This fall, students in Oregon Coast Community College’s Freshwater Habitats course will visit the North Creek restoration site a total of six times to determine how the stream simulation changes as it faces its first storm events and identify how organisms like salmon and aquatic insects respond to the newly opened channel. In addition, volunteers with Trout Unlimited will continue eDNA sampling at 13 locations in the North Creek Watershed for two more years to determine the presence of difficult-to-survey target species such as lamprey and freshwater mussels. The efforts of these community partners will be complemented by stream temperature monitoring for three years by the USFS and the Environmental Protection Agency. The data resulting from monitoring work is expected to serve as an example for future large-scale aquatic organism passage projects.
Information and photo provided by MCWC