Dean Creek
Elk Viewing Area
Roosevelt elk rely on
wet meadows for forage.
Dean Creek
Elk Viewing Area
Roosevelt elk rely on
wet meadows for forage.
Dean Creek’s meadows and wetlands were once more closely connected to the Umpqua River.
This mix of wet meadows, ponds, marshes, and adjacent forest are managed for their outstanding wildlife value. Roosevelt elk, ducks, geese, heron, red-winged blackbirds, and various songbirds are the most visible wildlife benefiting from this rich habitat. A variety of adult fish and fry, reptiles and amphibians, muskrats and beaver-all thrive at Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area.
What's special about Dean Creek? The combination of meadows, wetlands, and forest form a type of wetland once common on quiet river shores.
In the late 1800s, wetlands along this edge of the Umpqua River were modified to create pasture. Earthen dikes (like the one supporting the highway along the river's edge) were built along the bank to keep river water out of the wetlands at high tide and during winter floods. Ditches and culverts in the wetlands, and tide gates in the dikes, allowed the wetlands to drain at low tide.
Today, the BLM enhances the diversity of wildlife habitat at Dean Creek by managing some areas as pasture and others as less-intensively managed wetlands. Conserving the diversity of this habitat helps to protect the critical habitat values of the freshwater wetlands.
Watch the elk and other wildlife so abundant in these meadows and wetlands. Elk are visible throughout the year, except when hot or stormy weather drives them into the forest; muskrat and beaver swim the waterways; and bird life changes with the seasons.
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