Wolf Creek: A Success Story of Partnership, Restoration, and Monitoring

The Wolf Creek restoration and effectiveness monitoring project is a 6th Field watershed scale restoration project that cost over 1.5 million dollars.  Over 14 miles of stream were restored with approximately 1500 logs and 5000 boulders over a four year period (2008 – 2012).  Wolf Creek is a tributary to the Umpqua River west of Roseburg, Oregon.  The restoration in Wolf Creek utilized all three of the major log placement methods: excavators, a truck mounted cable yarder, and helicopters to place logs and boulders in the stream channel.  To address salmon habitat concerns, a strong partnership was formed (BLM, ODFW, Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, Roseburg Resources, and Seneca Jones) to restore and monitor the watershed. While bringing significant money into the county, this project has shown dramatic increases in fish numbers and stream complexity in restored reaches.   Monitoring contributions also came from the USGS, Oregon Water Resources Department, and the Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program (AREMP).   In 2010, Wolf Creek was awarded the Riparian Challenge Award.  Since then, the project has spawned two Oregon State University graduate research projects and another geomorphology and lamprey study currently underway by USGS.