Wetlands could be high & dry

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Randy Schock fears the marshy, artificial wetland that makes up much of his nearly 5 acre property will disappear if Gold Ray Dam is removed in 2010.Jim Craven

November 08, 2009

By Mark Freeman

Mail Tribune

Randy Schock bought almost 5 acres of swampland last April, and he couldn't have been happier.

The Rogue River backwaters created by the 105-year-old Gold Ray Dam ooze up through an old, artificial channel and right into his backyard, helping create a bayouesque feel to his property off Gold Ray Road.

The soil is so moist year-round that his 2 1/2-acre walnut grove thrives without any irrigation system. And a thick riparian forest that grows within the mud is a stark contrast to the dry scrub-oak hillsides across the road and outside the dam's influence.

"This piece of land is so unusual, so unique," Schock says. "We love it. But if they take the dam out, this all goes away."

What happens to Schock's property and the miles of adjoining wetlands should Gold Ray Dam disappear is at the crux of a $5.5 million question over whether the dam will be removed next year, creating 157 miles of free-flowing Rogue to the sea.

Buoyed by a $5 million federal stimulus grant, Jackson County has hired Slayden Construction Group to put together a demolition plan and study the environmental impacts of removing the historic 38-foot structure, which the county bought for $1 in 1972.

County officials, who worry over liability of the aged dam and its fish ladder, which does not pass state and federal requirements, say they have yet to decide the dam's fate.

They expect to be pointed in the right direction by a freshly begun environmental assessment, which is required by law to use federal money on a project like this.

Among myriad issues to be sorted out in the assessment — which is on a fast track to meet the grant's requirement of dam removal by the end of 2010 — is how much of the side channels, riparian forest and stagnant ponds are artificial wetlands created when the Ray brothers built the hydropower dam to feed electricity to Medford in 1904.

How much mitigation for wetland loss the county would be responsible for will help define whether removing the region's first hydropower dam is the best solution.

"It's one of those big unknowns that have to be studied, and that's what they're doing right now," says John Vial, manager of the Jackson County Roads and Parks Department, who is overseeing the county's efforts.

"The big question is, how much (wetlands) need to be mitigated," Vial says.

Schock doesn't need a study to tell him what his dream marsh would become.

"If they take the dam out, the water goes away," Schock says.

The water is what drew Randy and Angie Schock to the property after their marriage last year.

They were enamored by the century-old house and captivated by the moist land around it.

The property is linked to the dam's upstream reservoir by a quarter-mile channel dug so long ago that it shows up on the first aerial photographs of the area in 1935.

That connection helps transfer enough water that, even during the otherwise parched August days, two shovels-full of dirt in the walnut orchard yields moist soil.

"It's never needed irrigation," says Schock, a street sweeper for the Medford Public Works Department.

The rest of the land is home to a cross-section of diverse wildlife that has called the backwaters home for more than a century.

"There's geese, ducks, foxes, 'coons, eagles, osprey. About anything you can imagine," Schock says.

Imagine the shock, he says, when the couple found out this summer that the county was looking closely at removing the dam.

"I don't know of any place that would be impacted as much as ours," Schock says.

In a few months, Corvallis-based River Design Group expects to have an answer for him.

Hired by Slayden to conduct the environmental studies for dam removal, the firm is wrapping up its collection of raw data in and around the reservoir, says Scott Wright, the firm's owner.

Technicians have used sophisticated technology called Light Detection and Range, or LIDAR, to help create a surface model and detailed topographical map of the upstream area's "bare earth" so models can compute what would change under various dam-removal scenarios, Wright says.

Soil, vegetation and other samples will help determine which of the upstream areas qualify as wetlands, he says. The group even has collected historical maps dating to 1855 and historical photos as they look to trace the Rogue River channel and lay out the wetlands that existed before the dam was built, Wright says.

Measurements of the upstream gravel pockets will help craft a sediment study that will address how those gravels might move downstream if the dam is removed, he says.

Wright hopes to deliver the environmental assessment to the county early next year.

"This is, obviously, something we're pushing as fast as possible to get the information into the hands of people making decisions," he says.

The results will be taken to state and federal agencies to help decide what areas meet wetlands criteria, and how many acres of new wetlands the county must create somewhere to offset, or mitigate, the loss, Vial says.

"There's an impression that the dam created all that wetland area, but that's not the case," Vial says. "The old photos show there was a riparian wetlands back then. We just don't know how much."

Schock says he worries removing the dam will drop the groundwater table, possibly harming his 75-foot well and three other wells that feed upland properties, thanks to historic easements on the property.

He wonders what will happen to the aged walnut grove, the geese and the foxes.

And he wonders whether his precious swampland will look like just another chunk of arid land.

"This place is a very neat, old place," Schock says. "But the uniqueness of the place goes away if that dam goes away. If this place dries up, it will no longer be what it is."

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail at mfreeman@mailtribune.com.

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