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Land Use HistoryThere is more history to be researched and documented regarding the Ridgefield area ofClark County. Only salient highlights pertinent to the condition of the Gee Creekwatershed obtained during the term of this project are described here.A historical timeline worksheet of land use and specific watershed restoration highlightsfor the Gee Creek Watershed was compiled for this report and is attached as Appendix I.In reading the timeline, note that Gee Creek has been subject to not only direct land useon the creek and in the watershed, but also the effects of hydrology, water quality, andecosystem function changes from much larger land uses in the Columbia Riverwatershed. These larger impacts have included more than 110 dams on the mainstem andtributaries of the Columbia River; dredging and diking of the river channel and associatedwetlands; pollutants from industry, towns and cities; introduction of non-native speciessuch as carp, shad, bullfrog, reed canary-grass, knotweed, and Himalayan blackberry;early beaver removal, salmon harvest and many other impacts.General early land use history in the watershed is typical of agricultural areas of thelower Columbia Region of the Pacific Northwest. Many of these general land use detailsare not repeated here. For a description of additional aspects of lower Columbia Riverhistory, the reader is referred to the Lower Columbia River Watershed Council: LowerColumbia-Clatskanie Watershed Assessment, [undated] Portland State University- IIHistorical Conditions Assessment http://www.lcrwc.com. 33Although Native Americans (the Multnomah band of the Chinook Nation) had lived andtraded on and around the lower Columbia River and specifically at the mouth of GeeCreek for hundreds of years, 51 it was the Euro-American settlement era of modern timeswhich brought large-scale changes to the native landscape and waters of the Gee Creekwatershed.A brief, general discussion of Gee Creek watershed history follows and includes a fewphotos of the early 20 th -century Ridgefield area, providing a keyhole glimpse of earlywatershed conditions and land uses (Figs.11-13).Gee Creek is located in Clark County, Washington, the oldest county in the state and thesite of Fort Vancouver - established in 1825 and one of the earliest Euro-Americansettlements in the Pacific Northwest. The lower reach of Gee Creek itself was part of theearliest settled sites in the area due to the suitable landing shoreline of nearby Lake Riverand its connection to the water highway of the Columbia River. Gee Creek was crossedearly by a fur trading trail near the mouth, and in 1839 was directly settled by WilliamCarty (Figs.14, 15). 25,37,62 William Gee filed a land claim on the creek in 1851. 25,37Gee Creek therefore has been subject to early and direct land uses for the past 167 years,with concentrated settlement directly adjoining the lower reach. This early settlementlater grew into the town of Union Ridge, and the town was incorporated and renamed asthe City of Ridgefield in 1909. 25,3712
With the decline of river travel for access and commerce, and the advent of land-basedtravel, roads were developed in the upper watershed connecting Gee Creek to the nearbycities of Vancouver and Portland to the south. As early as 1888, many of the currentprimary road routes were already established, presumably with early versions of creekcrossings, road grade fill, and associated stream impacts (Fig.16). 17,25,57a Roy Garrison,long-time Ridgefield resident, was born in 1932 on upper Gee Creek, ½ mile north of theClark County fairgrounds. He reported that at Royle Road there was a bridge prior to the1960’s and 1970’s when the road was realigned. 25a John Burrows, another long-timeRidgefield resident (born 1915) lived 1½ miles north of town for many years. Herecalled that at the Main Street Crossing of Gee Creek there was a bridge at the bottom ofthe hill which was replaced with a culvert in the 1950’s when the road was straightened. 