Blocked historical floodplain side channels that lead to Bear Creek and were revealed by the 2020 Almeda Fire will be cleared as part of a stream restoration project near Talent’s Lynn Newbry Park.

The Rogue River Watershed Council, which is leading the project, expects the work to begin mid-July. Besides channel clearing, the project will include stream bank work, enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat and removal of noxious weeds in the Bear Creek River Mile 19.0 project.

“We were able to see, for the first time after the fire, places where there were secondary channels. We will just unplug them and do some grading,” said John Speece, the watershed council project manager. Work will be done in up to five channels.

Grants totaling $650,000 from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the Drinking Water Providers Partnership will fund the work. It will start at the southern boundary of the park and run 1,700 feet upstream of both sides of the creek. About 10 acres will be treated.

The project will help to protect park infrastructure and the Bear Creek Greenway by stabilizing banks and preventing erosion through streamside rehabilitation. It will also safeguard drinking water for the downstream communities of Rogue River and Gold Hill.

Habitat will be improved for fish and wildlife in and along the creek. The removal of noxious weeds will improve water quality and decrease water temperatures.

Major work is estimated to take six to eight weeks. Lynn Newbry Park won’t be closed during the work, although a portion of the parking lot will be used for staging. Parts of the Bear Creek Greenway will be closed for a day at a time as crews work in the project area. Notices of the closures will be posted on several websites and on social media.

Local contractor M&M Services, which performs in-stream restoration work, has been selected to conduct the project. Under Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife rules, in-stream work must be done between June 15 and Sept. 15 to protect aquatic life. Cascade Stream Solutions of Ashland has engineered the improvements.

All of the land in the project area is owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation. It sits between the Mountain View Estates manufactured home park and the former Mountain View Paving site, which now houses an aggregate operation. The council has been coordinating with the landowners on the restoration.

Talent City Council gave approval for project access through the park at its May 15 meeting. They heard a presentation by Speece at their May 1 session.

A watershed council press release said the project may come as an eyesore to community members when they see the work in action. Restoration projects are messy, and the scale of this project requires heavy equipment and extensive construction that are essential to restoration.

“This project is exciting for us and our partners, but we are very aware that its location may provide some additional challenges. Our safety and the safety of the public is our first priority,” said Beth Boos, watershed council community engagement project manager.

Many of the council’s projects have been conducted on the Upper Rogue away from urban populations, Speece said. The Talent location will give the public an opportunity to see what restoration work looks like, he added.

Up to 20 log piles will be created in the creek at locations selected to enhance the aquatic environment. About eight to 12 logs will be placed at each spot and held in place by engineered structures.

“They will be laced together and ballasted and stabilized,” Speece said. Logs will range 25 to 40 feet long and 18 to 30 inches in diameter.

The logs will create better protection for fish and help restore gravel spawning beds, Speece said. Deeper pools are scoured out around the log piles.

Strauss Ecological Services, of Grants Pass, will handle vegetation management, including the removal of invasive blackberries, which were a major factor in the spread of the 2020 Almeda Fire. Willow cuttings will be put in the ground this fall.

“We’ll see what comes back naturally over the next year to 18 months and then evaluate what is needed,” Speece said.

The site will be monitored for up to five years to determine long-term effects of the work. Southern Oregon University students are collecting baseline data on the site to aid in the monitoring.

The Rogue River Watershed Council, a nonprofit, has worked to improve over 11 miles of stream, rehabilitated over 200 acres of streamside habitat and completed over 30 projects.

The Bear Creek River Mile 19.0 project has been in development since 2020 and is supported by The Freshwater Trust, the city of Talent, the state Department of Transportation, Jackson County and partners from the Bear Creek Restoration Initiative.

Additional information about this project can be obtained from Boos at bboos@rogueriverwc.org or online at rogueriverwc.org/what-we-do/bear-creek-rm-19-0.

Information on Greenway closures will be available on the city of Talent and Jackson County Parks website. Up-to-date information from the watershed council will be available on their social media — @rogueriverwc — and website,rogueriverwc.org.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to state that major work on the Bear Creek River Mile 19.0 project near Lynn Newbry Park will begin mid-July.