The Sandy
The Sandy features Pacific Northwest classics. Low-hanging clouds clinging to evergreens. Thick leaves that amplify rainfall. Wet moss and ferns cover the forest floor. And underwater are the greatest regional icons of them all — salmon and trout. Their presence here is due in part to the work of The Freshwater Trust and its partners.
Every year, by building large wood structures and occasionally adding spawning-sized gravel, TFT has reintroduced critical habitat complexity once lost in the 1960s. With precision, helicopters place logs along the small creeks and tributaries. The wood scours pools, expands water onto the floodplain, and opens side channels.
2021 efforts were not dissimilar to the work of previous years. Nearly a mile of new side channels were built. More than 1,200 pieces of large wood were placed.
We also implemented a floodplain-shaping project on one of the most heavily channelized sections of the Zigzag. Prior to restoration, there were no side channels or spawning gravels in this reach. After completing construction, spring Chinook immediately moved into the project area, and we documented multiple redds in the new side channels that Fall.
All of this builds on more than a decade of progress where the ultimate goal is to create basin-wide, self-sustaining habitat that can form a stronghold for runs of anadromous fish in the Lower Columbia.
Today, the Salmon River is estimated to produce 30% of the steelhead in the Sandy basin and 49% of the coho. According to Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife data, there has been a more than 320% increase in adult coho between 2010 and 2021.
“What weʼve done in the Sandy is exactly the type of coordinated restoration action that endangered fish need to recover from decades of habitat degradation, and to survive the years ahead,” said Daniel Baldwin, Restoration Project Manager. “This work will only get more important.”