Elijah Bristow State Park Restoration Tour

Recreation and Restoration

Restoration and recreation are inherently tied in many ways and are especially important in this project. Elijah Bristow provides safe and fun access to horseback riding, fishing, biking, hiking, and wildlife viewing. All of these elements are critical to a successful restoration project. Access to our trails and rivers is so important and can be improved with this project rather than harmed by it.

Hard at Work

Over the years, many individuals, groups, and organizations have put in the work to maintain the beauty of this park. Here, you can see the results of a community planting event the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council held in 2019 where over 1,000 trees were planted in one day. Volunteers have also helped plant native vegetation at the Elk Train trailhead and pulled invasive scotch broom and blackberry throughout the park. These amazing volunteers have put so much sweat into this park and it wouldn't be the place we love without them.

Hope Channel

From this spot on the River Trail, you can see the Hope Channel, which is dry most of the year and a great example of why this work is needed. Historically, this channel would have been connected to the main river and had water flowing for most of the year. Now, the entrance to the side channel is too high to allow water most of the year (it only sees water when there are higher dam releases) and sits dry. Because it receives water when the water is high we have high hopes that reconnection to the floodplain is possible for this channel and others like it. Our goals with restoration are to reconnect the floodplain and let it meander, spread out, and create new paths.

Potential for better habitat

This pond still maintains a good connection between the river and floodplain, as seen by the presence of wetlands that hold water year-round. These wetlands have a variety of habitats that can improve water quality and support native wildlife, such as pools, streams, shady and sunny areas, and mixed vegetation. This area shows the potential of floodplain habitat in the park.

The Main Channel

Looking across this beautiful river it is sometimes hard to see the need for restoration, but look a little closer and you can find clues that point to a system in need of a reset. Due to human-caused changes over the past several decades, the Middle Fork Willamette was confined to its channel and, therefore, flowing fast like a fire hose. You can see the effects of this at your feet. You are standing several feet above the water because as that water was forced into a single channel it cut away at the banks. These banks then become too high for the river to access the floodplain. You can also see this clearly just across and upstream from where you stand.

Decline of Cottonwood Forests

Just across the river from where you stand, you can also see another effect of the changing river. As the water is forced into a single channel, as we discussed above, the water table of the whole floodplain lowers. This means plants that had previously relied on tapping into that water table are now left without water. This can most commonly be seen in the transition from water-loving cottonwoods to dry coniferous (fir) forests. The fast-growing firs in this location will soon out-compete the cottonwoods without intervention. Re-connecting the floodplain will allow the cottonwoods to thrive and naturally control the fir intrusion.

Historic Gravel Mining

Gravel mining was once performed in the park, as indicated by the remains of the mining infrastructure here. River beds, floodplains, and places where water can deposit sediments, are sources for gravel mining. Here, if you look beneath the greenery you can see some of the mining infrastructure that was left when the gravel mining moved out.

Deep Waters

Our tour ends here today at this deep section of river. This was actually a gravel mine pit, you can see in the map that this section of river appears almost rectangular. Floodplain restoration here might look like filling in some segments of this pit to create a more typical, shallower, river. This would provide habitat for sensitive species like Oregon chub and Western pond turtles, who already make their homes in the large island between the rivers.