Million-dollar derby

CRAIG REED/The News-Review Bureau of Land Management fish biologist Jeff McEnroe looks for fish in a pool under logs on LittleWolf Creek Wednesday morning. Over the past four summers, logs and boulders were placed along 13 miles of the creek to create habitat and spawning ground for salmon. Grants from the Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby have helped fund the project.

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CRAIG REED/The News-Review Boulders and logs placed in creeks slow the water and create pools that catch gravel and sediment, resulting in enhanced habitat and spawning grounds for salmon. Grants from the Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby help fund this work.

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Courtesy photo by Jeff McEnroe Dan Meyer, manager of the Rock Creek Fish Hatchery near Idleyld Park, talks to students from Roseburg's Phoenix School about fish at last year's Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby's Student Day. Glide High students will participate in that hatchery event Wednesday.

TYEE — After four summers of work, the rehabilitation of Little Wolf Creek in the Coast Range has resulted in the return of coho salmon. Near the Tyee area of the main Umpqua River, a 13-mile stretch of Little Wolf Creek has been slowed by strategically placed logs and boulders. Pools in and around those logs and rocks have formed with gravel and sediment bottoms — just what salmon need for spawning and reproducing. Prior to their placement, there was nothing to slow the water that flowed quickly over bedrock. Jeff McEnroe, a fish biologist with the Roseburg Bureau of …