East side green teamers reflect on their year of service-learning…

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Written by Meghan Ballard, Green Team Program Coordinator.

Students from SOLVE’s Green Teams on the East Side of the Willamette River joined together last week to share their experiences and the lessons they have learned over the past year.  Hosted at Clackamas High School, students were able to hear about each others’ research and time spent at the creek.

Matthew Collins, Education Director for Friends of Tryon Creek, joined us to talk about the importance of volunteering and how it has personally impacted his life and career choices.    Check out all of the different ways you can volunteer with Friends of Tryon Creek!

Ashley, Lindsey, Joel and Tanner from Gladstone High School started off the student presentations with information about invasive species at Rinearson Creek.  Sam and Katie joined us to represent West Linn High School and their work with stream bioengineering at Abernethy Creek. Portland Lutheran School students Lydia, Rachel, Abi and Arianna
shared their experience with the fun, slimy and smelly salmon toss on the Sandy River. Alexis, Ben, Jesse and Ryan presented on behalf of Clackamas High School and they shared some very interesting findings about their macroinvertebrate surveys of Mount Scott and Rock Creeks.  Fernanda, Kennedy, and Jake from Rex Putnam High School put together a documentary of their work this year at Boardman Wetlands. And students from the Sabin-Schellenberg Technical School gave their perspective on several tools they’ve used this year on invasive removal at Rock Creek.

Charlie(SOLVE) also introduced something new this year, the Clackamas Student Stewardship Award!  This award recognizes a special student or group of students who go above and beyond our usual tasks and contribute something extraordinary to SOLVE and the overall work we do as a Green Team program.  This year’s award was given to three outstanding art students, Chanel Karbonski, Kristy Younglove, & Ashley-Jean Gonzalez who have done AMAZING work transforming litter pulled out of Phillips Creek into beautiful and educational artwork, including the Tom McCall portrait below!

THANK YOU to all of the stellar students and teachers we have had the honor and privilege of working with this year!  It has been one of our most successful Green Team years ever and we are so glad you all were able to share it with us.

Thank you to the following sponsors, partners and friends who attended the summit and for supporting our work:

• Clackamas County Water Environment Services
• Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District
• Oak Lodge Sanitary District
• Patrick Edwards, Portland State University
• Johnson Creek Watershed Council
• Friends of Trees
• Clackamas River Basin Council
• Friends of Tryon Creek

Amazing litter art!

Encaging West Linn at Abernethy

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Written by Jesuit Volunteer Northwest Member, Charlie

This week was West Linn’s final visit to Abernethy Creek this year. [studio audience: Awwwwwwww...] But what a glorious visit it was. Perfect weather, enthusiastic students, our task was completed: Abernethy couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

After removing invasive species, bioengineering, planting native trees and shrubs, coffee bagging, and mulching, this week’s task was to further protect some of those young, vulnerable, native plants. This time we weren’t protecting them from invasive plants like the coffee bags or drying out like the mulch, but from animals, beavers to be exact. Having beavers on our Green Team sites is a great thing. It not only tells us that our sites are inhabitable, but also the beavers add woody debris and complexity to our streams and rivers. However beavers’ favorite snack is young saplings and they sometimes have a habit of mowing down recently planted trees at our sites. Therefore we need to make beaver cages to protect the trees until they grow large enough to handle being a beaver snack. Now these aren’t cages to trap beavers or keep them in a cage, its to keep them out (unless you bend your mind and look at the whole world as the inside of the cage, sure, then we are caging beavers in). Students constructed over 50 cages out of garden fencing, and then placed them over willow and alder saplings (the beavers’ favorite snacks), and staked them down. Great job guys!

We really appreciate all of the work West Linn has done at Abernethy this year, and we at SOLVE have really enjoyed working with them to improve the watershed of Abernethy Creek!

What’s Bugging Abernethy Creek?

