A Vision for Tomorrow…Practical Assistance for Today
The North Umpqua Foundation envisions an entire watershed—aquatic, riparian, terrestrial and marine ecosystems—that is naturally self-sustaining. But this long-term objective can only be reached through the many short-term goals the Foundation actively supports, through both financial underwriting and legislative advocacy. These include:
- Intensive Habitat Restoration - The decommissioning of forest service roads to reduce future erosion and airlifting of logs into connecting watersheds - including Steamboat Creek, Reynolds Creek, Horse Heaven Creek and Little Rock Creek - to improve spawning habitat.
- The North Umpqua Foundation Scholarship Program - Provides financial assistance for outstanding scholars working towards a career goal in fisheries science, aquatic ecology or related fields. Scholarship projects have included research on fish migration patterns, genetic identification of patterns of migration, the impor tance of streamside vegetation and salmonid fry maturation.
- Fish Protection Programs - In 1992, poachers dynamited the Big Bend Pool on Steamboat Creek, killing many fish on the river’s most important spawning tributary, and threatening the long-term viability of the river’s wild fish stock. The Foundation led an effort to raise a reward to lead to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. The Foundation has also acquired high-tech monitoring equipment to help catch and successfully prosecute poachers.
- Community Education␣ - to help future generations appreciate the values of a truly intact river system, the Foundation has partnered with other environmental organizations—including Oregon Trout (now The Freshwater Trust) to sponsor fieldtrips to the North Umpqua for local schoolchildren. Visiting children are involved in hands-on learning about riparian areas, macro-invertebrates, water quality and the salmon and steelhead life cycles.