Lab #4 Tropical Ecology Sandy River(Marmot Dam Removal)

  Tropical Ecology (Field Trip to Sandy River, OR)                                                Jan 28, 2014

Around the Sandy river was the industry of logs for hundred years. Then PGE bout the land  and they build a dam called: Marmot Dam in 1930's. In 2007 the dam was destroyed, also the buildings. After that the Western River Conservation (non-profit organization) bought the land to give it to the government, which the purpose to make it public, and conserve the nature. Now in days, next to the river is a flat place where the buildings were, in which just some pieces of concrete remains from the dam. It is also a fact that make the soil compact, to plant trees the soil need a preparation process.

                                                                     

PGE people sell the place because, the license for the dam was almost expired, and they have to pay a lot money for it. At this time maybe they will have the request to build a pass for the salmon fish, thing that also will charge them millions of dollars. The demolition of the dam let amount about three years of sediments, because even that the dam was old some sediments were washed during that time through it. The Sandy river is called like that for the sediments that it always get from Mt. Hood, and the snow that melted up there. The people that was working in the removal of the dam inspect the area, and they didn't take any sediment out, they wait for the rain and the river do his work.   

Marmot dam Video 

The engineers knew that the river can handle it, because the studies that they did demonstrated that the river operated with a natural power. When the rain came they were amazing by the power of the water, in a day it was almost gone letting they see the button of the river, by the next rain the sediment was gone. It didn't have a big impact in the fish, because they travel river up to lay their eggs. The sediment that was left was found three miles downstream with little level of toxicity. Everything come to normal again, just the breech that was build to manage the dam stay in place, now it serve to cross the river and get to the old growth forest. 

   

The government, and Sandy Watershed Council  are developing a project in which the main goal is to build camp kiosks  information, bathrooms, tables, and the rich vegetation. Other people will build all of this things first, but in this case they are doing it backwards. The first step was prepare the soil, and plant mix of evergreen trees, to see which ones will survive at there. The answer to this is that the cedar are doing well while the others had die. Other people maybe will start the bathrooms and tables for people to come and stay there, but in this case the forest is important for this people to come.