Photo Point Monitoring in the Lower Ohop Valley – May 2020
The Land Trust’s Ohop Creek Protected Area is the site of one of the largest restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest. Ohop Creek runs through the heart of Eatonville’s Ohop Valley and is a key salmon-producing tributary of the Nisqually River. In the nineteenth century the creek was ditched and the valley drained. But for the past 15 years the Land Trust has worked closely with local landowners and watershed partners to restore the creek’s natural channel and forest cover.
We rebuilt 1.6 miles of ditch into 2.4 miles of curving, salmon-friendly creekbed. And we replanted over 180 acres of floodplain with 200,000 native trees and shrubs to enhance water quality and instream habitat.
Since 2009, the Land Trust has taken photos each spring at photo-point locations throughout the Ohop Creek restoration area. These photos provide a record of how the replanted vegetation in the valley is changing year by year.
This video was taken by Sarah McCarthy, our Washington Service Corps AmeriCorps Member, as she visited the photo points on the east side of the Lower Ohop Valley in May
Lower Ohop Valley Creek Restoration Project
The initial phases of the Lower Ohop Valley Restoration Project, an intensive channel and floodplain restoration effort, started in 2009 and were completed in 2017. Habitat restoration activities include removing derelict structures, controlling invasive plant species, replanting over 180 acres in the floodplain with native trees and shrubs, and realigning over two miles of Ohop Creek to mimic its meandering, pre-settlement location in the center of the valley. This restoration project is enhancing water quality, streamflow, and instream habitat for many aquatic species, including salmon and trout, and floodplain habitats that are utilized by a wide variety of wildlife.
- Here are more photo point pairs from the restoration area.
- You can check out a video that shows a 2018 winter view of the restoration area provided by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Lower Ohop Video
- And for those who’d like more info about the restoration, here’s a link to the phase 3 Lower Ohop Creek Restoration blog (2014-2016). http://ohop.nisquallyriver.org/
Other Lower Ohop Valley Resources:
Ohop Valley Wildlife Report on slideshare https://www.slideshare.net/Nisqually/ohop-creek-restoration-phase-i-ii-wildlife-survey-report