Skip to content
Icon denoting website under construction

Pardon the rough edges as we continue to make improvements...we'd love to hear from you!

Read the story
Contact us
Logo 150px

South Santiam Watershed Council

  • Home
  • Landowners
  • Communities
  • Events
  • Projects
    • Restoration projects
    • Community education
  • More…

Upper Willamette River Conservation and Recovery Plan for Chinook Salmon and Steelhead

By Webmaster | October 17, 2020

Upper Willamette River Conservation and Recovery Plan for Chinook Salmon and Steelhead

Read More

Willamette Biological Opinion (Chapter 4)

By Webmaster | October 17, 2020

Willamette-BiOP-Chapter-4

Read More

Subscribe to our newsletter

Don't miss out on events! Get our news delivered right to your inbox.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.
Subscribe!

Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email inbox. If you don't get a notification, check your junk mail.

Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • Partners
  • About
    • About the South Santiam Watershed
    • Our People
  • Document library
  • Contact us
  • Employment
Course member area

Donate to SSWC

Headwaters of the South Santiam River

Help us achieve more by making a contribution. Donations are tax-deductible and help the SSWC engage the public in enhancing and restoring the South Santiam watershed.

Donate

SSWC Instagram feed

southsantiamwc

Exciting news! Oregon is releasing a new salmon li Exciting news! Oregon is releasing a new salmon license plate design that will be available starting September 1. Special fees from sales of the license plates go to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) to help fund salmon habitat protection and restoration. The original plates launched in 1998 and, so far, have earned more than $8 million dollars. To help promote the new plates, the Oregon Conservation Partnership is hosting a special eBay auction for low-numbered "first run," plates SM 00001 through SM 00020. This is a fundraiser to support salmon recovery in Oregon and the winning bidder for each plate gets to select one of several state-wide, environmental non-profit organizations to receive their donation (bid price). Bids must be placed by 5PM on July 30th, 2021, so time is of the essence. If you win the auction, you get a sweet, new, low-numbered salmon plate.  You can then choose to designate that the proceeds go to Network of Oregon Watershed Councils.  Your donation to NOWC will help support technical training for Watershed Council staff members state-wide. A link to more information on the new salmon plates, including how to bid, is in our bio.  For more information on NOWC, please visit their website at oregonwatersheds.org!
Linn-Benton Salmon Watch brings young learners out Linn-Benton Salmon Watch brings young learners outside to experience the world through the lens of salmon ecology. This program is only possible due to the collaboration and mutual support of many partners in Linn and Benton Counties. The LBSW steering committee members are excited to announce that we are seeking a volunteer coordinator for this year's field trips! This temporary, paid position will work in both an office setting AND a field setting, helping recruit, train, and support volunteers, who are vital to make each trip a success. The full announce is linked in our bio, and you are welcome to DM with questions! 📷 1. Photo of a group of elementary school kids standing on a gravel bar next to a river with a canopy of leafy trees in fall colors of yellow and orange. #linnbentonsalmonwatch #nochildleftinside #outdoororegon #outdooreducation
Salmon Watch is a FREE experiential field trip for Salmon Watch is a FREE experiential field trip for 5th and 6th grade students that focuses on salmon and healthy watersheds. The Linn-Benton Salmon Watch is coordinated by @calapooiawatershedcouncil, @bentonswcd, @southsantiamwc, @odfw_conservation, and @u.s.forestservice. It takes a huge volunteer effort to carry out these field trips each fall and we know recruitment will be particularly challenging in 2021. That's why we are asking for community support to hire a volunteer coordinator so that we can meet the challenge and continue to provide students with this amazing outdoor experience! To support the program, please visit our gofundme campaign: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/salmon-watch-volunteer-coordinator. The link is also available in our bio. To learn more about Linn-Benton Salmon Watch visit: lbsw.org Thank you for your support! #salmonwatch #outdooreducation
