Sept. 24, 1997 Contact Pauline Austin (541) 346-3129 Editor's Note: The work crews are on site already. To contact Stan Jones, UO assistant professor of landscape architecture, for an interview, contact him at the site on his cell phone, (503) 516-4778. To reach him at his office, call (541) 346-3619. THE SHIRE--Straw bales and willow twigs will be pitted against the mighty Columbia this week by students, researchers and volunteers from the University of Oregon. They will be testing natural techniques for repairing flood damage along the river bank. Such low-cost technology could help farmers faced with the need to stabilize damaged stream banks along other Oregon rivers. Last year floodwaters sucked up three acres of the The Shire's waterfront. The Shire, a field studies site for the UO's landscape architecture department, is a carefully landscaped 75-acre parcel on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. This week, 22 UO landscape architecture students and a dozen volunteers from the Americorps program will wrestle 1,100 straw bales down to the river's edge where the work crew will anchor the bales in place with hardwood stakes. The students and volunteers then will drive willow sticks, which will grow into trees, into the bales in order to re-establish natural vegetation on flood-damaged stream banks. Areas upland of the staked straw bales will be covered with a tough and porous geotextile material that is much like jute. The geotextile ground covering will allow the crews to plant and stabilize willow trees and reeds in the bare mud left by the flooding. Project director Stan Jones, a UO landscape architecture professor, will monitor the project. The Shire, located directly across the Columbia River from Multnomah Falls, was donated in 1995 to the University of Oregon by the estate of Portland landscape designer John Yeon. The UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts uses the property to demonstrate and teach landscape preservation, design and management. -30- #F-1044/Local,PDX,PDX/Spcl