A little mulch will help define the area. 
Progress on the evil patch of Scotch broom 
Bill points to the location of the trail camera, newly placed
Spring planting fever!
Spring Weather and …
Bianca watches for danger as Bill pulls Scotch broom 
Sid has mulched and mulched and mulched 
Two new elderberry plants are keeping their feet wet 
The peach tree near the entry gate got girded by rodents. New tree planted. 
Sid guards the new peach tree
Another day, more Scotch broom
Safety First
Watershed Council tour
Death defied!
Gardens, creeks and bluebells
Late winter, nearly spring
“Lungwort, lung lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.)
By Chantelle DeLay
Lobaria pulmonaria is in the lichen family Lobariaceae (Kingdom Fungi). This species is found in North America, Europe, and Asia (no USDA PLANTS range map is available). Lungwort is usually found in humid forested areas with both conifers and hardwood trees. It can be quite common in its ideal habitat, quite literally dripping off trees and rocks. Lobaria pulmonaria occurs most often in shady environments and is an indicator for rich, healthy ecosystems such as old growth forests.”
Trout Counting
This article is from the Advocate. It describes the fish count going on (in part) on Shiver River property.
FEBRUARY 26, 2021
Do Corvallis’s Water Needs Disturb Trout Habitat?
Many Benton County residents may have never heard or thought much of the Rock Creek watershed, located west of Philomath, but it is vitally important to the city of Corvallis. Up to 3.5 million gallons of drinking water per day is collected, treated, and piped into the city from the headwater streams of this watershed. This stream network is not only important for citizens of Corvallis, but it is also important to a diverse group of fish and wildlife species, including the iconic Coastal Cutthroat Trout.
“The opportunity to study one of Oregon’s most beloved fish species, the Coastal Cutthroat Trout, in a semi-pristine watershed is ideal,” says Christina Linkem, a Master’s student at Oregon State University, “because I get to work in a stream and help the fisheries community learn more about how trout use their stream networks.”
Linkem and a band of OSU graduate and undergraduate students have installed antennas along banks of the streams to conduct a mobile tracking study of the trout’s seasonal movement. The group also captured hundreds of trout and tagged them with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags that send movement data to the antennas whenever they swim past.
In addition to understanding seasonal patterns, it is also a goal of the study to assess how the city’s water intake structures may affect fish movement. Multiple water intake structures – concrete dam-like structures that span the width of streams – are built along streams in the Rock Creek watershed to draw drinking water for treatment. The water intake structures have fish ladders built into the design to allow fish to pass through them; however, the efficiency of the ladders has never been tested in Rock Creek.
Typically, Coastal Cutthroat Trout move downstream and upstream in a watershed seasonally throughout the year as water levels rise and lower and as stream temperatures change. Until Linkem’s project, it was unknown if the drinking water intake structures block any of this movement.
“I am already seeing that the water intake structure is not impeding downstream movement, because a lot of tagged fish have left the tributary for the winter,” Linkem says. “I think this summer we will be able to see whether the intake structure is impacting upstream movement when the fish come back.”
When asked what she expects to find later this year, she replies, “I’d like to guess that the fish ladder will be sufficient for upstream travel, too.”
Linkem’s project is currently ongoing and is planned to conclude by the end of summer, 2021. The city of Corvallis will receive her final report and the Advocate will publish an update after her analysis is completed.
By: Lauren Zatkos
Scotch broom (of course)
