Coast Fork Willamette 3.3 Restoration
The Freshwater Trust (TFT) is an Oregon-based non-profit organization with a mission to preserve and restore freshwater ecosystems. We are currently seeking new restoration projects like this one on the Coast Fork Willamette River. If you own streamside land in our program area that is lacking shade trees, overgrown with blackberry, or otherwise would benefit from restoration of native trees and shrubs for local habitat, we’d love to talk to you. Learn more about the program here.
Restoration in Action
What native species are at this site?
This area is home to an abundance of wildlife, including great blue heron, breeding songbirds, beaver, and many others. Management of riparian forests in the HBRA is designed to help sensitive wildlife targeted for conservation including Upper Willamette spring Chinook, cutthroat and rainbow trout, Oregon chub, northwestern pond turtle, northern red-legged frog and bald eagle.
Trees planted here include black cottonwood, alder, cascara, several species of willow, and others. Shrubs planted here include blue elderberry, Oregon grape, redosier dogwood, Douglas spirea, common snowberry, and twinberry.
Native trees provide shade, while native shrubs protect the landscape from invasion by non-native plants and provide flowers for pollinators and berries that become food for wildlife. Certain species thrive by the water’s edge, while others are more drought-resistant and thrive in the upland. All these plants help to develop a dense, healthy, multi-story riparian forest.
What is the long-term plan for this site?
This site will be maintained for 20 years by the Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah and The Freshwater Trust through the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission’s Water Quality Trading Program, which requires projects to meet defined performance standards. Stewardship includes reducing invasive weeds such as Himalayan blackberry, Canada thistle and reed canarygrass from overtaking the project area.
What is the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission’s Water Quality Trading Program?
The Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission of Eugene-Springfield (MWMC) and The Freshwater Trust are partnering to use shade produced from restoring streamside forests to help the utility meet its water quality goals. As the plants grow at each restored site, they block solar load (heat from the sun), which generates “shade (thermal) credits.” These “credits” benefit the MWMC and fish. The MWMC registers them with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to comply with a wastewater permit to protect water quality under the federal Clean Water Act, while fish get the benefit of cooler water in the streams.
How was this site selected?
The Freshwater Trust selects sites using its StreamBank® BasinScout® tool, which prioritizes many potential sites based on different environmental benefits. Sites throughout the Upper Willamette basin are modeled to quantify the amount of thermal benefit (shade) possible under restored conditions. This allows the team to locate the most high-impact planting sites and work with willing landowners to restore them.
How do we know this site is succeeding?
The Freshwater Trust closely monitors this restoration project to ensure that it is on track to meet performance standards and to identify stewardship needs. Additionally, sites in the water quality trading program have independent third-party verifiers that confirm that the site is meeting its performance targets and generating the environmental benefits needed to comply with the wastewater permit requirements.
