History
Our group consists of T.J. Bingman, Steve Cimbalik, Nekolla Lindsey, and Annie Whitehead. We joined the Advanced Biology Class in 2001 and for the first semester studied limnology. The second semester T.J., Steve, and Annie attended a DEQ meeting where Hilary Smith, Natural Resource Specialist for WestRock, was proposing her grant for Mud Creek. We got interested and decided to pursue the project. Unlike many projects, we have no predecessors because it is a new endeavor.

Mud Creek is a stream that flows through farm and grazing land. It flows directly into Cascade Reservoir, which has a major nutrient overload problem. By restoring and repairing the Mud Creek riparian zone, we hope to decrease nutrient overload in the creek, thus decreasing the nutrients in Cascade Reservoir.

We started our project by having a meeting with Hilary Smith to talk about our involvement. We decided to monitor the stream by doing SITE water tests at the northern and southern ends of the one mile stretch of creek that the project encompasses. The SITE water test includes nine basic tests to determine the overall water quality. These tests are; orthophosphates, nitrates, fecal coliform, temperature change, biological oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, total solids, and pH. In addition to these tests, we have walked the mile stretch with engineers and fish biologists to get professional input on specific problems with the riparian zone.

Future Plans
In order to improve the quality of the stream we have quite a few tasks ahead of us. To keep the phosphorus levels of Mud Creek down, we need to get the land owner to develop a prescribed grazing plan that will keep the cows out of the creek and its watershed more than they are at this point in time. By adopting this grazing plan, our project will act as a pilot for the other landowners in the area; we are hoping that the other ranchers will adopt similar grazing plans. We also plan to install fencing to keep cattle out of the creek except for a few specified crossing spots, where we will install bridges to prevent bank erosion.

We also need to determine how much woody debris should be removed from the creek. Woody debris is good for fish habitat and sometimes stabilizes the creek, however, it also adds unneeded nutrients to the stream and causes the stream to cut into the bank, causing it to erode. The woody debris, however, has little affect on the overall outcome of Mud Creek’s water quality.

Planting more vegetation around the stream bank with willows, conifers, and other native shrub species in all areas of the creek will help improve its over all stability. Only areas surrounding the stream not showing signs of erosion will be immediately provided new vegetation. Areas not showing signs of erosion will be revegetated after other stream bank stabilization techniques have been applied.