Friends of the Eagle Creek Watershed

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Friends of the Eagle Creek Watershed

Our mission is to promote environmental interests within the Eagle Creek Watershed. Hood National Forest.

The Eagle Creek watershed (about 57,500 acres) is located between the towns of Sandy and Estacada and extends into the Mt. Eagle Creek flows into the Clackamas River in northwest Oregon. An 8.3 mile portion of Eagle Creek was designated as “Wild & Scenic” by the federal government in 2009.

12/12/2021

Congressman Blumenauer and Senator Wyden are asking for feedback on proposed legislative concepts, recreation enhancement, wildfire resiliency and conservation for Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, which also includes the area within, and parts surrounding the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness within the Eagle Creek watershed. On the included map, we have indicated potential wilderness expansion areas and the reclassification of some areas (including a few expansions) as a National Recreation Area. To learn more about these exciting opportunities, please explore this website: https://blumenauer.house.gov/issues/environment-and-energy/mt-hood-and-gorge

11/21/2021

Hollywood has been aware of the beauty and grandeur of the Eagle Creek watershed for many years, particularly around Eagle Fern Park. Portions, some significantly so, of these recent films were shot in our area (just look for the tall trees and primeval-looking forest scenes). Most are particularly good. For some, entire sets were constructed, such as the log cabin in “Pig” or the camp in “Leave No Trace.” Consider checking them out in these upcoming wintery months!

11/11/2021

Bear Creek, the largest of the North Fork Eagle Creek’s five major tributaries, possesses what is arguably one of the tallest falls in the entire Eagle Creek watershed. It is a stepped falls with a total height of about 13 feet. Biologists disagree as to whether this falls is passable to anadromy. Perhaps only under the most favorable of flows is it passible, given the shallow plunge pool at its base. Nevertheless, it is quite beautiful. Several days of significant rainfall demonstrates the scale of this falls; albeit at the time this photo was taken, the water is a bit turbid, departing from its typical clarity.

10/25/2021

The Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, which is a portion of the Mt. Hood National Forest, is approximately 62,000 acres, much of which resides within the Eagle Creek watershed. This seldom-visited, beautiful wilderness area features an intact ancient forest with trees approaching 10 feet in diameter. There are several access points into the wilderness area; consult the US Forest Service Ranger Station in Sandy for locations and conditions.

10/18/2021

The Eagle Creek area is rich in history. While some of the earliest Oregon settlers made their homesteads in the lower watershed (e.g. Philip Foster), beginning in the 1870’s settlements in the upper watershed began to develop. In this photo, siblings Robert, Annie and Charles Miller were making their way up to either their Bald Eagle or White Rock gold mine claims east of Old Baldy, near one of the headwater streams of Eagle Creek. This photo was taken some time between 1898 and 1908. Note the signs of wood charring and of a young forest developing due to a previous wildfire, most likely the large 1883 burn that went through much of this area. Note also who is carrying the rifle! Photo courtesy of Joanne Miller.

10/10/2021

The Eagle Creek watershed possesses the greatest amount of combined High Intrinsic Potential, or HIP (45.3 miles) of any watershed within the Clackamas River basin! What does this mean? HIP is an assessment of stream habitat quality through a combination of channel gradient, mean annual stream flow, and valley constraint that result in conditions that have the highest potential for the creation of high-quality habitat for salmon and steelhead juveniles. Such habitat conditions vary by species. The Clackamas Partnership (a group of watershed councils, local, state, and federal agencies, tribes, and other organizations) made this assessment. HIP reaches can serve as a basis for habitat improvements, providing a way to prioritize locations to maximize restoration potential at watershed and reach scales. This map illustrates the results of those assessments. Map courtesy of the Clackamas Partnership’s 2018 Strategic Restoration Action Plan.

10/02/2021

When the Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery was completed in 1957, work continued about seven miles downstream, with the building of a fish ladder at the Lower Falls. While fish routinely negotiated these falls in the past, it was decided to build a ladder anyway to increase success rates. This photo, courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, taken on April 4, 1957, looks downstream and shows foundation work on the ladder. A simple cofferdam was built, to keep water away from the work area. Most interestingly, this view provides us a glimpse of what the falls looked like prior to the ladder – much wider and undoubtedly in higher water the full bank width was utilized. (Compare this to a more recent photo, taken in January of 2020 looking upstream.)

09/27/2021

At the Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery, about 13 miles upstream from Eagle Creek’s confluence with the Clackamas River, fish are prevented from migrating any farther upstream within Eagle Creek due to the imposition of an electric weir and small ladder that guides all fish into the hatchery. However, the 16 foot (+/-) tall Upper Falls, located about one quarter mile upstream of the hatchery is also considered to be an impassible, or a nearly impassible barrier to migrating fish. Fish upstream of the Upper Falls have been isolated since the geologic formation of the falls, millennia ago. Cutthroat trout are widely distributed throughout the upper basin. These fish are endemic to the area and warrant special attention to maintain the genetic integrity of the stock. The concrete works shown in this photo are the water intake for the hatchery. The large pipe shown functioned as an intake source for a now-abandoned hydroelectric facility.

09/18/2021

Litter pick up day! 1-1/2” of rain – no problem! For 23 years our annual “Adopt-a-Road” activity along beautiful Eagle Fern Park and adjacent Portland General Electric and BLM lands is always full of adventure and intrigue. This day’s most unusual find: a s*x toy and some lingerie; most common: cigarette butts; most unsportsmanlike: game carcasses; most unprofessional: boxes of scrap ceramic tiles. Thanks to the Fulops and Vic for assisting us.

09/11/2021

The 17 foot (+/-) tall Middle Falls within Eagle Creek, at about river mile 9.2 (just upstream of the Delph Creek confluence) is considered by fisheries biologists to be the historic, natural barrier to migrating fish. To surmount this, an inadequately-designed concrete fish ladder (the headwall was often overtopped and the ladder often plugged with logs) was constructed by the Oregon Fish Commission in the late 1940’s, which was subsequently improved in 1957 when the Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery was built upstream. This ladder has since allowed salmonid migration up to the hatchery. (Ladder not in view in this photo.) Access to this falls is over private land, so permission must be granted by the owner.

09/05/2021

The Lower Falls (also known as Dwyer Falls) of Eagle Creek is 7’-6” tall and has historically been passable at all but very low and high flows by migrating adult fish that would proceed farther upstream within Eagle Creek, or into North Fork Eagle and Delph creeks. Despite this history of demonstrated natural success, the first attempt at building a fish ladder was in 1940, to “assist” fish passage up to the Delph Creek hatchery – it was merely a series of primitive steps blasted out of the bedrock along the left bank (visible today), which soon began to erode away. An improved concrete ladder was constructed in 1957 along the right bank to service the new Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery farther upstream. The 1957 ladder continues to be used today, although fish can still be seen jumping up the falls. To learn more, please visit our website!

08/29/2021

New this week on our website (on the Links & References page): some historical aspects of the George area. First, a piece by Harriet Munnick, written in 1974 on the George area, describing its inception in the 1870’s and 1880’s and how it got its name of German Burn. Second, a Native American archeological investigation (cultural resource survey) by Fuld and Fagan at the site of the Clausen Road bridge constructed in 2016 over Suter Creek. The featured photo is an 1892 map of the George/Bissel area (Township 3 South, Range 5 East).

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Eagle Creek, OR

Website

https://www.eaglecreekfriends.org/

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