Golf club gives fish a mulligan along Mohawk River
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - A Springfield area golf course is teeing up with a conservation group to help the environment and score a "birdie" for fish runs in the Mohawk River.
It's not too often that part of a golf course is reclaimed for Mother nature, but that's happening here at the Springfield Country Club.
"This was all 8 to 10 foot high blackberries in September when we started," says Projects Coordinator Jared Weybright of the McKenzie Watershed Council.
Now the former eyesore along the 16th fairway is no more.
The country club and the Watershed Council have formed quite a twosome as part of the council's Lower Mohawk Restoration Program.
Riparian enhancement work is happening along the lower reaches of the Mohawk involving 16 landowners and covering 2.5 stream miles. Weybright tells KVAL News the overriding goal of the projects is to "go in and control and eradicate the invasive species and reestablish the native plant community."
In golf talk, it's like giving the fish a mulligan. Better habitat means better conditions for cutthroat and rainbow trout.
"And historically, the Mohawk was a spring chinook river," Weybright says. "Spring chinook have not been naturally coming into this river for quite a while."
Country club officials are equally enthusiastic about the 5-acre project. "We have a beautiful setting at Springfield Country Club and to be able to see the river is only going to enhance our members and the golfers," says Superintendent Brian Hickey.
The work is not done. Just off the 17th tee is phase 2, more of the same blackberries and reed canary grass. The ash, alder and maple trees will stay, but they need help.
"Those trees drop seeds. As you can see here, they've got no chance of coming up and establishing the next generation of trees," says Weybright.
This area will be fixed next summer, giving the next generation of fish a better shot.
Funding for the Mohawk River project comes from a $40,000 grant from the Freshwater Trust.
