PROJECT DETAILS: Pine Creek Conservation Area has been donated roughly 300 trees, mostly pondorosa and hawthorne, to plant along Pine Creek.  The trees that survive will help to stabilize the creek banks, lower water temperatures by providing shade, and offering habitat to birds and mammals. 

Holes for the sapplings will (hopefully) be pre-dug so that we can walk along and place them.  The work will require a day of lifting, bending, and walking on uneven, sometimes slippery ground.

We will be staying in A-frame cabins at 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: $12/night to stay at the Hancock Field Station.