Hillsboro, OR — August 3, 2004—
Firefighting and reforestation crews from C and R Reforestation are taking advantage of a slow Oregon fire season to pick up additional work—helping Clean Water Services restore Beaverton Creek.
Clean Water Services has contracted Ash Creek Forest Management and C and R Reforestation to use fire hoses and tanker trucks to water more than 7500 recently planted trees and shrubs along Beaverton Creek between Murray Boulevard and 170th Avenue. The trees and shrubs are part of an ongoing effort by Clean Water Services to enhance Beaverton Creek by planting willows, alders, and other fast-growing native plants that can shade the stream and provide important wildlife habitat.
A key to successful stream enhancement is ongoing maintenance and watering of the new plantings. The Beaverton Creek enhancement project presented unique challenges. With the high wintertime flood flows, attempts to install and maintain an irrigation system were washed away. So stream ecologist Peter Guillozet of Clean Water Services decided to try an old-fashioned approach—hand water the 7500 new plantings.
Guillozet quickly recognized that it was going to take more than a garden hose and a few watering cans to get the job done. Working with C and R Reforestation, the City of Beaverton, and the Washington County Watermaster, he struck on two ways to provide life-giving water to thirsty plantings. The first step was to work with C and R to snake nearly 1000 feet of fire hose from a nearby fire hydrant to individually water plants in the upper portion of the enhancement site.
The next challenge was how to water the plantings that were beyond the fire hoses’ reach. Water in Beaverton Creek is carefully regulated to ensure adequate summer flows for fish and wildlife, so withdrawing from the nearby waterway was out of the question. However, if Clean Water Services could put water in Beaverton Creek upstream of the project, they could remove it downstream to water plants. C and R’s firefighting skills and equipment again provided the answer. Using the company’s 3500-gallon tanker trucks and portable pumps, water is being released into Beaverton Creek near Millikan. Crews then use a backpack-mounted four-cycle gasoline pump and hoses to withdraw water from the Beaverton Creek downstream.
Hand watering allows Clean Water Services to deep water the newly planted vegetation, improving the overall survival rate of the native trees and shrubs. Unlike spray irrigation, hand watering directly waters the new plants without watering the surrounding weeds. This targeted watering gives the native plantings a competitive advantage over the invasive, non-native vegetation. The deep watering will be done twice this summer.
The Beaverton Creek enhancement work began 2002 when Clean Water Services needed to replace nearly 9000 feet of sewer line that ran from Murray Boulevard to 170th Avenue, through Beaverton Creek Wetlands Park and the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. During sewer construction, Clean Water Services worked with stream ecologists and regulators to redesign the stream corridor by planting nearly 20,000 plants and creating 1000 feet of new meander channels from the formerly straight stream. The meanders help slow wintertime flows and create fish habitat. These more natural zigzags, replace what the area’s early farmers had straightened to accommodate property lines and livestock grazing.
The Beaverton Creek Enhancement Project is part of Clean Water Services ongoing efforts to protect and improve water quality, flood management, valuable fish and wildlife habitat and scenic greenways, parks and recreation corridors in the urban Tualatin River Watershed.
Clean Water Services is the sanitary sewer and surface water management utility for 473,000 customers in urban Washington County and small portions of Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Lake Oswego, and Portland. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment plants, manages flow in the Tualatin River, and works with 12 member cities to improve water quality, protect fish habitat and manage flooding in area streams. Although Clean Water Services maintains a close working relationship with Washington County government, it is a separately managed and financed public utility.