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This past week students from West Linn High School came out to Abernethy Creek to do some surveys of macroinvertebrates living in the water. What are macroinvertebrates? Let’s break this word down: macro the greek prefix meaning “large” in: a prefix meaning “no” vertebrate: a word scientists use to describe the presence of a notochord (essentially a backbone), so altogether in plain everyday English, a macroinvertebrate organism is a large-no-backbone organism. In even plainer everyday English, a macroinvertebrate is in essence a bug. Taking samples and surveys of the bugs living in aquatic systems, such as creeks, are a really great tool for restoration ecologists to determine how healthy that system is. The more abundance and diversity of pollution tolerant individuals, the healthier the stream, it’s as simple as that. Macro samples can also give you a more accurate idea of health rather than chemical tests. Water chemistry may be constantly changing as the stream flows while these little bugs are constantly in the stream and will be affected by fleeting changes in chemicals. Also, you don’t need expensive equipment, you don’t need toxic chemicals, just a little know-how and an eye for identification.

With the spot of rain we had last week, Abernethy was flowing a little too high for West Linn students to get a good sample of the bottom-dwelling individuals, so students took nets and swept the vegetation along the banks to see what kinds of little critters are living along the banks, we found some interesting things! Good news: students found some caddisfly and mayfly larvae, both of which are considered pollution intolerant organisms. Other interesting things found were: young crayfish, scuds, water boatmen, aquatic earthworms, and water mites. We also managed to catch some fish: sculpin and a young lamprey! These were exciting to see, however they were not pertinent to our survey. Why? Fish aren’t invertebrates!

The West Linn Green Team did an excellent job doing the surveys and were excited about the whole process from netting to identification despite the drippy weather. We look forward to hearing about finding even more varieties of invertebrates in the stream as the work these students have been doing at this site all year continues to improve the stream quality.

April Showers Show Erosion Powers at Abernethy

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Despite the record-breaking spring rains Portland has been experiencing in the past few months, our Green Teams have been hard at work: braving soggy ground, soaking pants, and muddy gloves. The work that the Green Teams do become especially important and relevant during these times when creeks, streams, and rivers swell up, the water in waterways is at a higher velocity, and the ground becomes saturated, heavy, and slippery: all of these things contribute to be the perfect storm for severe stream bank erosion. Times like these are when we can see the successes of our past work and look at things that we need to do further work on in the future. It’s an exciting time to be out in the field!

The West Linn Green Teams came out in full force this past week at Abernethy Creek in Oregon City. Students planted the last 50 plants that will go into the ground this season as well as did some much-needed maintenance on all the plants they had planted this planting season: coffee-bagging, mulching, and beaver caging. The several hundred native plants that West Linn and other Green Teams have planted at Abernethy creek in the past season will greatly improve the watershed: among other benefits, their deep and intricate root systems will hold onto the soil and banks and prevent the stream from becoming fully loaded with sediment. This can build up and choke waterways, contribute to heat pollution, and clog the gills of aquatic animals. The young plants are very susceptible to drying out, being overtaken by invasive plants, and becoming a nice snack for the healthy beaver population living at Abernethy during their first few years in the ground. Therefore we can’t just plant the plants and call it a day; the maintenance work that West Linn did this week is important that the plants will grow up to become well established and beneficial members of the Abernethy watershed.

The urgency of the work West Linn did this week was especially evident as a large section of the bank near where they were working was in the process of falling into the high waters of Abernethy. When they arrived, a huge fissure was seen in the ground, and on the second day, a large foot-wide section of the bank, which students (and writers of this blog) had been standing on the day before, had fallen into the stream overnight. We look forward to the future as these plants grow and thrive and become important members of the Abernethy riparian ecosystem, preventing severe erosion events such as these from happening, all thanks to the hard work of the West Linn Green Teams.

West Linn: Adventures in Bioengineering!

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Students from West Linn’s Environmental Sciences classes came out to our site on good old Abernethy Creek this week to get some exciting work done. Since they last came to the site in December, a lot has happened there, most notably the flooding Abernethy experienced in January. The most obvious change was a very large 2-3 foot deep trench that the extreme precipitation carved out of the hillside above the creek. Uphill from our site a parking lot was recently constructed, and this impermeable surface has been channeling all of the water falling on it to one location. Rather than percolating into the ground, this runoff water flows downhill all together, which has quickly caused this erosion. In order to preserve the hillside and prevent further sediment from making its way into Abernethy creek, the biggest task this week was to do something about the trench. It was a good thing we called in the already masters of bioengineering: the West Linn High School Green Team students.

