We had such an excellent time exploring 3 Creeks and surveying for amphibian egg masses with The Wetlands Conservancy this winter! This was a huge group effort! With the help of The Wetlands Conservancy, a bunch of awesome volunteers, Clackamas Water Environment Services and The North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District, we surveyed the site twice- once in February and once in April-looking for signs of amphibian breeding.
3 Creeks Natural area is a 88 acre urban natural area in the Kellogg/Mt. Scott watershed where Mt. Scott, Dean, and Philips creek converge (hence the name!). The site hosts a diversity of habitats, including lots of wetland area that is proved to be perfect for breeding amphibians. We needed a lot of people-power to survey this site, and were lucky to have such a great group of volunteers turn up for both days!
Between the two surveys, volunteers documented over 200 Pacific chorus frog egg masses! There were also quite a few long-toed salamander and red legged frog egg masses and tons of tadpole and salamander larvae darting about. These surveys were a major success, and we were super excited to see how much amphibians are utilizing this space!
We are looking forward to future surveys here, especially with the upcoming restoration that Clackamas Water Environment Services (WES) has planned. WES will be conducting restoration along Mt. Scott Creek, working to raise the stream bed back to its natural elevation with the installation of wood jams and riffles throughout 4,500 linear ft of stream. This will help to reconnect the creek with it’s natural floodplain- leading to increased flood storage capacity at the site and creating and enhancing habitat for fish and wildlife!They will also be installing more native plants in riparian areas along the creek. It will be interesting to see how amphibian use at this site changes (or doesn’t change!) with the increase in seasonal wet areas and native vegetation.
ncwatersheds.org 