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Wow, thanks guys.
It's amazing.

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I'm here to talk about
freshwater muscles,

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and I brought a prop
to talk about it.

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You'll understand
in a moment

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very soon what's going on.

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Usually, I'm
here to talk to

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you all about amphibians

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and frogs and turtles
and all that stuff.

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But I promise you, I
do a whole lot more.

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And this is one example.

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This is a project that
I've been working

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on for the last
four years or so.

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We have our fifth summer
coming up this year.

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And I want to give
you an idea of

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not only the
amazing science

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that's happening,

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but also the really
cool engagement of

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our young people
within Portland parks.

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I think a few years
ago, somebody from

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bureau of environmental
services gave

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a presentation
about this project.

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If you remember, this is a

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12 year long
$7,000,000 re-

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channelization
project to reconnect

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the natural
hydrology of oaks

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bottom back to the
Willamette River.

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Huge, huge project,

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disrupted the
Spring Water Trail.

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All the bikers
were mad for

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a whole summer,
it was said.

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But the project itself,

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overall was very
successful.

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One of the things
that was really

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successful about the
project is all of

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the people got in
on the ground floor

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to really think
about the wildlife.

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Before, during, and
after the project,

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we came up with a really
extensive wildlife

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management planning
document that

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would go through and look

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at all of the
different aspects

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of fauna that are

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known to be at oaks bottom

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and how we can
protect them again,

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especially during
the construction,

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also providing for
wild life habitat.

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After the construction
was over,

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one of the key groups,

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taxa, was
freshwater mussels.

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We knew that our
pointer isn't awesome,

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but we knew that
the old channel,

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which just cut
straight around here,

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was home to a
population of

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native and freshwater
floater mussels.

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I won't go into
the details of why

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freshwater mussels
are so amazing.

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You can do that
research yourself,

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but trust me, it's vast.

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We wanted to relocate,

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remove, and re, locate,

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salvage all of
the mussels that

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were in the project area,

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but then also make
sure that we were

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creating really
good habitat for.

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After this is what the
project look like,

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we ended up salvaging
about 300 animals,

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300 mussels.

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And they were moved to
the Columbia slough

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and rehomed
there because we

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weren't sure that

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the post
construction project

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was going to be good home.

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We thought we hoped

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so, but we didn't
know for sure.

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This is what the extent
of the construction.

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The entire area
was completely

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dewatered. No
mussels survived.

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Basically everything
that we were able to

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move out of the
construction area and take

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to the Columbia slough.
Those all survived.

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But this allowed for

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a really cool
science project

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to try to understand
more about what does it

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take for freshwater
mussels to recolonize,

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Re come back into
an area where we

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know for sure there were

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no mussels that
were surviving.

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We started these
really cool

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surveys with some of
our youth groups.

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Portland Parks and Rec is

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really cool for
so many ways.

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But part of it
is that we have

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a really awesome
stewardship program

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to involve a lot
of our youth,

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especially
diverse youth, in

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various programs
throughout the year,

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but especially during
the summer months.

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I connected really early

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on with our team
nature team,

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our youth
conservation crew,

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as well as some of

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the turns that
we tend to get

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from various organizations
around the area.

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Every August we started
doing muscle surveys,

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starting with the
very first summer

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after the construction
happened.

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The goal being to try to

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better understand
how long does it

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take mussels to come in?

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Are they actually
living there?

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Does that habitat evolve?

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And is it created then?

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What does that
tell us about

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freshwater mussel habitat

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and the overall oaks

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bottom system in general.

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The be dazzling part
is the sequence.

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Because I don't know
about you all but I

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don't have a huge
budget and I

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couldn't buy those
little numbered tags

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that most folks use to
put on the mussels.

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I just went to Joanne
Fabrics and got

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some gold sequins and figured

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for mark and recapture

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That's really all
I needed to know

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was were these
mussels that we were

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seeing out there potentially
year after year,

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are they the same
mussels or do we have

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mussels maybe
getting swept

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into the project area,

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through the
Culvert, but then

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they're dying or
they're not surviving.

