Watersheds council tackles 74-acre Alsea River rehabilitation project in circle of life effort for its owner

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

Morning fog ghosts through the conifer-clad ridges of the Siuslaw National Forest along the middle reaches of the Alsea River where fisherman in drift boats cast lines in hope of landing a winter steelhead.

A few miles upstream a cadre of conservation-minded folks plant trees along the riverbank in hope of assuring the fish will not only continue to survive but thrive.

The Alsea River and its tributaries reach into three counties to drain a 475-mile square basin that eventually flows into the ocean at Waldport. The river is known for its seasonal runs of Chinook and coho salmon along with winter steelhead and cutthroat trout — runs which sustained Native peoples for centuries and eventually early American settlers.

But over time management practices began to degrade the river’s ability to support the once-teeming number of fish, which rely on cold water and connection to pools, wetlands and floodplains for spawning and rearing.

Scott Stouder’s family settled along the Alsea in the early 1900s. His mother and father, born just a few river-miles apart in the 1930s, raised their three sons along the banks of the Alsea. Beginning with his grandfather, the family made a living logging and running a sawmill.

“And of course, in those days there were a lot of fish in the river,” says Stouder, now 75. “And we fished a lot. The whole Coast range was very vibrant for hundreds of years with Native Americans who followed the fish migration up those rivers. And when Europeans came around, we sort of did the same thing. We weren’t migratory but a big part of our diet was salmon that came up those rivers.”

The MidCoast Watersheds Council is now leading a restoration project on 74 acres of land owned by Stouder and his wife, Holly Endersby. The couple now live in Riggins, Idaho but regularly visit the property sandwiched between Highway 34 and the Alsea River some 22 miles east of Waldport.

The land was part of a larger parcel of family properties divided between Stouder and his brothers after their mother died in 2014.

“All of us, both my brothers and I were emotionally attached to the land,” Stouder said. “There’s a lot of ways that people describe land. And the way I describe it is we loved it. And that’s pretty emotional. We knew it was worth some money, but not a whole lot. And it wasn’t like we wanted to sell it and take the money and go to Hawaii or wherever you go with money.”

Circle of life

The decision to restore the land for fish and wildlife habitat did not happen immediately. But given the course of Stouder’s life would seem as inevitable as a salmon instinctively returning to the river of its birth.

Stouder left logging at age 43 to pursue a career as an outdoor writer, which in turn led to a job in Idaho working for Trout Unlimited, a national organization known for river rehabilitation and a mission to make water cleaner, communities healthier and fisheries stronger.

Memory also plays a part. Stouder remembers the Fall Creek Fish hatchery near his family’s property back in the 1960s and its seeming early success followed by its failure.

“At first the hatchery was great,” Stouder said. “We had fish coming back in the tens of thousands. But then we realized there were a whole lot of problems with it. A lot of those fish came back in early September and when we didn’t have the water for them, they died of lack of oxygen.”

Early in the hatchery’s operation eggs were taken from the first fish that showed up so the hatchery could meet its egg quota, Stouder said.

“What that taught the fisheries biologists and me was that was a mistake because we had genetically altered that run to the point that there wasn’t survival in the river anymore,” Stouder said. “Hatcheries have a place in this, but they aren’t the answer.

“People will say we had tens of thousands of fish back in the ’60s and early ’70s and ask why can’t we do that again?” Stouder said. “They tried. And it was a failure. Those runs crashed because we had altered them so much. It’s a lot more complex than that.”

Stouder also remembers his mother telling stories of Phillips Creek, which crosses their property to enter the Alsea, and how she used to walk there to watch the salmon spawn.

“And in my memory, there’s never been salmon in that.”

With the goal of bringing the land back to its natural state – before a century of agricultural practices that included a dairy farm, row crops and the clearing of shade trees that left the river bank overrun with invasive blackberries – Stouder reached out to an acquaintance who connected him with the MidCoast Watersheds Council.

Restoration work

Discussions with the Newport-based council about the project began three years ago. Then came fundraising efforts. The groundwork began in September when a friend and shirttail relative of Stouder used heavy machinery to clear blackberry brambles, remove old fencing and restore some of the wetlands.

“And then immediately after that we began seeding with forbs to get the ground covered so it doesn’t erode,” said council executive director Evan Hayduk. “We began planting trees and bigger shrubs in mid-November.”

Staff from the council, the Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District and volunteers are now planting shrubs and a combination of willow, western red cedar, Douglas fir, big leaf maple, a bit of red alder and some Oregon ash trees.

“This project involves riparian and upland and wetland planting,” Hayduk said. “Really re-wilding the majority of the property to benefit fish and wildlife species, namely coho and Chinook salmon as well as beaver, elk, deer and anything else that uses the area.”

The primary reason for planting trees is to create shade.

“Keeping the sun off of streams is really important,” Hayduk said. “Salmon cannot survive at higher temperatures so the more shade you have on our streams the better. It’s also our long-term bank account of large wood to fall in the creek to provide structure and complexity, which fish really need for their spawning and rearing areas.”

Trees also restore the ecosystem by making it function better for water storage, retention and natural function, he said, which helps people upstream and downstream as well as all the fish and wildlife species.

Planting on the property will continue until early spring and then again next year to fill in any gaps. Crews will also visit the site for three to five years to make sure the trees are surviving and non-native species are kept at bay until the native species get established.

Volunteers are key

Hayduk credits volunteers with making the council’s work possible.

“We absolutely can’t do it without them,” he said. “We’ve got a really loyal group that helped build our nursery and who get their hands dirty at our planting sites. And we are always interested in bringing on new volunteers and have lots of different opportunities, from backbreaking work to easy stuff anybody can do.”

Nancy Thomas of Waldport, who was raised on a farm and believes strongly in natural habitats and nature, is one of those volunteers.

“It’s a major effort to try and restore these wetlands and so it just makes me feel good that we’re giving back something to the environment and we’re trying to restore it as it originally was because they’ve proven now it’s actually beneficial to us as humans as well, to get out digging in the dirt, enjoying nature and just accepting and enjoying things as they are without needing to change them.”

Ray Hughey of Corvallis, a volunteer who will also be doing a restoration project on a stream near Five Rivers, said he wants to see the fishery on the Alsea restored to what it once was.

“I grew up fishing it and I’ve seen it decline into a shadow of its former self,” he said. “We have to do what we can. It’s critical. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it.”

Bill Kobialka of Seal Rock said volunteering with the council is a way of giving back.

“I’m reading a good book called Braiding Sweetgrass written by a Native American woman who is a botanist,” he said. “In the Native American culture, the Earth will take of us if we take care of the Earth. We’ve done so much damage to the Earth and it provides everything – it’s a living planet. So that’s why I do this.”

 And that’s the goal of Stouder and Endersby for their property.

“I just hope that we can be a small part of bringing the fish back, bringing the salmon back to the Alsea River and the mid coast, at least close to where it once was,” Stouder said. “A lot of the Alsea River has been totally split up and it’s got houses up and down the river and I get it. If you go down the Siuslaw or the Umpqua or any of the rivers – that’s the story.

“But this is a little piece of land where I can make a difference in my life,” he said. “My wife and I feel very dedicated to this. This is about trying to do what we can do to bring back the salmon populations that are disappearing … And if I can contribute back to the natural river process and the good fish habitat that existed there for basically thousands of years – that’s my goal.”

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]