The Sandy
The Problem We Are Solving
Behind the homes and businesses of Portland is a powerhouse river basin, working hard for the metropolis just beyond its limits. Beside supplying most of Oregon’s largest city with drinking water, the Sandy draws families for soaking in the summer and hopeful steelheaders in winter. Decades ago, you could visit the Sandy River and its tributaries and find them full of logjams, having naturally accumulated over decades. Under them, you’d likely find thriving juvenile fish taking refuge. Yet in the sixties, the Army Corps removed nearly all the logs from this basin and others nationwide, assuming they contributed to flooding. It backfired and increased the rate at which water was moving, exacerbating flooding and removing critical habitat for native fish populations. This, combined with clearcutting and road construction, left the Sandy in rough shape. TFT has worked for more than a decade to restore it to what it once was — for all that love and rely upon it.
How We Are Solving It
This is our stalwart basin. We began restoring the Sandy more than a decade ago with a strategic, long-term plan and a set of intrepid partners. Since then, it’s been full steam ahead, ticking one project off after another. To date, more than 30 projects have been implemented.
In 2018, we placed 1,155 pieces of large wood in the Salmon River, Sixes Creek, Lost Creek and Cast Creek, four critical tributaries for winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon.
More than 80 large wood structures were created from these pieces.
“Large wood is the key driver of healthy fish habitat in the Sandy and across the Pacific Northwest,” said Mark McCollister, habitat restoration director for TFT. “In the summer, you’ll find us throughout the forest with hard hats on and helicopters overhead. It’s controlled chaos, and there’s a plan behind each piece.”
By adding large wood back into the system, TFT has restored function to more than 23,000 functional linear feet of stream, with more than 3,500 feet restored in 2018. Also last year, flow was restored to two major side channels on Lost Creek and two on the Salmon River — providing fish with safer spawning habitat.
“When this wood gets placed, it helps to slow and expand water onto the floodplain,” said McCollister. “This is all additional calm space for fish. You can think of it like a stopover on their journey.”
In 2018, we also began our first site visit program, taking donors to projects to witness the impacts of their support in person.
“As a fisherman, I have always hated logjams, as they are hard to navigate around and my fly can catch more logjams than fish at times. I now have a new appreciation for the value of logjams and will see them in a new light.” – Jeff Grub, supporter.
Nearly 100 people joined TFT staff on trips last year.
“This has ignited a level of excitement that has not been seen for some time,” said Jeff Fisher, habitat monitoring lead. “It has been a pleasure showing them where their support goes.”
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Behind the homes and businesses of Portland is a powerhouse river basin, working hard for the metropolis just beyond its limits. Beside supplying most of Oregon’s largest city with drinking water, the Sandy draws families for soaking in the summer and hopeful steelheaders in winter. Decades ago, you could visit the Sandy River and its tributaries and find them full of logjams, having naturally accumulated over decades. Under them, you’d likely find thriving juvenile fish taking refuge. Yet in the sixties, the Army Corps removed nearly all the logs from this basin and others nationwide, assuming they contributed to flooding. It backfired and increased the rate at which water was moving, exacerbating flooding and removing critical habitat for native fish populations. This, combined with clearcutting and road construction, left the Sandy in rough shape. TFT has worked for more than a decade to restore it to what it once was — for all that love and rely upon it.
This is our stalwart basin. We began restoring the Sandy more than a decade ago with a strategic, long-term plan and a set of intrepid partners. Since then, it’s been full steam ahead, ticking one project off after another. To date, more than 30 projects have been implemented.
In 2018, we placed 1,155 pieces of large wood in the Salmon River, Sixes Creek, Lost Creek and Cast Creek, four critical tributaries for winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon.
More than 80 large wood structures were created from these pieces.
“Large wood is the key driver of healthy fish habitat in the Sandy and across the Pacific Northwest,” said Mark McCollister, habitat restoration director for TFT. “In the summer, you’ll find us throughout the forest with hard hats on and helicopters overhead. It’s controlled chaos, and there’s a plan behind each piece.”
By adding large wood back into the system, TFT has restored function to more than 23,000 functional linear feet of stream, with more than 3,500 feet restored in 2018. Also last year, flow was restored to two major side channels on Lost Creek and two on the Salmon River — providing fish with safer spawning habitat.
“When this wood gets placed, it helps to slow and expand water onto the floodplain,” said McCollister. “This is all additional calm space for fish. You can think of it like a stopover on their journey.”
In 2018, we also began our first site visit program, taking donors to projects to witness the impacts of their support in person.
“As a fisherman, I have always hated logjams, as they are hard to navigate around and my fly can catch more logjams than fish at times. I now have a new appreciation for the value of logjams and will see them in a new light.” – Jeff Grub, supporter.
Nearly 100 people joined TFT staff on trips last year.
“This has ignited a level of excitement that has not been seen for some time,” said Jeff Fisher, habitat monitoring lead. “It has been a pleasure showing them where their support goes.”