Restoring and Protecting Urban Watersheds in Clackamas County
By Will Gehr
Photo: Kellogg Dam, under Hwy 99E
We are lucky to have Neil Schulman as a longtime club member. It is no surprise that he is an active paddler and club member, due to his attraction to naturally wet environments. Neil loves to explore both rivers and coastlines as a paddler and a photographer. Rounding out his environmental credentials, he is the Executive Director of the North Clackamas Watershed Council (NCWC). I met with him on a cold February morning in Milwaukie Bay Park to find out more about his work.
We stood overlooking the Kellogg Dam, which is tucked under East Hwy 99 just before Kellogg Creek enters the Willamette. It is a concrete structure that dates back to sometime before 1858, originally built to power a flour mill. Behind it, Kellogg Creek backs up and creates a shallow, 14 acre pond. The mill was dismantled in the 1890s, and as you have already guessed, the dam has no remaining benefit and only a continuing negative impact on native fish. For years the NCWC has wanted to see the dam removed. Unfortunately, because Hwy 99 East was built on top of the dam structure, the price tag for this small dam removal is a couple of orders of magnitude higher than it would have been otherwise.
Luckily the federal Infrastructure Bill of 2022 has money for such projects, and the Project Leadership Team, NCWC, American Rivers, ODOT, and the City of Milwaukee was awarded funds for designing the project from soup to nuts. With this funding in place, the project will be well-positioned for construction funding. Once the dam is moved, salmon, steelhead, and lamprey will have access to 15 miles of historic rearing and spawning grounds on Kellogg Creek and its tributary, Mt Scott Creek.
Neil and the NCWC Board are, of course, thrilled about these recent developments. I want to share this good news because it is exciting as well as emblematic of their persevering work for watershed restoration and protection.
The Watershed Council was formalized in 2009 with the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners recognition of NCWC as a key stakeholder on behalf of watersheds, and federal approval of charitable organization status. Neil became its director in 2018. Its first scientist, Amy van Riessen, was hired as Watershed Restoration Manager early this year. Neil was attracted to NCWC partly because his past friend and club member Carl Poston was instrumental in the removal of a fish passage-restricting dam on nearby Rinearson Creek.
The council is steward to 5 watersheds, including the Willamette. Together, the creeks drain an area that includes the cities of Milwaukie, Happy Valley, and Gladstone and the unincorporated areas of Oak Grove and Jennings Lodge.
NCWC is just one of many watershed restoration and protection organizations in the Metro area. Watershed health also falls under the umbrella of general renewable resource protection provided by Soil and Water Conservations Districts (SWCDs). These have a broader mission than watershed councils. SWCDs help to minimize soil erosion, eradicate invasive species, improve runoff water quality, and protect wildlife. In contrast, watershed councils tend to focus on how well the indigenous fish are doing, paying attention to such metrics as water temperature and quality, as well as fish access, habitat and connection to surrounding wetlands. Fish health tends to be a good indicator of watershed health and functionality.
To give you an idea of what the North Clackamas Watershed Council does, here is a short description of it's 5 primary programs:
Kellogg Creek Restoration and Community Enhancement Project: this is the dam removal and restoration of the 14 acre pond into a flood area for a re-established creek channel.
Watershed Science and Restoration: Active monitoring and research of watershed conditions to direct restoration work and track change over time.
Protecting Watersheds: Working with agencies to strengthen watershed policy and planning.
Streamside Stewards: This program works with willing private property owners along Mt Scott, Kellogg, River Forest, Boardman, and Rinearson Creeks and their tributaries. NCWC surveys site conditions, develops restoration plans, and conducts restoration for up to five years.
Stormwater and Green Infrastructure: Focus is on public and business education to help prevent pollution of stormwater that drains into the area's creeks. Accompanying goals include minimizing pavement and using wetlands to strategically purify runoff before entering waterways.
Watershed Science: Active monitoring and research of watershed conditions to optimize allocation of limited resources to attain the greatest benefit.
This article is an exuberant shout out to Neil and to memorialize Carl for their work to improve the health of our often beleaguered urban watersheds. We all have the opportunity to plug into our local watershed advocacy groups, and I just got motivated to do that. My local creek in SW Portland is Vermont Creek, a tributary of Fanno Creek, which flows into the Tualatin River. I will be learning about and supporting the work of the Tualatin River Watershed Council. Do you know what your local creek is, and how you can support it?
Photo: Merkley talks to Neil.
