Molalla River Watch helps to protect, preserve, and restore wildlife habitat and improve water quality of the Molalla River Watershed. Past human activities within the watershed have caused habitat quality to decline. Key limiting factors include reduced habitat complexity, degraded riparian plant communities, reduced water quality, and blocked habitat access.

Our restoration projects seek to protect and restore important watershed functions, such as increasing habitat complexity by adding large logs to the stream channel to alter water flow, accumulate more wood, and capture more gravel. We also restore native floodplain trees and shrubs and control invasive plants to provide shade, future large wood, erosion control, and enhance habitat. Our fish passage projects are intended to eliminate barriers to fish migration by upgrading culverts and removing levees that restrict passage to upstream habitat. We also work to enhance floodplain connectivity to make off channel habitats available for fish to shelter in during dangerous periods of summer high temperatures with low flows and winter high flows.

Molalla River Watch is committed to involving the community and schools in projects using the Molalla River Watershed as an outdoor classroom. Our field trips engage students in hands-on place-based opportunities, and helps students gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm towards conservation and stewardship of the watershed. Students have the chance to connect to the natural world through outdoor experiences by collecting and observing live aquatic insects, learning about beavers while looking for beaver signs at ponds, coring trees to learn how foresters age trees, and learning basics on native plant identification while viewing wildflowers along a trail.

We also provide educational lessons during classroom visits, and host community guest speaker events, local watershed tours, and group restoration projects where participants learn how to plant trees and remove invasive species. Molalla River Watch also educates the public about the diverse resources and recreational uses of the River. Additionally, we encourage the promotion of good “land use ethics”, especially within public access areas.

Molalla River Watch and volunteers have been cleaning up the Molalla River since 1992 and it shows! Trash levels have significantly decreased since we adopted 12 miles of the Molalla River through the SOLVE Adopt-A-River program. Our annual Molalla River Cleanup and Enhancement events are held every spring and fall. In addition to picking up trash by the river, volunteers also have the choice to help clear trails of debris, plant trees, or help remove invasive plants. After working hard to keep the Molalla River healthy and beautiful, everyone gathers again to enjoy a Volunteer Appreciation Barbecue.

Molalla River Watch works on trail development, improvement, and maintenance for non-motorized travel on Bureau of Land Management land in the Molalla Recreation Corridor. Our work on trails has helped to bring all user groups (equestrians, mountain bikers, and hikers) together to share the trails harmoniously. We have led over two decades of events focused on fundraising for trail enhancement projects within the Molalla Recreation Corridor. Our event is called Horses, Hikers, and Mountain Bikers Poker Ride.