Reese Creek Restoration

Reese Creek is a tributary of Muddy Creek, located Southwest of Finley Wildlife Refuge. Habitat quality in the creek has been hurt by historical land use practices that removed riparian trees and in-stream woody debris, relocated and ditched the stream, thereby decreasing floodplain connectivity. These impacts hurt water and habitat quality in the creek for aquatic organisms and downstream neighbors. The Marys River Watershed Council has been working to restore and enhance in-stream and riparian habitat. This work benefited the nearby riparian ecosystem and native species like cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, and freshwater mussels.

The Watershed Council received support from our partners at the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and Xerces Society for this project.

Reese Creek supports a remarkable ecosystem, including one of Oregon’s most sensitive species: native freshwater mussels. These mollusks live in the streambed and filter water for other downstream users. Freshwater mussels are a food source for species like otters and raccoons. They can’t survive in polluted streams. Their presence indicates excellent water quality.

But Oregon’s freshwater mussels are in trouble. Habitat degradation has made successful reproduction nearly impossible for many populations. When the Watershed Council planned restoration work in Reese Creek, protecting the resident mussel population was a top priority.

The solution required our team to carefully relocate every mussel from the work area to ensure none would be harmed during construction. Once restoration was complete, the relocated mussels could return to their enhanced habitat. This operation demonstrates our commitment to protecting stream life while improving creek health.

In their natural state, many Willamette Valley streams meandered and spread across their floodplains. Historical beaver removal, riparian logging, and clearing and relocating streams for agricultural use, resulted in streams becoming channelized, narrowed and incised. Channel incision is when a stream digs itself into a trench below the level of the historic floodplain. When a stream becomes incised, it lowers the water table, increases erosion, and is less able to manage extreme flows, often having scoured out to bedrock. The Watershed Council conducted a series of 25 bank pullbacks and floodplain terrace excavations to provide the creek with more room to move. Bank pullbacks repair incised banks by providing a gradual gradient to meet the floodplain. This will help mitigate flood concerns, increase water quality, and provide high-quality habitat for aquatic species.

The Watershed Council also installed large woody debris structures alongside the bank pullbacks to more frequently inundate them during high flows and encourage further habitat complexity. The large woody debris structures anchor the new pullbacks and capture woody debris and stream bedload, retaining and sorting gravels and covering bedrock. This process sequesters water flow through the gravels, keeping it cooler to address the elevated summer temperatures that are the biggest limiting factor in the Marys River watershed for the health of aquatic species. The Watershed Council planted over 23,000 native plants on 14 acres of riparian forest. These new forests will help shade the stream, limit erosion, and be a source of large woody debris in the future. Additionally, we replaced a perched, undersized culvert to restore fish passage on a tributary to Reese Creek, opening up over half a mile of high quality habitat.. Together, these actions protect and enhance habitat for freshwater mussels, cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, and other aquatic organisms.