Trust wants Whychus Creek land
Whychus Canyon Preserve. Photo: Brian Ouimette.
A 450-acre parcel that stretches along Whychus Creek could provide prime habitat for steelhead as well as the site for trails leading to Alder Springs — and the Deschutes Land Trust is hoping to raise $400,000 in the next three months to turn the area into a community nature preserve.
So far, the Bend-based nonprofit has raised $2.5 million to purchase the Whychus Canyon property northeast of Sisters, said Brad Chalfant, executive director. And raising the rest — before the option expires at the end of the year — will add another piece of protected land along Whychus Creek, between the existing Camp Polk Meadow Preserve and Rimrock Ranch.
“It starts to create the critical mass for what we’re referring to as a stronghold for steelhead,” Chalfant said.
For several years now, biologists have been releasing tiny steelhead fry into Whychus Creek, timing the release with the construction of a $100 million-plus facility to transport older fish around the Pelton Round Butte dam complex in an attempt to bring back runs of steelhead to the Upper Deschutes Basin.
“But you’ve got to have habitat for those fish to come back to,” Chalfant said.
Because the Whychus Canyon site is between Camp Polk and Rimrock Ranch, it would also create a kind of extended corridor of restored habitat for the steelhead along Whychus Creek, Chalfant said.
Corridors are key, said Ryan Houston with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council. Both steelhead and native fish like redband trout need to have different habitats for different stages of their life cycles, and need them along stretches of the creek.
“When you line up all the Land Trust properties, we’re staring to see miles upon miles of protected habitat, which is really exciting,” Houston.
A community preserve at the Whychus Canyon property could also lead to more hiking and mountain biking trails in the area, some of which could link up with surrounding public lands, he said.
“It would allow us to bridge to the public land, and provide the trail opportunities that would lead all the way to Alder Springs,” Chalfant said, adding that trails could also be built between the canyon property and Sisters.
The Land Trust has been in discussions with the current and previous landowner of the property for more than a decade, Chalfant said. And although the organization has raised about $2.5 million from sources including lottery dollars via the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Pelton Fund and other foundations, the rest of the money needs to come from private donors.
The fundraising effort is part of the group’s 15th anniversary, he noted.
“We’re using the occasion of our 15th anniversary to not just look back but look forward,” he said. “There are incredible things in front of us.”
Kate Ramsayer can be reached at 541-617-7811 or kramsayer@bendbulletin.com.
