PROJECT DETAILS: To help restore stream banks in Robinson Canyon we will bundle cottonwood twigs and place them throughout the stream.  The bundle offers the twigs a more secure hold while they get established.  We may also be placing stems directly in the bank, and/or removing tubes from past plantings.

We will be camping within Pine Creek Conservation Area, most likely at Robinson Canyon 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.

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.