We are happy to be back in our local creeks and st We are happy to be back in our local creeks and streams as we deploy sensors for our 2021 stream temperature monitoring season! You never what you'll find in the field! This week we saw stonefly exuvia or the empty exoskeleton left behind as the nymph transforms into it's winged adult form! We also came across a large freshwater mussel, likely a western ridged mussel. These filter feeders are more pollution tolerant compared to some mussels, but they are not found in highly polluted waters.
Salmon Watch is a FREE experiential field trip for Salmon Watch is a FREE experiential field trip for 5th and 6th grade students that focuses on salmon and healthy watersheds. The Linn-Benton Salmon Watch is coordinated by @calapooiawatershedcouncil, @bentonswcd, @southsantiamwc, @odfw_conservation, and @u.s.forestservice. It takes a huge volunteer effort to carry out these field trips each fall and we know recruitment will be particularly challenging in 2021. That's why we are asking for community support to hire a volunteer coordinator so that we can meet the challenge and continue to provide students with this amazing outdoor experience! To support the program, please visit our gofundme campaign: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/salmon-watch-volunteer-coordinator To learn more about Linn-Benton Salmon Watch visit: lbsw.org Thank you for your support! #salmonwatch #outdooreducation
Our new blog post features a success story close t Our new blog post features a success story close to our hearts. Bogwood is a special place and great work is happening there. This photo image is of a beaver dam analog built by the landowners at Bogwood. In the absence of beaver, these structures serve a critical ecosystem service. They serve to slow water down, creating temporary pools that help develop nutrient-rich soils. Holding water on the land longer also helps to recharge soils and supports healthy, complex plant communities. This, in turn, promotes wildlife use. Learn more about Bogwood by clicking on the link in our bio! 📸 1. Small logs constructed into a midstream dam analog with ponded water above and flowing water below.
We are just a week away from the first seminar in We are just a week away from the first seminar in our upcoming Plan For Your Land workshop series! There are a couple of spots remaining in this fully remote series and you must register to hold your spot in the class! All are welcome; resources will be geared toward Linn County residents but information will be generally useful for the mid-Willamette Valley. More information and registration are available in our bio.
Hey folks! New year, new look for our website! We Hey folks! New year, new look for our website! We'd love for you to check it out and let us know how things are looking. Link is in our bio, but the address is pretty easy: https://www.sswc.org. While you're there, you can find our most recent Annual Report if you haven't seen it yet. You can also sign up for our mailing list and check out our document library. We're loving our revamp and can't say enough good things about our fabulous webmaster. Thank you @nancythecurious!!!
Watershed councils are many things to many people, Watershed councils are many things to many people, but at our core, we are builders and shapers.  As we leave 2020 behind, we note the ways it has shaped us and pause to decide what we take forward with us into a new year.  We chose gratitude, hope, optimism, flexibility, and care: for each other and the world around us. This year, our Annual Report focuses on gratitude. And we are grateful. In the face of tremendous change, we sought and found moments of clarity, connection, beauty, and growth. This last year brought opportunities to rethink the ways in which we work. We learned what it means to adapt, adapt again, and then come to understand that, like water flowing downstream, we are constantly adapting. In August, the council brought on a new director. In a few days, we'll launch a new website.  In late January, we'll host a second round of the conservation education workshop series Plan For Your Land. Together, with your support, we will continue to grow. To adapt to an ever-changing world. To protect and enhance the watershed. To learn with our neighbors. To care for land, water and everything they touch. A link to the 2020 Annual Report is in our bio. We look forward to working with you in the new year!
Beginning Tuesday January 26, the South Santiam Wa Beginning Tuesday January 26, the South Santiam Watershed Council will be hosting a weekly 4-part virtual Plan For Your Land workshop series. Agency partners will teach participants about conservation concerns from wildlife habitat to water quality and help you develop a plan based on your goals. For more information and registration visit: https://pfylsswc-2021.eventbrite.com/
