This in from Alan Canfield . . .

Here's the story we will be submitting to the Oregon Council FFF, the South Lincoln County News and The Federation of Fly Fishers regarding the riparian project recently successfully completed by CCFF members with the good help of our friends in the Longview Hills Fishing Club. Jason and Casey (ODFW) have now approved this story for release.

The next time we offer an opportunity to participate in a riparian project like this, ask someone who worked at this one and you will then want to join them in our effort to leave these habitats better than we found them.

The CCFF members who put on their gloves and joined in were: Mark Aiassa, Jack Maitlen, Butch Minich*, Hank Bryson*,
John Spangler*, Bud Roark* and myself*. Longview Hills members who joined in were: Barb and Wayde Dudley and Dave Dinsmoor.

We met a Butch's house at 9:00am and returned there for a special BBQ lunch by "Chef" Butch. All in all, a very rewarding day.

*Member of both clubs

Alan







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CENTRAL COAST FLY FISHERS COMPLETE A RIPARIAN PROJECT


The Central Coast Fly Fishers (CCFF), recently teamed up with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), with assistance from members of the Longview Hills Fishing Club (LHFC), to restore a small riparian area in Seal Rock. The target property included a tributary of a native Cutthroat trout stream also inhabited by beavers and laced with fallen trees, and a variety of native alder and conifer trees. A significant portion of the site had also been taken over by the blackberry bushes and other brush, and the beavers had been actively falling trees and building dams.

The objective of the project was to improve the steam habitat by cutting or transferring alders that were near conifers and seedlings, to construct cages and place them around some alders and conifers and to plant new seedlings, some four feet tall. A number of uncaged alders were left for the beavers as their presence on the property is, in part, beneficial.

The club members, warmed and fortified by coffee and dough nuts, were instructed by Jason Kirchner, ODFW Stream Habitat Restoration Biologist, before heading into the frost covered stream area with gas powered weed eaters, chain saws, machetes, shovels, posts and sledges, determined to leave the area in much better condition than they found it. A part of the crew, armed with wire cutters, set up a cage construction site in a pick up where a 330 foot roll of fencing was turned into 55 tree cages.

Four hours later, the landscape was cleared of unwanted berry bushes and brush, and staked cages were in place around new seedlings, transplanted shore pines and many existing alders. The Central Coast Fly Fishers, with members from throughout Lincoln County, is dedicated to fly fishing education, conservation and restoration. The CCFF is a charter club of the 30,000 member strong Federation of Fly Fishers, an international organization headquartered in Montana. Together, these clubs are working to ensure that future generations will have the same fly fishing opportunities that we enjoy today.

For further information, contact Alan Canfield at 541-563-6976.