savannah. This drainage is also home to local migrating native fish species, such as cutthroat trout, and provides habitat for ESA listed spring Chinook and winter steelhead with its forested headwaters tributary habitat and cooler temperatures. The CWC has met with Linn County, private timber industry, and the BLM to begin planning upcoming fish passage restoration projects at over a half-dozen medium-high priority culvert barrier sites identified in the Council’s 2004 Calapooia Watershed Fish Passage Assessment.  The BLM has requested to partner with the CWC due to our previous leadership in implementing multiple fish passage and aquatic habitat restoration projects on public lands.

Coordination has commenced with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the ODFW grasslands conservation program specialist to identify high priority upland and streamside habitats in the Courtney Creek landscape using GIS shapefiles and aerial photography. The regional Landowner Outreach Program Coordinator, with guidance from the CWC Coordinator, will focus on recruiting landowners in high priority areas according to ODFW, TNC, and NRCS restoration and conservation strategies, and will focus on implementing upland oak savannah and grasslands avian habitat improvement projects in conjunction with riparian buffer restoration.

Courtney Creek Planning

Restoration and conservation efforts along the Courtney Creek tributary to the Calapooia River are part of a larger regional initiative to improve watershed health.  Learn more about the Calapooia-Santiam Collaboration here.