Stop by @block15brewing Taproom in south Corvallis Stop by @block15brewing Taproom in south Corvallis next Tuesday December 8th and help support Linn-Benton Salmon Watch! A portion of sales will benefit the long running outdoor education program. So grab some great local grub and show your love for Salmon Watch! #salmonwatch #localbrew
We all need a little help sometimes ... the counci We all need a little help sometimes ... the council’s Director, Shannon Richardson, got a tour of one of the South Santiam’s gems from her son over the weekend. Visiting a place for the first time under the guidance of a young person is truly a special experience! Whatever you have planned this week, we hope that you find yourself a gem, a special place to rest and reflect. ... 📸1. Grand Terrace Falls. 2. McDowell Creek. 3. Rock stairs on the trail. 4. Child hiking near Crystal Falls. ... #mcdowellcreekfalls @linn_county_oregon @linncountyparks #everykidoutdoors
Whew! That was a close call at one of our sites ne Whew! That was a close call at one of our sites near Scio. As we start heading into the cooler months ahead, staff have been out checking on planting locations. We love to see such great growth on conifers and understory species in riparian areas and look forward to when these rich, complex places will provide high quality habitat for aquatic and terrestrial critters. ... In the meantime, we’ll join this little pine in saying thank goodness it’s Friday! Have a great weekend! ... 📸1. A young pine emerges from the limbs of a fallen tree. 2. Strong growth from plantings along Crabtree Creek.
Council staff got out to Hamilton Creek yesterday Council staff got out to Hamilton Creek yesterday to check on a restoration project in process. Noxious weed treatment, plantings and establishment were all looking solid on this beautiful fall day, and we had two fantastic field techs to boot! ... 📸 1-4: young plantings to reestablish healthy riparian vegetation along Hamilton Creek. 5: mature ivy treatment. 6: snowberry next to Hamilton Creek. 7: four-legged field assistants. ... #southsantiam #riverrestoration #planttrees🌱
Friday fungi! These beautiful decomposers were spo Friday fungi! These beautiful decomposers were spotted during a recent board tour at Bogwood. The owners of Bogwood are deeply involved with the council, holding both the board President and Official Baker positions. They were also recently named the Linn County Tree Farmers of the Year!! Thanks for hosting the tour and congratulations— we really took a lichen to your place! ... 📸 1-5: a series of woodland fungi. 6: lichen on a rock. 7: a group of people gather in a field at Bogwood.
We have been partnering with @cityofsweethome to w We have been partnering with @cityofsweethome to work with students "after school." Last week students sorted and identified live aquatic macro-invertebrates. This week students created their own creek critters! Previous lessons included a water cycle game and salmon dissection. #salmonwatch #macroinsect
We are taking a page from our friends at @greenbel We are taking a page from our friends at @greenbeltlandtrust today and offer these words from Wendell Barry. When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. ... #sodafork
Holy zombie fish and skelesalmon! Our Education an Holy zombie fish and skelesalmon! Our Education and Restoration Manager, Mike, found these spawned out carcasses near Wiley Creek, which flows through the east side of Sweet Home. Fall is a great time to see spawning salmon in many local rivers and streams— ask your local watershed council for recommendations on where to go!
Revisited a log placement project on Canyon Creek Revisited a log placement project on Canyon Creek with partners @u.s.forestservice. After 7 years the logs have not only stayed in place but have accumulated additional woody debris! These structures help to create critical spawning habitat for fish and channel complexity that allow for the establishment of streamside vegetation such as willows. We saw tons of steelhead in the recently created pools and a beaver dam that incorporated both rocks and wood! #logjam #habitatrestoration
#Repost @promisethepod • • • • • • How #Repost @promisethepod • • • • • • How do trees stabilize river banks? Mike from South Santiam Watershed Council tells us how! Reducing erosion helps to reduce sedimentation in streams, keeping our rivers flowing & our waters clear, so that streamlife of all kinds can thrive 🌿🐟 #riverrestoration #riparian
Load More... Follow on Instagram

©2021 South Santiam Watershed Council. All Rights Reserved. | Design by Simple Storefronts