TILLER -- Some architects design houses. Others, like Tiller Ranger District biologist Bob Nichols, construct streams.

Tuesday, he led a group of Umpqua Basin Watershed council members on a tour of his latest re-creation of nature, a stream restoration project at Dumont Creek, 10 miles northeast of Tiller.

Though the Forest Service coordinated the project, the council helped secure about $100,000 through the Oregon Watershed and Enhancement Board. The project marked the first partnership in Tiller between private funding and a public agency -- something that will become more common as the Forest Service trims its budget, Nichols said. The Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also helped pay for the $230,000 project.

Though Nichols hasn't compiled the data for how many fish use the creek, there is already evidence that salmon and steelhead appreciate the effort.

"More coho came out in one night in June of 2003 than in ... 1998," Nichols said. The project created gravel for spawning, cooler water temperatures and more food for fish including winter steelhead, cutthroat trout, chinook and coho salmon.

Jim Long, a council member, said the immediate response from fish is remarkable. "It's exciting to me if a volunteer can come out and see some results. It kind of inspires them," he said.

The council usually coordinates smaller, but similar, projects on private land that involve placing between 40 and 80 logs in a stream compared with the 247 placed in the three-mile stretch of Dumont Creek.

On Tuesday's tour, Nichols pointed to manmade log jams that try to mimic the creek's historic habitat.

The log jams create deep pools that keep water cool in the summer and protect young salmon from being washed downstream during floods. Nichols pointed out a pile of small sticks and other debris that had accumulated behind one log pile, collecting nutrients and fish food, and keeping those nutrients from washing downstream to the Umpqua.

Nichols and a design team carefully laid out drawings for each location identifying the size and placement of every log.

The 25,000-pound logs, knocked over after a windstorm at Threehorn Mountain 10 years ago, were flown in by helicopter for a new purpose.

Life of a salmon Salmon and steelhead are born in creeks such as Dumont, where they stay for two months to a year, depending on the species. Then they make the trek to the ocean, where food is more plentiful. When they are 2 to 5 years old, they return to fresh water, often to the place where they were born, and die within weeks of spawning. The dead carcasses of the parents become nutrients for the bugs the young fish will feed on.

Because of Nichols' careful planning, those enormous logs will be permanent fixtures in the creek's habitat, and shouldn't budge during winter's heavy rains.

Without such mini dams, he explained, in a large flood "you're going to have a flushing effect. That's basically a death sentence."

Dave Russel, a Roseburg Forest Products forester and alternate member of the council, was impressed with the technology and planning that went into the project, but wondered if stream restoration projects could be incorporated into timber sales, when the equipment and people are already available.

"I'm disappointed to see how much money it takes to do (stream restoration)," he said.

Patrick Starnes of the Umpqua Watersheds was also impressed with the success of the project, and said the conservation group would support additional projects.

"I think it's a great recovery of human impact," he said.

Nichols also led the tour on several stops along nearby Boulder Creek, an area burned in 2002 Tiller complex fires. The creek, Nichols said, has the potential to attract more salmon and steelhead because of its flat gradient. A similar restoration project is scheduled to begin next summer for the creek and a tributary, Slick Creek.

The watershed council, which includes representatives from a number of different and sometimes politically conflicting organizations, reached common ground on the importance of stream restoration.

"Instead of division and fighting, this was a bunch of divided folks coming together and saying, 'This is cool,'" Nichols said.



* You can reach reporter Diane Huber at 957-4218 or by e-mail at dhuber@newsreview.info.