Gail Achterman Wildlife Area, Phase 2

We celebrate completion of Phase 2 of the Gail Achterman Wildlife Area Floodplain Enhancement project. This accomplishment brings us closer to our larger goal of restoring this 290-acre natural area, located in the Minto Island Anchor Habitat outside of Salem, Oregon. Through working with a three-step restoration process: site preparation, planting, and plant establishment we have completed the second phase of this project. These efforts began with the removal of threatening terrestrial and aquatic invasives that had invaded the site and degraded its historic floodplain forest and off-channel habitat. After years of initial treatments, we installed native trees, shrubs, herbaceous forbs and have continued ongoing plant establishment treatments to ensure our plantings could reach a free to grow stage to outcompete any future weed invasions (reported as site maintenance C.11 activities). This work has allowed us to repair this once degraded habitat, open up backwater channels, and has brought back much of the native flora and fauna that our native fish and wildlife depend on. Primary project partners include: Willamette Riverkepeer (WR), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), Trust for Public Land (TPL), Wisdom of the Elders, Straub Outdoors, Northwest Youth Corps, OWEB, MMT, and BPA.
Because the projects end date is after the PCSRF FFY 2019 close date, no funds on this project are used as match to PCSRF funds.

Gail Achterman Wildlife Area is situated in a Conservation Opportunity Area just upstream of Salem in the Minto Island Anchor Habitat. Uplift at this critical anchor habitat in the Middle Willamette River will directly benefit multiple populations ESA listed salmonids including, Upper Willamette Chinook (North and South Santiam, Calapooia, McKenzie and Middle Fork) and steelhead (North Santiam, South Santiam, and Calapooia) during both in and out migration through the Willamette Basin.

Re-establishing and enhancing high-quality native floodplain plant communities across the site will benefit salmon and steelhead by improving water quality through filtering pollutant-laden runoff from adjacent agricultural and urbanized lands, trapping fine sediments from the river during flooding, and absorbing retained floodwaters which may provide cooler water to the river during the summer through hyporheic flow. Installing more native trees and shrubs along the edges of the channel habitat will to help increase shading which over time will reduce water temperatures in the channel during the summer and early fall.

Enhancing floodplain plant communities by invasive species control and native planting at GAWA will help to benefit native fish during the winter-early spring months when juvenile salmonids are seeking refuge during peak flow periods. Slow water refugia during flood events will be improved by modifying simplified habitats (e.g. invasive weed monocultures) into vegetated areas with complex structure and high plant diversity and resiliency. The restored forest will contribute fine organic matter and large wood to the river, increase and enhance the quality of food sources for juvenile fish, provide more shade and cover during migration, and increase habitat complexity for fish (Willamette Action Plan)