6aConstruction and maintenance of Interstate 5 (I-5) and associated untreated runoff are thelargest recent major road impacts in the watershed. Interstate 5 largely follows a routewhich was first established as a military road in the late 1800’s and later as Highway 99in the early 20 th century. 35aa I-5 construction occurred from the late 1950’s to the early1960’s in Clark County, starting from Vancouver and working northward. Grading andfilling of the original watershed contours was expanded with the building of I-5. 17,18a GeeCreek is restricted and confined by I-5 -- passing through 2 culverts, running in a narrowland divider between the north- and south-bound lanes for ½ mile, and finally passingthrough a third culvert beneath the entire road grade before exiting the freeway corridor(Figs.7, 9).In 1890, construction began on a branch railroad (RR) line from Vancouver to Kalamabut was suspended after 1 year. Work was resumed and the line completed in 1901. In1907-08, the Northern Pacific RR line was completed, expanding, straightening andimproving the line with a double track of standard gauge rail. 25 The RR crosses the GeeCreek floodplain on a fill roadbed-dike more than 15’tall, confining and constricting thestream through an 8’-diameter concrete culvert as it enters the Columbia River floodplainlowlands (Figs.10a,10b).Roy Garrison recalled that the Royle farm on Greek had a couple of sawmills. There wasa dam in the creek just upstream from the 15th St. Bridge below Royle Road. JohnnyRoyle used the pond behind it as a mill pond but no flume was there. The dam had beenbuilt by the railroad and ran a 6-8” diameter wooden pipeline all the way to the watertower at the RR Deport in Ridgefield to provide water for the steam locomotives. Royremembers seeing steam engines in Ridgefield as a boy. A lot of wood was cut for theboilers. He knows where remnants of the water pipeline can still be found. The dam hasbeen breached for some time.(Above paragraph) 25aThe upland portions of the Gee Creek watershed were originally dominated by nativeconifer forest in varying stages of fire succession (Fig.14). 25,62 An annotation from the1854 Cadastral survey written across much of the upper watershed and adjoining AllenCanyon drainage reads: “Land level and gently rolling Soil 2 nd rate clay loam gravelly inplaces Timber Fir Cedar Maple Hemlock &c. mostly burn and partly fallen with thick13
Page 1 and 2: GEE CREEK WATERSHED RESTORATIONBACK
Page 6 and 7: Location and Environmental SettingG
Page 8 and 9: Fig.3. Gee Creek watershed topograp
Page 10 and 11: Fig.5. Gee Creek channel soon after
Page 14 and 15: undergrowth”(Fig.15). A second an
Page 16 and 17: Fig. 10b. Concrete wall deflecting
Page 18 and 19: Fig.14. 1854 Cadastral Survey Map (
Page 20 and 21: 2005. 12,38 Recent housing developm
Page 22 and 23: Salmon and Trout Use HistoryLittle
Page 26 and 27: 1997 - Washington Trout conducts a
Page 28 and 29: ############# ##Fig. 21. Juvenile c
Page 30 and 31: • Coordinated Hansen Farm livesto
Page 32 and 33: In 2005, USFWS RNWR created a parti
Page 34 and 35: • High sediment transport levels
Page 36 and 37: • Stormwater detention and infilt
Page 38 and 39: General Clark County stream health
Page 40 and 41: • 2005 Sediment from Heron Ridge
Page 42 and 43: References1. Ames, Kenneth, Portlan
Page 44 and 45: 24. Ecklund, Alan. 1998. USFWS CRFP
Page 46 and 47: 45a. Snoey, Paul. 2005. Ridgefield,
Page 48 and 49: 66. Wisseman, Robert. c.1995. Aquat
Page 50 and 51: 1825?-1854 Fur trading trail from F
Page 52 and 53: 1879 Nonnative carp make their way
Page 54 and 55: 1911 First shingle mill in Ridgefie
Page 56 and 57: 1940-1960 Reed canary-grass planted
Page 58 and 59: 1960’s-1970’sBridge taken out a
Page 60 and 61: 1995-1997;2000Approximately 3000 de
Page 62 and 63:
Apr-97Sediment event from majorland
Page 64 and 65:
January 19,2000Salmonid limiting fa
Page 66 and 67:
2001-2006 Gee Creek EnhancementComm
Page 68 and 69:
2004 Trees bucked into Gee Creek to
Page 70 and 71:
Dec 2004Ridgefield comprehensive pl
Page 72 and 73:
Jul-05USFWS NWR-CRFPO workshopheld
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gee creek watershed restoration - WSU Clark County Extension ...

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