Dam removal could aid coho salmon

‘Kellogg for Coho’ popular but still lacks full funding

By Anthony Roberts

Pamplin Media Group, Jan 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Matthew Graham / PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP

More than a dozen agencies are working on a $10 million project to remove Kellogg Dam, at the confluence of Kellogg Creek and the Willamette River near downtown Milwaukie.

Dam removals typically make waves in the Pacific Northwest. But most stories involve big dams blocking big fish along big rivers, like the dwindling chinook salmon runs along the Snake River.

That’s what makes an ongoing effort to remove a small dam on Kellogg Creek near its confluence with the Willamette River near downtown Milwaukie unique.

With the “Kellogg for Coho” project, a diverse group of agencies – including the city of Milwaukie, Oregon Department of Transportation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the local water and sewer provider, and the Army Corps of Engineers – hope to remove Kellogg Dam, and dig out small pools in the area to provide ideal fish habitat.

The plan also calls for replacing a bridge that runs over the dam to allow for easier crossing for pedestrians and cyclists between the city’s parks and downtown area.

But it won’t be easy – or cheap.

Rivers and creeks in the Kellogg Creek Watershed – about 16 square miles encompassing Kellogg and Mount Scott creeks – will never support larger, endangered spring chinook like those that run up the neighboring Clackamas River. However, wildlife biologists say, they will support coho salmon, along with steelhead and cutthroat trout.

“The upper part of the watershed in particular is in very good condition and there’s a lot of potential there,” says Chuck Willis, fisheries biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers. “Spring chinook are much too large for Kellogg, but they will use the mouth where the tributary enters the Willamette River as a sanctuary area, under high-flow conditions.”

The problem for the coho here isn’t the creek – it’s trying to enter and exit the creek along the Willamette.

Kellogg Dam is essentially a cement wall with an antiquated fish ladder that blocks all but the sturdiest fish from swimming into or out of the watershed.

The ladder “is not very functional,” Willis says. “It’s a pool-and-weir ladder that is very old. The nature of pool-and-weir ladders is that they operate well only within very restricted flow conditions. So whenever the flows are too low or too high, which is usually the case, they don’t work well.”

Dozen agencies involved

Milwaukie Community Development Director Kenny Asher estimates that no fewer than a dozen agencies are involved in the preliminary planning phase of dam removal, each with a different interest. The city wants the area to be part of a waterfront park. ODOT is concerned because the dam structure fortifies a Highway 99 bridge over the creek. Residents around man-made Kellogg Lake, created by the dam, want to preserve their property values.

Then there’s the fish. “Obviously, these fish species cannot wait forever for us to get our act together on this,” says Asher, who’s spearheading the project.

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