The past 50 years have not been kind to Mount Hood
National Forest’s Fish Creek watershed. In the past two years
alone, over 200 landslides have ravaged its 30,000 acres, where
unstable slopes have been made even weaker by decades of logging
and road building. Now, with the forest at 60 percent of its
original density, the Forest Service wants to heal the area. The
Clackamas River Ranger Districts is proposing a watershed
restoration plan for Fish Creek, near Estacada, Ore. The project’s
major goals: close the 140 miles of roads that crisscross the area;
revive devastated coho and steelhead salmon populations; eliminate
motor vehicle access in the entire area; and reduce logging
activity to nearly zero. Regna Merritt, spokeswoman for the Oregon
Natural Resources Council, supports the agency’s effort. She hopes
the Forest Service will learn from degraded areas like Fish Creek
and move toward protection and restoration. “There’s absolutely no
other way to go,” she says. Connie Athman, a hydrologist and
restoration manager for the agency, says the project became a
pressing concern after last year’s floods. The plan, she says, is
unique because it deals with the whole ecosystem at once: “This is
not your regular piecemeal approach.” The proposal will be ready in
mid-November, says Athman, and the Forest Service hopes to get
public comment before then to help shape the
project.
To comment, write Clackamas River Ranger
Districts, 595 NW Industrial Way, Estacada, OR
97023.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fixing Fish Creek.
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