Pure Water Partners: 5 Years of Regeneration
On a golden September morning, with a faint smell of Flat Fire smoke hanging in the air, Jim and Jane Russell waited to greet a team from the Korea Forest Service. They were coming to the Russells’ Whitewater Ranch in Leaburg to learn about replanting riparian forests after wildfires.
“This area is recovering so well – and we are actually qualified for shade credits,” Jim Russell said, referring to The Freshwater Trust’s temperature trading program meant to offset the effects of warm water entering the river elsewhere, while pointing to a dense wall of young trees and shrubs that the Pure Water Partners (PWP) planted along the McKenzie River. “Pure Water Partners did everything we would’ve wanted to – but we wouldn’t have had the capacity to start until now.”
Farther upstream in Blue River, Sue McAlister raced to water her plants before the heat of the day.
“It’s a heat warning day, so we have to make sure everything’s wetted,” she said. “It’s hard to be aware. We're still struggling with that balance: being aware but not being constantly hyper-alert because that's so wearying."
She paused, looking across the acres of little trees and shrubs growing through wood chips. A fourth-generation resident, she grew up riding her pony across these lands, which used to be an oak savannah. Beyond the flat area and the creek, she looks at a hillside of dead trees.
"If people are still talking about the fire and you didn't go through it – it's still real to us and it's still impacting our lives. And so be, be gentle with us.”
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Holiday Farm Fire, which burned more than 170,000 acres and devastated 25 miles of the McKenzie River – the sole source of drinking water for 200,000 people. EWEB and the PWP immediately launched a determined effort to protect drinking water quality and support the community’s recovery. Thanks to relationships built through years of collaboration, the PWP moved quickly throughout the fire footprint to conduct burn surveys and develop plans to replant. As soon as the ground had cooled, PWP installed containment measures to reduce erosion and catch hazardous materials.
Over the past several years, PWP teams assessed more than 300 properties, removed hazard trees and debris that could fuel future fires, and cleared thickets of invasive blackberry and scotch broom.
"The other problems that we've had have been with invasive plants. The thistles some years, and also, of course, the Himalayan blackberry and the Scotch broom," McAlister said. "They had a crew which did a fantastic job. This area was Scotch broom thicket. And they came in last June, cut it down, and it was just perfect timing. All the other plants have come back and the Scotch broom has barely come back. So that's been really wonderful."
PWP teams – working with the Northwest Youth Conservation Corps – also planted more than one million native trees and shrubs to speed up the recovery of riparian areas.
“After the fire, we were overwhelmed. We had buildings to rebuild, and we were working with insurance and replacing tractors and replanting the forest. To have Pure Water Partners come in and take care of the riverfront was just a godsend,” Jane Russell said.
Holding photos that illustrate the fire's destruction, Jim Russell shows how well PWP plantings have taken hold to restore riparian forests.
"This photo is actually a year after the fire, and it still shows the devastation and the lack of any type of, plant life along the river. The other picture was right after the fire, that shows a creek running through here. It's Trout Creek that runs into the McKenzie. This area is completely devastated from the fire, and was one of the focal points of the Pure Water Partners program to come in and replant this area," he said.
“We feel tremendous responsibility living right by the river – especially growing crops here. We're all organic and we really try and take care of the river as best we can. Restoring the river’s greenbelt here is really important to us," Jane Russell added.
EWEB and PWP's aggressive and sustain efforts - built on partnerships with local landowners, non-profit and land management agencies - have become an international model of watershed resiliency and wildfire recovery.
“Drinking Water Source Protection is a collaborative endeavor, as most water providers do not own their entire watersheds," said EWEB Environmental Specialist Nancy Toth, who oversaw much of the PWP work to recover from the fire. “The trust we built with both partner organizations and the community was vital for working together in the wake of the disaster. We are fortunate in the McKenzie Valley to have great working relationships – but they didn’t form overnight. Like any relationship, it takes time and following through with our responsibilities to build trust, and it’s hard to build trust in the midst of a disaster.”
What began as an emergency response has now transitioned back into long-term restoration and stewardship. The PWP will continue to work with landowners to restore and protect riparian forests, even as the intensive period of post-fire recovery efforts winds down. With the millions of plants establishing themselves, riverside regeneration is taking on a life on its own.
“It's very wonderful to see things come back. There's a whole line of pines which are about waist high, and other places, they're shoulder high on me, and I just feel like, 'Okay, maybe I will live to see a forest.' So that's what we're hoping, is just to keep things growing, and keep them diverse," McAlister said.
An Osprey landed on its nest and let out its chattering call. Across the highway, a roofing team’s nail guns punctuated the conversation. McAlister looked through the standing-dead cottonwood trees towards the new house she and her husband completed in April 2024 with wood salvaged from her property.
"This is the first big season for the grapes that my great-grandfather planted. Having them fruiting again is marvelous. We're starting to eat out of our garden again. Seeing the animals being able to have babies again – we have baby quail this year. Baby grouse, baby deer, the baby ground squirrels. I mean, seeing the animals having populations that are healthy enough to reproduce and start again… we're hoping to see the community grow and revive a little more as well, people continuing to build houses as they can and live here full time and not have to commute.”
“And just… settle in and be established and feel like you're home."