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We wanted to make
sure that if

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we have mussels in
there that they're

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staying there year
after year and

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actually being successful.

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These are some
of the findings.

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2018.

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No mussels, right?

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Because that was
the project year.

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No mussels in 2018,

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2019, just upstream
of the project area.

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Up in here, there's a
beaver dam right here.

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Actually, that's right on

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the extent of the
project area.

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We had a big orange
construction fencing and

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the beaver was mad to

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be excluded from
their home.

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They put their
dam literally

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right up against

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the orange
construction fencing.

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Up beyond that
construction fencing.

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And beyond that dam, we
found some floaters.

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Even though the entire

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reservoir was drawn down,

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there was just
enough muddy,

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wet habitat that a

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few of those
floaters survived.

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We know we still
have some level of

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floaters in the reservoir.

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The water, because
of the beaver Dam,

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though, is too deep.

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Doing surveys out there
is really difficult.

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That's another challenge
for another time.

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Then in 2020 was

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the first year
that we started

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to find mussels right

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inside of the
brand new Culvert.

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So again, this is where

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the Willamette River
comes through.

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This is the new culvert

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that was put in
for the project.

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We started to
do our surveys,

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starting at the Culvert

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and moving up the channel.

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And we had mussels 
in 2020 and 2021,

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right there at
the Culvert area.

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We knew mussels
are coming in.

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Right then 2022 was

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like we ended up
with 21 mussels.

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Not only were they just

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inside the Culvert where

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they may have
been swept in,

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but they were actually
all the way up around

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the oxbow to a
second beaver dam

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that had recently
been built.

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We now know that
we have these

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mussels migrating
all the way

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through the
project area up to

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the base of this Beaver
dam this summer,

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we're going to be doing

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surveys above
that Beaver Dam.

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Right now, it's difficult

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because there's a lot
of sediment backed up,

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and then the water
is also deeper.

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And I have to get
permission to take

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teenagers into

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water that's above
their knees.

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We're hoping to
make that happen.

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The other really cool
thing is that we

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had tiny little babies.

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We actually have
regeneration happening in

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this site just a
few years after

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this amazing
restoration project.

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Not only do we
have our largest,

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but we also have our

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smallest critters
out there as well.

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That was really
exciting to see.

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The mussels are there.
They came back.

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One of the cool things

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about mussels is that they

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tend to ride around
on native fish.

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For a project
that was created

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specifically with
native fish in mind.

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And trying to reconnect

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00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,160
native fish habitat to
the Willamette River.

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I'd like to say
that this is a

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way that we can
say that there's

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most likely fish
coming in from

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the Willamette River
and moving through

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00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:00,610
oaks bottom, which
is really cool.

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Not only are they
re colonizing,

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but they're also
migrating and

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00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:05,620
reproducing in
the project area.

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That's really neat to see.

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00:07:07,820 --> 00:07:10,580
The teens love
this project.

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They look forward
to this project

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better than pulling ivy,

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00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:15,820
better than cutting
down Blackberry.

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00:07:15,820 --> 00:07:17,520
They don't even
put waders on,

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they just dive into
the creek and start

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00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:20,980
rolling around trying
to find these mussels.

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And they get very

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00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:22,720
excited when
they find them,

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and there's
competitions also.

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Then also this last year,

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2022, we found our first
bedazzled mussels.

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We had a recapture.

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00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:31,980
We know that the
bedazzling works,

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the sequence are
a great idea.

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It was really great.

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00:07:36,100 --> 00:07:37,780
We also have red
legged frogs coming

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00:07:37,780 --> 00:07:40,220
in as well as Wapato
naturally coming in.

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It was not seeded in.

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Overall, a really fun
project in the future,

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00:07:44,620 --> 00:07:46,460
we would like to do a
movement study to see

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00:07:46,460 --> 00:07:47,420
how far those mussels

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are moving
throughout the year.

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A habitat study to
see how that habitat

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is actually provided
at the minimum

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or is it actually
robust enough.

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00:07:55,460 --> 00:07:58,020
And then finally, a
survival study as well,

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to see are the mussels

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really surviving
year after

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00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:03,140
year throughout that area.

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That's all I got.