Oregon Trout Habitat Restoration
This past Memorial Day (2005) I drove 6 hours to eastern Oregon to the Middle Fork of the John Day River for a weekend of stream habitat restoration with Oregon Trout. Redington and I did this last year as well and with a group of 15-20 people planted some 5000 trees. We did most of our work on the Camp Creek tributary of the Middle Fork and on Lick Creek a tributary of Camp Creek and Long Creek at Flood Meadow . Oregon Trout has been involved for the last 3-4 years on this section which the forest service (Malhuer National Forest), ODFW (Oregon Division of Fish and Wildlife) and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) highlighted as significant habitat for the Steelhead an andronamous member of the trout family which means like salmon they swim upstream from the ocean to spawn. Unlike salmon though steelhead may return to spawn many times in their lifetimes. Nevertheless they are a threatened species and hence the subject of intense efforts to restore their popul...