Salmon Habitat Expanded on Skipanon River

What do you get when you put twenty horticulture students from Tongue Point Job Corps on the Skipanon River floodplain? A wonderful opportunity to restore salmon habitat! Jim Scheller and his wife Jan Luesse, owners of the property since the 1980s, have taken on an ambitious project to improve salmon rearing habitat and showcase the results to other local landowners. Jim has been improving the former farmland by constructing wetlands on the floodplain, planting native riparian vegetation, and working to eradicate invasive species. Last month Jim literally received a helping hand on the project from our local Job Corps students.

Kris Saulsbury, the horticulture Instructor at Tongue Point Job Corps was excited to have his students participate in a riparian planting. Kris was surprised when he received a phone call from Susan Rhoads, a student herself at Clatsop Community College. Susan has been working under the wing of Lori Lilly, North Coast Watershed Association Director, on the Skipanon Floodplain Reconnection project. Kris accepted the invitation with open arms. Kris’s students are at various levels of horticulture study. He feels learning experiences like this one not only enhance his student’s abilities, but alsogive them a sense of connection to the community.

Tongue Point Job Corps’s Landscape Architecture class assists with riparian planting on Skipanon River.
The students were greeted by Jim, Lori, and Susan on their arrived at Jim’s homestead. They were given an orientation on the project and background on the native vegetation with which they would be working. Jim presented the students with three foot tall Western Red Cedar and Western Hemlock trees. He had collected the trees from various donors, including local nurseries. Lori Lilly had brought hundreds of seedlings, which she had acquired from OSU Extension and Weyerhaeuser Company. The students split into groups and were assigned different projects. The smaller seedlings were planted in a small, protected nursery, in order to mature for next year’s planting. The larger trees were scattered throughout the riparian zone, the area adjacent to the river. The students took cuttings from native species, willow and spirea, which were already established on Jim’s property. The cuttings were planted around the water’s edge of the newly breached swales. To protect the young vegetation from animals, such as beaver, and winter storm damage, the students erected fences around the perimeter of each plant. It was a beautiful day to work outside and eat lunch under the shelter of the spruce and pine trees.

The twelve mile long Skipanon River flows through the coastal dunes, wetlands, and forested areas of the Clatsop plains. The primary land use for the area is agriculture, small farms, and industrial timber. The river has been channelized into a stream corridor, disconnected from the floodplain, thereby taking away characteristics needed to support Coho salmon and other fish.


Seedlings, too small to compete with reed canary grass, were planted in their pots in the ground to be re-planted in the restoration area in 1-2 years.

This project included the creation of breaches along the Skipanon River to create off-channel rearing habitat for salmonids and improved watershed functions. In addition, large woody debris has been placed in the restored area to provide refuge for fish. Planting vegetation near the river provides not only shade and nutrition for local fish, but also quality habitat for other wetland dependent species like reptiles, amphibians, birds, and insects.

The Skipanon River Watershed Council, the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce, Weyerhaeuser Company, Pacific Coast Seafoods, Warrenton High School, Skipanon Water Control District, and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) have all taken part in the effort. OWEB granted $60,000 in Oregon Lottery funds toward the total project cost of $74,900. The project was designed to promote education tours and educational opportunities for local schools. A special thanks to the students of Tongue Point Job Corps for all of their efforts!

If you are interested in restoring a portion of your property for the benefit of fish and wildlife, please contact Lori Lilly at 503-325-0435 or llilly@columbiaestuary.org.