(low humming) (birds chirping) (water splashing) (gentle music) (water roaring) - For me, being able to go to the falls is real privilege.

You just take in kind of the vastness out there the water and the sounds, the crashing, you know, the rocks themselves and all that history.

(soft music) (water bubbling) But all of that really makes the experience of going to the falls a very unique, very special.

And it comes with inherent responsibility of continuing that cultural practice.

You know, despite a lot of change in 170 years or so at that place.

(water splashing) Willamette Falls is an important inter-tribal harvest and gathering area and always has been.

(gentle music) It is one of the few places where you can actively harvest lamprey today.

The species themselves are so much in decline and there's not many large rivers around that still support lamprey and then support a harvest area like Willamette Falls.

(soft music) (water roaring) And for the few fish that are called back to the Willamette, this is literally, kind of the last leg of their trip.

They've come a long way and they're solely focused on returning to spawn.

And once they traverse the falls, that's not the last barrier that they really have to overcome.

(slow gentle music) (water bubbling) (gentle music continues) (birds chirping) (water splashing) Lamprey as a species have been around for 450 to 500 million years, and to have seen such a decline within a very short time, you know, it's a strong indicator of kind of where we're at and of how we're able to steward or support forests, rivers, streams, riparian habitat, everything that lamprey utilize.

(light music) You know, typically in the small, medium sized streams of the Pacific Northwest, they're homes to lamprey.

So they're all around us.

Many folks don't notice them just because they live in sediments.

Growing up I always heard that larval lamprey or young lamprey would clean river systems.

They literally kind of feed on organic or detritus material and they like this kind of movable sandy sediment that they can burrow into.

Tryon Creek as an urban stream is pretty protected.

You know, about two thirds of the stream is within Tryon Creek State Natural Area.

You know, you can have healthy habitats and a relatively healthy forest and pretty decent water quality, but if these fish aren't able to access this place, then they're not going to be here.

If I had to guess, I would say it's been 50 or 60 years plus that a lamprey has been in this creek.

It's a teaching moment and that's kind of what drives my work.

This is a common basketry item, gathering item for the original peoples of Western Oregon.

These are native shrubs...

I've worked in fishery science and I bring some of those tools into my role at the Friends of Tryon Creek, which is more education, community stewardship, restoration and community reconnection.

(students chattering) - [Instructor] So I've been to Tryon a few times too.

We used to do some- - Does anybody know what this is?

Any guesses?

What it's carved as?

Good, a fish.

It's the oldest living fish.

It has a lot of different names.

An eel is what tribes call it.

In western science it's called a lamprey.

(instructor speaking indistinctly) This forest is kind of our living laboratory, our meeting place.

So we're in a unique space and this is a motivator to build those relationships with communities that don't have access.

Oh, no way.

And ultimately that will benefit and better this place if more people care about it, more people are stewarding it and more people have that knowledge to take wherever they go in life.

- Enough beads?

- [Student] So I'm going to... - So eels have an important presence today.

There's not a whole lot left.

So folks like myself and Greg are looking to you all to kind of step up and protect and save 'em.

It's definitely a good way to talk about the work, is that you need all the complexities in place to make things happen.

Lamprey are a great teacher of that.

(water rushing) (soft music) (water rushing) Modern Western society has created a lot of barriers, both physical and also socio-emotional.

Whether it's in a river or it's a societal structure that limits folks from continuing their cultural knowledge or even accessing a forest like this.

(students chattering) So we're working to promote holistic access for people into this park.

We're also working to restore native communities of fish and provide them holistic access to this place, which is also their home.

We're laying that groundwork where lamprey will be return to this creek and bring it intact again.

(soft music) (water roaring) (water rushing) (no audio) - Great people just doing their thing in their own Northwest-y way.

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