The parking lot causing the damage is built, there is nothing anybody could do about that to prevent more runoff from flowing down the hill in future high precipitation situations. Therefore we had to figure out a way to deal with this newly formed intermittent stream. The solution was to simply create a mini riparian zone at this site! If we planted willow and created dams of organic material such as dead brush, this will not only slow down the water (taking away its energy to erode) but it will also create a matrix of tree and plant roots that will hold in the soil and prevent it from washing downhill. They created 6 brush dams.

The first task was to dig out a trench:

Digging out the trench

This trench will then be used to fill with fascine bundles of freshly harvest willow and dogwood twigs. These branches will take root and leaf out into trees:

Fascine Bundles in place

Once the bundles were in place, large live willow stakes were placed downhill from the bundles to prevent bundles from washing downhill as well as provide more opportunity for trees to grow. Large wooden stakes were also placed behind the bundles to provide further stability in this living fence. Straw and large dead branches of willow were then placed right uphill of this fence and tied down. This will really slow down the water in the meantime before the willow and dogwoods grow:

Completed brush dam

The completed brush dams all look great and I am sure will be very successful at preventing further erosion from this site.

While all of this was going on, students also managed to get a lot of the plants they planted earlier in the season mulched, and got the last handful of plants for the site in the ground.

Thanks for all of your hard work on this complicated project! It will be exciting to see these brush dams in action!

**Special thanks to Krista for taking some of the photos***

Our Apologies to Clement Moore

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Twas the week before Christmas Break, and all across the creek                                       All the creatures were stirring, both the strong and the weak.                                              To fly south, the last goose no longer could wait,                                                               And the rough skinned newts prepared to brumate.

But the water that flowed was loaded with dirt                                                                   And the fish in the water felt the warm water hurt.                                                              The birds in the woods looked at brambles with dread,                                                   While visions of tall trees danced through their head.

When out in the riparian zone, there rose such a clatter,                                                    The robins flew up to see what was the matter!                                                                 And what to their shiny black eyes did appear,                                                                West Linn students in boots and rain gear!    

With tools in their hands they started to speak:                                                             “We’re here to improve Abernethy Creek!                                                                      We’re sorry you’re neglected and haven’t seen love.”                                                       And they picked up their tools and put on some gloves.

 Three days in a row they worked hard on the stream bank                                              Even the squirrels were impressed; they heard no complaint                                      Despite that the students got covered in mud,                                                                  They continued their work with a fire in their blood.

 The first day they finished a project long term                                                                     To slope out a bank section, that was a steep berm                                                         They tugged and removed some old erosion fencing                                                           As the sweat on their foreheads was condensing

 They cut and inserted stakes of willow                                                                         Whose roots would prevent soil from eroding below                                                     (These trees are unique in that way you know,                                                                 Stick a live branch in the ground and a new tree will grow!)

 While working hard in the mud, one could hear                                                               Their fearless teacher’s voice come out clear:                                                                  “Hey Sarah, hey Kevin, hey Ashley, hey Nate!                                                            Hammer in those willows, there’s a lot at STAKE”

 The next two days the students began planting,                                                               And as they continued the place looked enchanting                                                            All these small trees in the ground with so much potential,                                                 But for the health of the stream this work was essential.

 Next job was to put the plants to bed for the year                                                             And they surrounded them with coffee bags which at first may seem queer,                   And why would we place out these bags you may ask?                                                      To protect them from monsters like reed canary grass   

On the final day, as they finished their job,                                                                             A calm relieved silence came out of the fog                                                                     From the stream they could hear as they packed up the last rake,                               Happy holidays to all, and to all a good break!

And Now a Word from our Spawnsors…

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Do the salmon in your streams have difficulties swimming as far upstream as they did historically?  Is your watershed degraded or in need of nutrients?  Do you enjoy a spawntaneous game of toss?

Yes!?  Then have we got a story for you!!

Students from West Linn High School, Gladstone High School, and Rex Putnam High School met up with a few Jesuit Volunteers, Representatives from the Clackamas River Basin Council, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, and SOLV to toss dead salmon and all of their brilliant nutrients into the Upper Clackamas River.  These students care so deeply about restoring riparian corridors that they opted to wake up early on a Saturday morning, slip into a trash bag dress, and carry fish guts and blood to a part of the Clackamas in need of nutrients.  They carried several salmon from the truck to the river on strings and sticks, making our work as efishent as possible.  Students deposited these salmon to their final resting places in no time!

