POBR25 Day 10: Lower Black Butter Swamp Restoration, 6-24-25

 Today marks day ten and we were tasked with helping to maintain Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) for the Deschutes National Park. BDA’s are channel wide human made dams that mimic the engineering of the great ol beavers. Which I think is super interesting and since I can see myself managing the wetlands for our tribe back home I could get into this work for sure. Today we got to work with Liz Day (Wildlife Biologist), Alex Ena ( Partner Program Manager), and Christine Meyer (Assistant  Partner Manager) out of the Sisters Ranger District from the Deschutes National Forest and they welcomed us with open arms and work we appreciate. Their recent work has involved constructing dams on Indian Ford Creek to reintroduce beavers in the region to increase the quality of the swamp and the water table.

After a short hike into the area, we ended up at BDA 7 which needed some maintenance. For repair our group Joellene, Yoleth, James, and I got to jump into the water to find out if there were any holes in the bottom area of the dam. On my side, downstream, there was about a foot and half of the dam that was washed away underneath so directed by Liz Day we got right to it. The other group made up of the other half of the group were tasked with gathering the materials we used which were just willows they were able to grow here again. I was happy to see so many willows since in the Yakama Nation we use these for Xwyach or Sweat.

Restoration efforts began in the lower Indian Ford Creek in 2022 and have continued every summer to present day. The water here flows from a dormant Cinder volcano which was something I thought was interesting. Another thing I kind of dislike is that the beavers have to endure a number of negative conditions to succeed in this region. One is the Black Butte Ranch which is a tourist hotspot, they face predation from bears and cougars, they face the effects of climate change, and honestly to me the worst one: human trapping under behind the word “nuisance” animal. This made me sad since it gives me colonization times energy where people followed the market for their furs. It isn’t like that today so I could agree with legislation that prevents the trapping and killing of beavers since they provide tremendous amounts of support and benefits to the ecosystem they live in but most important of these is the way they help the water improve.

A cool tidbit is that the lands we worked on today was part of the ceded lands of the Warm Springs Treaty of 1855 where they hold rights to hunt and fish their usual and accustomed areas, something we as Yakamas share in common with them. I’m not sure they get the opportunity to exercise these rights, but I hope they do, and I appreciate that Liz acknowledges them in her presentation. This communication alone pushed me to work as hard as I did but I'm not saying I’d slack off otherwise- I was just tired today. One more detail I liked is they get all of the animals you can imagine in their forest. Cougars, bears, wolves, elk bulls, cows, and calves, mule deer, and even rumors of foxes! Big game and wildlife biology are one of the interests I carry with me since the first person to bring me into this field was a Big Game Bio out of the Yakama Nation Fish & Wildlife. We are out of Crane Prairie Lake tomorrow so off to Umatilla then and I hear we are doing owl work, and I am very familiar with this study but mostly for the Spotted-Owl… I am pretty hyped for it.

 Final product of the BDA 7 maintenance 

 Field site for the day was Black Butte where there is a fire lookout up top


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POBR25 Day 14: Departure Home! 6-28-25

  We are leaving tomorrow! I feel pretty good about getting home. I am learning more about myself taking these trips. I went on Panama and now completed People of the Big River, so I am ready to relax at home in bed. I had a two-week break in between trips but this was not enough time to settle in at home so when I got back out, I still had a majority of my travel stuff together. I downloaded a lot of movies for the final evening here. I don’t anticipate getting much rest even though summer is here since I have an internship I am fully committed to when I get home. Since we get back Saturday then Sunday off and right back to the Huckleberry work on Monday morning and this should be a fun project since I did have time to learn more about the issues and research put into that project. The stuff we did for this trip felt like I was thrown into the deep end and had to roll with what we did. I get it though sometimes education has to be rough to get a full picture of the commitment we a...
Read more

POBR25 Day 5: Wellpinit Fairgrounds, Spokane Tribe of Indians 6-19-25

Image
  Today we met with a couple of really cool people from the Wellpinit Fisheries team. Jordyn who has over a decade in fisheries work and Josh from University of Idaho and Wellpinit Fisheries too. They work as field techs right now and they do a lot of electrofishing for conservation of the Redband Trout which is a native species that is endangered in the region. We first measured the depth of the Tshimakain Creek using the lifts installed by last year's crew who took the People of the Big River trip. This year our team is gathering a little bit of information and Jordyn and Josh will be comparing the results of the last two years in hopes to find some improvements to the quality of their wetlands project. Fingers crossed since they said there were subtly signs of improvement in increased flooding. Their goal of preserving the Redband's is admirable work I can get behind since the Yakama Nation does the same type of work- preserving salmon. I can’t wait to really get into the f...
Read more

POBR25 Day 13: CTUIR- Walla Walla Hatcheries Tour and Microbiology Day, 6-27-25

Image
  For the first part of the day, we started with microbiology work. We finished some testing we missed throughout the two weeks we have been here. Personally, I missed like 4 tests since we are being rushed around daily. I tried to get them done but failed to, I don’t like missing out on data and not being able to paint a full accurate picture of the research but that’s science sometimes. After doing some of our tests we were taken to the Walla Walla Hatchery where the manager Thomas Tallbull showcased a lot of the technical work, they do use higher tech programs and massive interconnected systems that help the fish develop in treated water and stream water. In one portion of the South Fork of the Walla Walla River is a mixture of treated water with the natural stream water where adult fish will hangout. I liked seeing their lamprey and their fish. It is good to see some tribes out here doing well and working hard to get into the nitty gritty protections of the different Treaties...
Read more