Riparian Planting

Now that we have the seedlings planted on the hill to replace what we had logged last year, the time has come to begin planting along the riparian zone. Our farm is located with the Nehalem River running right through the middle and we pride ourselves in working to keep the river healthy.

Riparian Zones differ from stream to stream, county to county, and state to state. Since we have both the Nehalem River and the tributary Robinson Creek that flows into it, we plant trees and bushes each year along them to create a cool space so the salmon and trout have good water temperatures. These vegetation buffers keep the sun from warming the waters.

We made the trip to the local nursery that stocks a variety of plants to use along the stream banks.

So far this year we picked up 27 Western Red Cedar, 27 Douglas Fir, 27 White Fir, 10 Blue Spruce and 10 Alder. They were all in 4x4x12 inch deep pots and filled the back of the farm pickup.

Bit by bit, over several days, the trees were loaded into the Gator and hauled to the river for planting.

In the next week or two, we will head back to the nursery for more dogwood, large leaf maple, vine maple, alder and a variety of bushes.