You can have your fun at restoring a creek near you too, even if throwing dead salmon carcases is not your cup of roe.  Just simply pick up trash near your stream, learn about the plants growing there, and sign up for community volunteer events to be a salmbassador of your stream.  Its easy, fun, and always rewarding.

Something smells fishy…

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24 students from West Linn High School, 1 SOLV board member with 2 friends and 2 Green Team staff ventured together up the Clackamas River this past Saturday to place salmon carcasses from the hatchery into the upper watershed!

Why do we do this you ask?

Historically, the salmon would have made it upstream on their own steam.  After using their noses to guide them to their home streams from the Pacific Ocean, they’d lay their eggs and perish shortly after.  The nutrients from their bodies would make their way into the water column, nourishing nearby plant life and aquatic creatures.  Currently, a number of barriers make it impossible for salmon to return to the upper reaches of the watershed, leaving these portions of the Clackamas nutrient-deprived.

And that’s where the volunteers come in!

- Becki Walker, CRBC

We tossed in an area past Estacada, on Ripplebrook and Rainbow Campgrounds.  This was our first toss this year with Jeff Fulop of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.  We tossed 600 fish in about two hours.  Surveys taken on streams and rivers where salmon have been tossed in the past show 40% healthier trees and nutrient levels.

Thank you West Linn High School and all volunteers!

Stream Bank Restoration at Abernethy Creek is no Joke

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Okay, okay, okay… What do you get when you cross 6 West Linn High School Environmental Science Classes, an eroding creek bank, and 3 beautifully sunny days?

Well looking back at the last 3 days, apparently the answer is: a feat of bioengineering and the beginnings of a restored riparian zone. We warned you that this wasn’t funny [see post title] despite the fact that one tends not to be so dry when working around streams… Dang it! It appears that hanging out with the punsters at West Linn High School does rub off on you.

Wordplay aside, the students at West Linn got a ton of work done in the last three days. At this site West Linn went through all the steps of stabilizing an eroding bank with bioengineering. Before the students arrived, an earth mover had sloped the streambank to be a gradual slope as opposed to a steep cliff of dirt, but in order to prevent further erosion, a lot of work needed to be done with bioengineering techniques, to stabilize the bank in the long-term. On the first day students arrived, we placed fascine bundles of willow and dogwood in trenches, anchored them down and buried them. These will grow into new trees and will create a nice matrix of roots that will hold in the soil and prevent sediment from washing into the stream. On the second day, students spread out straw, rolled out a carpet of natural fiber fabric, and staked it down. This will keep soil from washing in the stream in the short-term as we wait for those fascines bundles to take root and grow. On the final day, students planted and staked over 300 trees and shrubs to provide a nice diverse community of plants for the riparian zone. For more specifics and better pictures on how this is accomplished check out this previous posting here.

West Linn did a wonderful job, and we look forward to having them back at Abernethy!

How to stabilize an eroding bank; West Linn style

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Students from West Linn High School came out to Oregon City this week to do some major work on Abernathy creek. We had ecologist Dennis O’Conner come out to lead the students in a major bioengineering project there. The state of the old bank was horrible. Rather than a gradual bank filled with native trees and shrubs, it was a bramble of blackberries with a 12 foot wall leading straight into the stream, with the potential for major erosion in a future rain storm.

Before the students arrived, we got some earth-movers to peel back the bank so it was a much more gradual drop into the stream. But we needed to create a way from preventing future erosion, which is where the West Linn High School classes came in, to help us with this feat of bioengineering. We placed bunches of native plant branches such as willow, dogwood, and spirea, fascine bundles or waddles in contour with the bank and buried them. By May, these branches will have propagated into new plants who will not only add to the native biodiversity of the riparian ecosystem but will create a nice matrix of roots to hold down that soil from washing into our streams.

Exactly how did we do this? Since pictures are worth a thousand words, why don’t you see for yourself:

Digging a trench along contour

Making a waddle

Trench filled with waddles

Staking down the waddles

Covering up the waddles

After all this, we threw down some straw, some sterile quick-growing grass, and some natural fiber which will prevent erosion in the short-term while we wait for these plants to take root. All this work wasn’t enough for West Linn to accomplish, as these classes of overachievers also managed to get over 150 native trees and shrubs planted around the bank. Wow!

Thanks for all of your amazing hard work West Linn