Efforts to re-establish floodplain forest on land that most recently served as farmland are paying off.
The Corvallis Gazette-Times looks closely at the Greenbelt Land Trust's work to restore land near Albany:
Looking out over the carefully tended grass seed fields and hazelnut orchards that cover the bottomlands between Corvallis and Albany like a well-worn quilt, it’s easy to forget all this rich farm country lies in the Willamette floodplain.
But the river remembers. And sometimes, after a heavy winter rain or a spate of spring runoff, it comes back to reclaim some of that territory as its own.
“When the river comes up, it still backfills some of these areas,” said Michael Pope of the Greenbelt Land Trust, pointing out the low spots on a piece of agricultural ground off Riverside Drive.
“When you get an inundation, even a small inundation, you start filling some of these sloughs and side channels, which are like synapses connecting the river to its floodplain.”.
Read the rest of the Corvallis Gazette-Times' article here.