UDWC conducts monitoring on Whychus Creek to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration actions designed to improve water quality and aquatic habitat, including stream flow restoration, fish passage barrier remediation, diversion screening, and stream habitat restoration.

From 2006 through 2016 UDWC collaborated with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s (BEF’s) Model Watershed Program to develop and implement long-term, watershed-scale restoration monitoring in Whychus Creek. This holistic approach was designed to track the long-term changes associated with the collective restoration efforts of Deschutes Partnership organizations including Deschutes Land Trust and Deschutes River Conservancy, as well as many other local, state and federal partners. Watershed-scale restoration monitoring focuses on stream flow, water quality, fish habitat, and fish and macroinvertebrate populations as outlined in our 2009 Whychus Creek Restoration Monitoring Plan and 2015-2021 Deschutes Partnership Focused Investment Partnership Progress Monitoring Plan.

Project monitoring in large-scale stream habitat restoration projects allows us to evaluate physical and biological responses to stream and floodplain restoration. Since 2017 UDWC has collaborated with a network of restoration practitioners, researchers, and technical experts to develop and apply new monitoring approaches to evaluate the complex habitat evolving in response to valley-reset floodplain reconnection projects designed to achieve a “Stage 0” condition (Cluer and Thorne, 2014), characterized as a network of braided channels supporting wet woodland and grassland. Methods include ground-based surveys as well as use of aerial imagery to analyze key indicators of desired stream conditions.

Whychus Creek monitoring and results are summarized in the reports linked below. Our Whychus Creek Story Map describes the evolution of restoration on Whychus Creek and the habitat and biological outcomes we’ve observed. For any questions regarding our monitoring work, please contact Monitoring Program Manager Lauren Mork.