WHERE: Pine Creek Conservation Area is a 35,000 acre parcel of land managed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs as part of Bonneville Power Administration's mitigation program.  It is located in North Central Oregon, just east of Clarno.

PROJECT DETAILS: To help restore stream banks in Robinson Canyon we will be planting willow slips.  Increasing vegetation will help reduce erosion, provide shade decreasing the stream's water temperature. 

We will be camping within Pine Creek Conservation Area, alongside Robinson Creek which is just up the road from OMSI's Hancock Field Station.  It is roughly a two hour drive from Bend and three hour drive from Portland.  The closest towns are Fossil and Antelope.

I will have the gate open to the campsite after I arrive at 5PM on the 14th, and you are welcome to arrive any time after that on Friday to set up your tent and to enjoy the area.

BACKGROUND: The John Day River is the second longest undammed river in the Lower 48, making it home to the healthiest anadromous fish runs left in eastern Oregon. Pine Creek, a tributary of the John Day, provides spawning and rearing habitat for one of the few remaining native Steelhead populations in the lower John Day River Basin.

Periods of uncontrolled cattle grazing, particularly along the stream banks, have degraded habitat for fish and wildlife in and along Pine Creek by causing severe erosion.  Thanks to the restoration work being done by Pine Creek Conservation Area, steelhead have begun to access the entire length of the creek within the Conservation Area.  In 2004, 33 redds were found in the creek.

COST: Free to ONDA members, $45 non-members.