Key Statistics

Location and Size

The Jackson Creek fifth-field watershed is located in the southeastern portion of the Umpqua Basin. The watershed is 102,212 acres and includes the entire Jackson Creek drainage. Jackson Creek stretches a maximum of 15 miles north to south and 21 miles east to west.

E&S Environmental Chemistry

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Landscape and Features

The Jackson Creek Watershed has fairly consistent high relief topography. Elevations range from 6,285 feet at Hershberger Mountain on the eastern tip of the watershed to 1,120 feet where Jackson Creek meets the South Umpqua River. Other high-elevation areas include Highrock Mountain (6,196') and Abbott Butte (6,131'). Streams within the watershed deeply dissect the landscape.

There are no incorporated cities within the watershed. Many forest roads, including U.S. Forest Service Road 29 paralleling Jackson Creek, traverse the watershed. There are no state or county roads in the watershed.

The most common land use in the watershed is forestry. A very small area of the watershed is used for residential purposes. Land ownership is primarily federal (94%), with private ownership (6%) and county ownership (<1%) making up the balance. Federal lands in the watershed are administered by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Federal ownership within the watershed is mostly within the matrix allocation (western half and northern flank of watershed), with the balance made up of late successional reserve (southern flank) and the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness (extreme eastern flank). Late successional reserves are areas managed to protect and enhance conditions of late-successional and old-growth forest ecosystems. Matrix lands are those available for timber management at varying levels. Private lands are checkerboarded with Bureau of Land Management lands in the lower quarter of the watershed.

Current Conditions

The Jackson Creek Watershed provides habitat for spring chinook salmon, coho salmon, cutthroat trout, steelhead, rainbow trout, speckled dace, Umpqua longnose dace, sculpins, and Pacific lamprey. Also, Umpqua squawfish, largescale sucker, redside shiner, and Umpqua chub populate the lower five miles of Jackson Creek, above which their upstream movement is restricted by a series of small waterfalls. Non-native fish introduced into lakes and ponds within the watershed include brook trout, bullheads, and hatchery rainbow trout. Because these lakes and ponds are small with low flowing intermittent outlet streams, little, if any, downstream migration has occurred.

Timber harvest, salvage logging, road construction, hazard tree removal, and stream cleanout have modified many of the riparian areas within the watershed. The result is a somewhat simplified aquatic habitat, with a shortage of in-stream large woody debris and riparian conifers available for recruitment into stream channels.

Jackson Creek and one of its tributaries are on the final 2002 ODEQ 303(d) list for summer stream temperature and sedimentation. Jackson Creek and a second tributary are 303(d) listed for pH. Jackson Creek is also 303(d) listed for biological criteria.

U.S. Forest Service Road 29 (paralleling Jackson Creek) occupies historical stream and floodplain habitat. The road was damaged and repaired after large floods in 1964, 1974, and 1996. Restoration of flood plain, restricting access for fish poaching, and re-establishing large woody debris in the stream channel are high priority recommendations within the watershed.

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