Assessment - Southern Oregon Digital Archives

erosive soils, it limits colonization of many native plants. Reed canary grass, an
aggressive invader, has become a threat to native wetland plant communities. Native
grass populations are threatened and often outcompeted by reed canary grass and other
non-native plant species (Budesa, B. BLM. Personal communication April 1999).
Joint efforts between federal land management agencies, private landowners, and watershed
councils are being implemented to try to contain and reduce the spread of invasive
and noxious weed species in the watershed.
Wildlife
The Williams Creek Watershed supports a diversity of wildlife species. Settlement
patterns, mining, logging, and road building have taken their toll on wildlife and have
directly or indirectly caused the extirpation of animals such as grizzly bears and gray
wolves that once roamed the watershed. Although human activities have significantly
reduced the amount of habitat that was historically available to wildlife, many species can
still be found. Deer, skunk, bobcat, raccoon, and numerous species of amphibians,
reptiles, and birds are commonly found. Elk, mountain lion, black bear, and fisher are
less frequently sighted, but are present in the watershed. There are 67 potential sensitive
species in the Williams Creek Watershed including twenty birds, fifteen mammals, eight
amphibians, five reptiles, four fish, eight insects, and seven mollusks. (K. Wright. BLM.
Personal communication July 1999). (See Appendices B, C, and E.)
Resident and anadromous fish include coho, winter and summer steelhead, fall chinook,
fluvial and resident cutthroat, rainbow trout, and Pacific lamprey. The coho run in the
Williams Creek Watershed is part of the Southern Oregon/Northern California
Evolutionary Species Unit (ESU), which was listed as “threatened” under the federal
Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1997. The steelhead run is part of the Klamath
Mountain Province ESU and is a 1998 federal candidate for listing under the ESA. The
fall chinook run that enters the lower reaches of Williams Creek is part of the Southern
Oregon/Coastal California ESU that was deferred from federal listing in 1999. The
Pacific lamprey is listed as “vulnerable” on the Oregon Endangered Species list. (See
Appendix D.)
Geology
The entire watershed is within the Klamath Mountains Geologic Province, which extends
from Redding, California to Tiller, Oregon on the eastern side and from Eureka,
California to Bandon, Oregon on the western edge. The Klamath Province consists of
four belts of rock that were originally sections of ocean crust dating back 150-350 million
years. These belts run parallel to the coast with the oldest ones in the east and the younger
ones to the west. Only two of these belts are present in the Applegate Watershed, each
about four miles thick (Prchal N/D).
Williams Creek Watershed Assessment 15