Oregon Public Broadcasting

Tuesday is a big day for a group of environmentalists in central Oregon.

A $1.7 million project to get rid of a man-made canal near Sisters is scheduled to begin.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

The goal of the project is to restore natural streamflow and wild habitat over several years.

If you were to drive by the Camp Polk meadow, you’d see heavy machinery moving dirt and digging holes.

Ryan Houston is the executive director of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council.

Ryan Houston: “Essentially what we are doing is rebuilding the creek channel. We’re going to construct a new creek channel, bring water into that creek. Plant it with native vegetation, and over the next few years have a healthy, functioning creek system out through the meadow.”

In a sense, the project is freeing the water from its prescribed course, and allowing it to flow back across the meadow as it did naturally.

That could help steelhead to spawn -- Whychus Creek was once home to one of the most plentiful steelhead runs in the region.