A Raindrop’s Journey Through the Bear Creek Watershed Photo by Brandon GoldmanEmigrant Lake & Bear Creek watershed

The Bear Creek Watershed Virtual Tours were created with funds provided by the Bear Creek Watershed Education Partners through a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board with additional funding from Oregon Trout’s Healthy Waters Institute. THANKS TO: Terri Eubanks Jefferson Nature Center Brandon Goldman Gerald Jones John Ward December 2009

Imagine a raindrop… It’s a gray afternoon and the clouds are moving in over the mountains. Suddenly, raindrops begin to fall out of the clouds and those drops come falling down, down, down. The raindrop is beginning a journey through the Bear Creek watershed.

The raindrops fall onto a mountain, but the mountain cannot hold onto all of the water and away the drops go. Soda Mt. fire lookout

The raindrops move down the hill. Some are moving on the surface, some are moving in the soil. An incense cedar with scaly needles and scaly red bark will take up some of the water to live in the mountains.

The new growth of a ponderosa pine needs the rain.

The leathery leaves and smooth bark of a madrone tree tell the raindrop it is moving down the mountain. Madrone does not live on the high peaks.

The prickly leaves of an Oregon-grape grow in the Bear Creek watershed.

Some of the raindrops form pools where Pacific Tree Frogs can lay their eggs.

As the raindrops join together in small creeks, they move as one down the slope.

The streams in the higher parts of the watershed are often shaded by trees and shrubs. Shade keeps the water cool for fish and other animals. Photo by John Ward

The vine maple above the water’s edge has fan shaped leaves.

Big-leaf maple also likes to live near the stream.

The rain softens the mud next to the stream. Who left their footprint?

Some birds were also visiting the shore. How many toes do they have?

As the raindrops join to become a stream, they become powerful enough to move silt, sand, gravel, and even boulders. Photo by Brandon Goldman

Water can move logs.

Water can carve canyons. Photo by Brandon Goldman

The small streams join to make a larger stream – Bear Creek. Photo by John Ward

Bear Creek begins just east of Ashland and flows northwest to join the Rogue River But the water that is in Bear Creek comes from a large area of land called the watershed.

Many living things make Bear Creek their home through the year.

And who lives among all those raindrops in the stream?

Special fish make their home in the Bear Creek watershed. Salmon and trout are fish that like to live in cold, clear water. These fish are born in the streams and live in the ocean before coming back to the streams to have young. They have always been important to the people who have lived with them. Native people in the Bear Creek watershed could use weirs like this one to catch salmon and other fish in Bear Creek.

When the salmon return to spawn, they are returning to the Bear Creek waters they were born in.

Fish like this Chinook Salmon are the largest fish in Bear Creek.

Steelhead are rainbow trout that lay their eggs in streams and go to the sea to grow to be large adults. After steelhead are grown, they return to the streams they were born in.

Within Bear Creek’s waters are many small living things – macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates are animals without backbones such as insects and snails which can be seen without a microscope. Caddisfly larva in case Stonefly larva

Bear Creek with all its raindrops continues towards the Rogue River. Photo by Brandon Goldman

Bear Creek joins the Rogue River near the Table Rocks. Now the raindrop from Soda Mountain has joined with the raindrops from many other watersheds.

Together, the raindrops continue their journey downhill, downstream. The canyons get wider and the fog creeps over the mountains. Where are these drops going?

Sliding under the Rogue River Bridge near Gold Beach, the raindrop gets closer….

Where do rivers and their raindrops go? To the ocean! And now the raindrop from Soda Mountain has joined raindrops from watersheds all over the world.

Ahh, this has been a magnificent journey!