Harkens Lake Addition

Imagine that you are a chinook salmon fry, starting the intrepid journey from your ancestral home waters of the McKenzie River into the Willamette River as you struggle to make your way to the open ocean. You are small, no bigger than the river pebbles below. You know to search out cool waters, slack areas around trees and among side channels, but places of refuge from the mainstem struggle become farther apart as you make your way down the River.

That is, until you come to a place like Harkens Lake. You find miles of backchannels, alcoves and cool, cold water. Here you have time to grow strong, to feed and loll between tree roots, logs, and among the gravel beds. Ahhhh …

In November, 2014 Greenbelt Land Trust permanently protected 18 additional acres of sidechannels and slough systems at Harkens lake, a critical reach of the Willamette River between Monroe and Corvallis. What is now a 389 acre conservation property held by Greenbelt Land Trust builds onto an even greater complex of adjacent county parks, creating a footprint of over 700 acres of river sidechannels, sloughs, and floodplain forests under preservation.

Harkens Lake is located within a priority conservation area for riparian and wetland habitats identified in the Oregon Conservation Strategy, adopted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2006. One of the goals of the Oregon Conservation Strategy is to protect and restore native Willamette River habitats and the species that rely on them. The Property is within an area encompassing approximately 750 acres of private and public conservation lands between Harkens Lake and the Willamette River, including Irish Bend County Park, Anderson County Park, and McCartney County Park.

Located within the 100-year Willamette River floodplain, Harkens Lake includes a major remnant side channel, containing water year-round and integrating important conservation values for non-structural storage of flood waters, wetlands and riparian habitats and bottomland hardwood forests. Existing bottomland hardwood forests in the 100-year floodplain are relatively dense, and include native species such as black cottonwood, Oregon ash, Pacific ninebark, and red osier dogwood. The side channel and wetland areas provide cold water refugia and critical life history functions for listed or species of conservation concern, including Chinook salmon, cutthroat trout, Oregon chub, Pacific lamprey, western pond turtle, and red-legged frog.

Fish Surveys at Harkens Lake

“It has been a pleasure working with these families to increase the conservation footprint at Harkens Lake. These additional 18 acres are a natural extension of the original conservation boundary, including a significant river side channel,” Claire Fiegener, Greenbelt Land Trust’s Conservation Program Director.

The permanent protection of this addition to Harkens Lake is made possible through a strong partnership with landowners Gary and Jenny Horning and William Pitcher, grant funding through the Bonneville Power Administration, and because of YOU, our supporter.