Winter 2016 Salmon Surveys are Complete

As this incredibly cold and wet winter is keeping me indoors, I thought it would be a good time to write about the Salmon surveys that my husband and I conducted over this winter season. In collaboration with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Beaver Creek Conservation Partnership, and students in the MHCC Fisheries program, we were able to survey several segments of Beaver Creek, weather permitting.

This year seemed especially difficult for surveying. We had enough wet weather with heavy rainfall that visibility in the watershed was poor. High water levels and the sheer volume of water moving through the creek beds created a lot of turbidity. Nearly every day we surveyed we couldn't see into the water of the main stem of Beaver Creek. This leads me to suspect that there were exposed soils in the upper watershed, in addition to the usual clay bed erosion I am used to seeing. The east winds were another factor that made it difficult to conduct our surveys safely. Several wind storms brought trees down into the stream channels. While this is going to be great for fish, it made it dangerous to get around some places.

Overall we spotted two fish, both near the intersection of Troutdale Road and Division Drive. Each of these observations were casual, with one made during a routine drive to the store. Don't worry! I wasn't driving when I spotted the fish. The assumption is that both fish were Coho Salmon, as we haven't seen any Chinook in the reaches above Stark Street since we began our surveys.

We are hoping that the removal and replacement of the Stark Street culvert will aid in the return of stronger fish runs in Beaver Creek. With that said, it was also a rough year on the Sandy for fishermen, so the runs may not have been what we hoped for overall. Updates to come!