LEABURG: On a golden September morning, Jim and Jane Russell stood at the edge of their Whitewater Ranch, waiting to greet visitors from the Korea Forest Service. The delegation came to learn how Oregonians are replanting riparian forests after wildfire – lessons written into the recovering landscape along the McKenzie River.
“This area is recovering so well – and we are actually qualified for shade credits,” Jim Russell said, gesturing toward a wall of young trees and shrubs planted by the Pure Water Partners (PWP) program. The Freshwater Trust’s “temperature trading” system provides incentives for projects that cool streams. “Pure Water Partners did everything we would’ve wanted to – but we wouldn’t have had the capacity to start until now.”
The Russells’ story is one of many in the McKenzie Valley as landowners, utilities and conservation groups mark five years since the Holiday Farm Fire. That blaze consumed more than 170,000 acres and devastated 25 miles of the McKenzie – the sole drinking water source for 200,000 people…