Summer 2018 GRAIPing in Umpqua

The GeoCorps experience I had during Summer 2018 took place in North Umpqua National Forest in the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon. This public land plot is part of the nearly 1,000,000 acres of preserved Umpqua National Forest in the south central portion of the state. The expansive pine forest contains miles of trails for outdoor activities, rivers for fishing and boating, dozens of campgrounds, areas of marketable timber, and a large array of unique plant and animal species. This is a region that receives a lot of rainfall, about forty inches per year, so the forest is lush with green growth and the rivers are rushing with water fed by tributaries throughout the forest. The region has seen lower rainfall and higher temperatures than normal this year which has led to record low levels in the rivers. This is exciting for recreational kayakers but is frightening for environmentalists. The rivers bring life to the region and are the reason for the project we worked on this summer.

Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) is the project I was a part of during my GeoCorps experience. As GRAIP became our lives over the course of the summer, we quickly began to use it as a noun and verb for the purpose of this job since it is the easiest way to describe the task we were assigned. The direct purpose of my position was to map the runoff drainage on forest roads to evaluate sediment transport throughout the watershed. Collection of this data leads to a model that can indicate which roads are contributing the most sediment to the streams. Contribution of a large excess of sediment can disturb the natural species living in the wetlands and streams. In this area, steelhead trout are of concern since they have become extinct in other areas of the US but still exist in large populations in Umpqua. Overall, we want our roads to stay roads, not to become part of the rivers and disturb life there. The aim of our project is to determine which roads are contributing the most sediment in order to remediate them and stop the sediment flow. Our team objective was to perform the GRAIP process on as many miles of road within the forest as possible in order to create the largest high quality data set the time frame allowed.

In order to perform this task, one must have a simple yet special set of skills. During the first round of this event, we were hired in a team of four and the plan was to work in two groups of two to cover as much ground as possible. This required that all of us have the ability to work well in small teams. GRAIPing in Umpqua in the summer comes with physical challenges including traversing steep terrain, working in hot conditions, and carrying water and equipment around the forest. Enjoying time in the outdoors and not being too bothered by the discomforts of the scenario is an important trait of GRAIPers. Since GRAIP is a new system to most forests, it comes with kinks to discuss and work out. This job required that individuals be okay with learning a new process and then continue learning on the job. In addition, the team working in this round was autonomous and often made our own decisions for work on a daily basis which required us to be efficient, motivated, detail-oriented, and willing to listen to one another. All four of us possessed these traits prior to beginning which allowed for a great team dynamic from the start. Over the course of the summer we got to know each other very well from all the hours spent together, especially being out of cell service and wifi connection. We learned the process of GRAIPing together and shared our thoughts and opinions throughout this time in order to produce the best possible data set we could compile. We tried our best to be consistent and unbiased as this is a scientific effort. Consistency was difficult in this project since we were all learning more about the process throughout the summer and did not always have the ability to ask creators of the program questions. Decreasing biases was easier, we did this by switching partners continuously over the summer and generally trying to not assume anything as we continued road analysis. After many weeks of GRAIPing, we all felt that we developed a very good read for how water flows on roads as well as an improved physical endurance from walking miles of road each day.

A normal day of GRAIPing during this past summer would start at 7am after all members of the crew had gotten ready and eaten breakfast in the Steamboat bunkhouse. We all had our lunches packed and water bottles filled and headed out to the latest section of road needing to be analyzed. Each group of two would drive to the previously planned section, don their safety gear and backpacks, and start up the Juno GPS unit. We used the Trimble device during our analysis event, which also became a casually used verb for one who is "Trimbling" or using the unit to record data. We would do our best to begin at the lowest elevation portion of the road since it is easier for the analysis system we were using. Each road begins by taking one or two drainage points dependent on how the water is draining from the particular road in question. On a typical, maintained road the points were a ditch relief culvert and a diffuse drainage point. The culvert occurs within the ditch off the side of the road where the cutslope is present and drains the water in the ditch to the other side, the fillslope and out into the forest. The diffuse point is where the water would leave the road diffusely into the same forest section that the culvert drains into. This is an ideal scenario but is often not the case when roads experience a lot of precipitation or are just not maintained. Other drainage points include water bars, often on decommissioned roads, a non-engineered, where water flows in a concentrated pattern off the road, a lead off ditch, where the water goes straight from a ditch out to the forest, a sump, where the water collects and seeps into the ground, a swale or stream, where water collects and is carried through a channel, or a miscellaneous point where water may infiltrate or have another pattern of flow. These are all options of drainage points which are referenced when creating a road in the program. A drainage point is a point feature (stand still while taking on GPS) while a road is a line feature (walk while taking on GPS). Each day was filled with decisions of how we determined water left the road and sometimes discussions of how a specific segment should be recorded. Each crew covered two to five miles of road per day which was an overall higher productivity than planned for our project, the goal was to cover two and a half miles per crew per day. However, the days did become tedious sometimes when we had worked many consecutive days and the temperatures of summer were increasing. It was always a nice relief on days when we were working up on the ridges within Umpqua; with them came cooler temperatures from the winds and stunning views of landscapes full of conifers and blue sky.

