The Middle Cow Creek Watershed Assessment process has been contributed to by a group of local landowners. The group met fifteen times to review data about their watershed going into the document and portions of the watershed assessment. Members of the Middle Cow Creek landowner group represented private landowners, private industrial timber companies, rural residents, the City of Glendale, the Bureau of Land Management Medford District (BLM), the Oregon Department of Forestry, the UBWC, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The purpose of this Watershed Assessment is to:
1. Understand the current status of water quality and stream conditions for fish habitat
2. Understand the processes that affect these conditions
3. Discover restoration opportunities in regards to water quality and fish habitat
When the Watershed Assessment uncovered restoration opportunities that could be done voluntarily by landowners, an Action Plan was developed. This action plan lists both general areas of concern and specific restoration projects.
The purpose of an Action Plan is to:
1. Provide a reference list of activities and locations thereof that improve the water quality and fish habitat in the watershed.
2. Recommend future data collection needs.
3. Determine opportunities for objective-based landowner training and education programs.
4. Identify resources to support voluntary or grant-funded actions.
The Middle Cow Creek Watershed is 113,023 acres. The watershed begins at Galesville Dam and continues 34 miles downstream to the confluence of Cow Creek and Middle Creek. The watershed contains the city of Glendale, which is 22 miles north of Grants Pass near Interstate Five. About half of the watershed (52%) is in private ownership, including most of the property along Cow Creek, and intermixed throughout the uplands among government lands. The federal ownership is 39%, mainly belonging to the BLM.