Presenter(s): Marissa Lane-Massee
Co Presenter(s): Joe Dahlke, Katie Fischer, Michaela Fishback, Steven Pearlman
Faculty Mentor(s): Peg Boulay
Oral Session 2 CLN
Whitewater Ranch is an organic blueberry and sustainable timber farm in Leaburg, Oregon that aims for sustainable practices through the improvement of the Goose Creek riparian area within the property. Through their support of the Environmental Leadership Program’s Riparian Restoration teams since 2014, the teams have been restoring the riparian area of Goose Creek for the goals of restoring vegetation to increase biodiversity and habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, as well as creating a diverse habitat that encourages pollinators needed for the production of blueberries. The current Riparian Restoration team aims for the same goals in addition to collecting more data, continuing the monitoring of Goose Creek, and to improve upon the last teams work. The current team will be monitoring this area through the use of photopoint monitoring, individual plant monitoring, community plant composition monitoring, stream temperature monitoring, aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring, and pollinator monitoring. The team will use this data to assess trends seen in present and past data and to provide this additional data for next years team. The current team hypothesizes that from 2017, overall biodiversity and abundance of ecologically key species will increase.