After all of the GRAIP data is gathered, the model will be processed by another individual in the Umpqua Supervisor's Office. It will be processed in GIS and create a map with many variables to view in order to better understand the drainage and sediment transport around the region. This map will play a large role in remediating excess sediment transport and eventually help local species have improved longevity. GRAIPing is the beginning of an important ecological effort and our project will be able to be used as a model for other regions of the country, or even world, to identify their sediment transport problems.

With such a large-scale project utilizing a new technology, it is hard to predict a timeframe for completion. The original goal for the summer was to GRAIP all of Middle and Upper Steamboat watersheds. This goal was completed around week seven of the summer and the GRAIP team was ready to keep moving through more roads. Moving at the expected pace of 2.5 miles per day, after training was complete, two teams should have been able to complete 200 miles of roads over the course of the summer. Since this goal was exceeded by both teams most days, we should have been able to complete much more and we are excitedly waiting data processing that will give us a total mileage completed. After finishing the original goal, we felt we had accomplished a fair portion but we continued on to complete some access roads at Toketee Falls, all access roads for canals in the region, and a good portion of transmission line access roads. Each section of roads completed was another project completed and therefore a significant event. All of these sets of roads came with different positive aspects and challenges so it was a good experience for us to get the variety throughout the summer.

A personal turning point for me was related to a film I watched one weekend during the summer. It was recommended to me by my GeoCorps project supervisor as well as a coworker. The film was Patagonia’s DamNation. One of the sites in the film is within our study area and I had the opportunity to have lunch there one afternoon. It is nicknamed Dynamite Pool and houses one of the largest Steelhead populations known. When visiting the pool, I got a visual connection of what I was working to save. These fish are greatly affected by fluctuations in the river, including the sediment load. When I watched the film, I learned even more information about how dams are having such a negative impact on river ecosystems. They act as a wall along rivers, disabling fish from swimming upstream as they naturally would. Dams also block sediment flow which changes the chemistry of the river. I had always thought of dams as positive since they were used to create hydroelectric power for humans but I did not realize there was such a significant impact on the rivers they occupied. This film had a big impact on my knowledge and opinion on the subject so I view it as a significant event during my internship this summer.

The opportunity to work in the Umpqua will give anyone an appreciation for nature as it houses such magnificent, expansive forests and associated creatures and habitats. For me, working in the Umpqua did allow me to see many forest groves and landscape views I would not have otherwise seen. Improving my understanding of fish habitat and the effect of sediment flow on stream and river systems was one of the biggest personal mindset changes. When we would come across large gullies or neglected roads that were clearly eroding rapidly into streams, it was frustrating to know that the rivers were actively receiving this excess sediment. Given, it’s not nearly the problem that we have with plastic polluting our oceans that I try to fight on a daily basis, but it is an issue that is changing the state of these supposedly preserved lands. I became much more aware of the problems that can occur in national forests and ways that we can prevent them, such as following Leave No Trace guidelines.

With respect to working on public lands in the future, I think I will limit my exposure to personal time visitations. This job specifically is not what changed my mind about working on public land but more so the networking I did around the time working on this job. As a GRAIP intern, I did not receive many networking opportunities but I was doing my own networking on my days off while living in Eugene. After my research, I realized that I think the path to work in the private environmental sector is one that I will enjoy more than the public lands path. I hold great respect for the public lands and those that work to preserve them but I think my career time will be better spent working with private sector clients. I appreciate that I had the opportunity to work in the Umpqua to get a taste for working on public lands with the USFS. It was a great experience to work out of cell service and wifi and get in touch with nature and my outdoor skills more closely. I feel that this project has improved my map reading skills since I was not always able to use my phone GPS to check my work, I think my attention span and focus has improved from being in bright clean forests, my teamwork goals were tested and improved during this project, I was tested physically as we walked up steep hills during work. All of these combined efforts and exposures have made for a rewarding experience that will improve my character as a future employee and teammate.