Newsgroups: sci.bio.ecology
From: casspa@efn.org (Paul Cass)
Subject: Watershed Management #5
Summary: Decline in fish stocks and refugia as restoration technique
Keywords: Watershed, restoration, salmon, fisheries
Organization: Prototype Eugene Free Net
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 17:14:48 GMT
Lines: 176

The following article is part of a watershed seminar held at Oregon State
University.  The summary was written by Penny Cass and approved by the
speaker.  This article is part of a publication that can be ordered from the
Oregon Water Resources Research Institute, OSU, Strand Ag Hall 210,
Corvallis, OR 97331-2208 (503) 737-4023.  The article may be reprinted
without permission for educational purposes.  If used, Please send 2 copies
of your publication to OWRRI.

Solutions to Watershed Restoration


Chris Frissell, OSU Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife,
David Bayles, Director of Public Land Management, Pacific Rivers
Council, Eugene


       Someone once defined the Pacific Northwest as "any place
the salmon can go."  If so, the Pacific Northwest is shrinking.  The
American Fisheries Society estimates that 106 populations of
Pacific Northwest salmonids (salmon, steelhead, trout, and char)
are now extinct, and over 210 additional populations are currently
at risk.
       Scientists have recognized the dangers to salmonid
populations for over a quarter of a century, yet no Federal or State
policies explicitly address protecting river functions.  The Pacific
Rivers Council is attempting to close the gap between science and
policy with a watershed restoration plan.  Developing a restoration
plan involves looking at the historical patterns which have created
the problems, scientifically evaluating the effectiveness of remedial
actions, understanding the political realities that will be
encountered in enacting effective policy, and creating a dynamic
program that will adequately protect salmonid diversity.

Historical Trends and Remedial Actions
       Floodplains and valley lowlands were once the home of the
most productive and diverse fish populations.  As human
settlements grew, river channels were straightened, vegetation was
removed, and fish populations in lower reaches declined.  In the
last few decades, roads have been built into public lands on the
higher reaches of rivers and human activities on steep slopes, such
as logging and grazing, have caused further degradation of stream
habitats.
       In the 1970's, realization of the effects of human activity
have on fish populations provided impetus for initial changes in
riparian management practices.  Buffer strips of trees and
vegetation were left on stream banks to protect fish habitats.  More
recently, awareness has focused on the benefit of large woody
debris left in streams.
       With increased awareness has come the attempt to rectify
previous management strategies.  Several projects have tried to
reintroduce woody debris back into stream beds.  Unfortunately,
high rates of failure have accompanied such remediation projects. 
Occasional introduced boulders have actually increased river water
temperature.  Landslides and fires have damaged buffer strips and
transplanted woody debris has often increased turbidity by
capturing fine silts that can destroy spawning beds.
       Watershed management science has begun to realize that
small patches of disturbance have large effects downstream.  For
instance, when certain forests have been roaded and clearcut, there
is a 25-fold increase in the possibility of large landslides.  Erosion
from roads can contribute as much sediment to rivers as a large
landslide.  The more damaged a watershed becomes the less likely
it is that remedial action will prove successful.  This realization has
changed the restoration strategy that scientists advocate.
       Early management strategies anticipated that areas of patch
disturbances would be recolonized from fish in surrounding intact
areas.  With today's hyper-fragmentation of habitat, surrounding
disturbances are instead jeopardizing the remaining intact areas. 
Frissell characterizes previous attempts to restore degraded
watersheds as the "Rat Hole Strategy."  The new strategy advocated
by scientists is called the "Rapid Biotic Response Strategy."  Figure
1 describes the goals, plans, treatments, and monitoring techniques
of the two restoration approaches.   In keeping with the new
strategy, the Oregon chapter of the American Fisheries Association
has identified critical watersheds in Oregon that need protection. 
The vast majority of these intact habitats are on Federal land,
particularly roadless areas, which must be protected from plans
that target them for timber harvest.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Figure 1.  Historical and Proposed Management Strategies

"Rat Hole" Strategy
Goal:         Quick political fix
Planning:     Identify the worst degraded habitats
Treatment:    Generic techniques which focus on symptoms
Monitoring:   Determine that money was spent as allocated

"Rapid Biotic Response" Strategy
Goal:         Recovery of depressed salmonid populations
Planning:     Identify spatial refugia ~ the critical habitats ~ and the local threats to
              the last intact patches
Treatment:    Secure refugia ~ the intact habitats ~ and reconnect them

Monitoring:   Determine if approach is achieving the goals and reversing degradation
              trends

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Political Realities
       Bayles makes three assertions or predictions that recognize the political realities of
watershed policy:
       1.     Watershed policies will be played out on Federal lands.
       2.     Watershed protection, management, and restoration battles have already
              begun.  All future Federal land management schemes will contain
              watershed language.
       3.     Watershed analysis will use regulation-based rather than the more
              scientific dynamic process-based methodology.  That is, instead of using
              watershed analysis as the basic tool for flexible decision making, concrete
              regulations will be used.

       The battle over watershed protection, management, and restoration will be played
out on Federal lands for legal and biological reasons.  The National Environmental Policy
Act requires that Federal land managers disclose the consequences of their actions.  The
National Forest Management Act requires maintenance of viable populations of native
vertebrate species, and the Endangered Species Act requires habitat protection for listed
species.  Each of these acts forms the legal basis for a de facto biodiversity management
policy on Federal lands.  For riparian dependent species, this protection involves watershed
management and restoration.
       The biological reason that watershed battles will take place on Federal lands is that
the Federal government owns much of the upper elevation lands; the lands with the highest
quality intact habitat and biota.  These remnant populations constitute a fraction of the
original, which mostly lived in the productive lowlands that have since been so fully
developed.  Because "gravity rules," the affects of disturbance on upper Federal lands have
the most cumulative effect on lower river reaches.

Watershed Protection
       The Pacific Rivers Council has submitted to Congress a proposal for a formal
watershed protection and restoration plan to be adopted by Federal land agencies.  The
watershed proposal creates a mandate to:
       A.     Identify and protect a system of watershed level refuges.
       B.     Reduce existing threats to those refuges
              1.     Sediment reduction
              2.     Livestock elimination
       C.     Identify and protect riparian areas on all Federal lands including
              ephemeral and intermittent streams and extending to contributing
              adjacent hillslopes.
       D.     Research, develop, and implement a riparian re-vegetation program on all
              degraded riparian areas.
       E.     Research, develop, and implement an ecologically appropriate program of
              reintroduction of large woody debris.
       F.     Establish systematic research and monitoring of all protection and
              restoration measures
       G.     Establish systematic agency training.

       The watershed proposal has an increased chance of acceptance by Congress
because it is coupled with a large jobs program.  The proposal focuses on "holding on to
the last best watershed habitats."  This means existing sources of sedimentation,
particularly roads, will have to be removed.  In Oregon's most intact watershed habitats,
there are 30,000 road miles.  Restoration of these sites would entail removing 10 million
cubic yards of sediment, cost $150 million, and provide approximately 4,000 to 6,000
person-years of employment ~ four to six years work for 1,000 people.  If the entire
watershed proposal was implemented on Federal lands the cost would be about $700
million and employ approximately 40,000 to 50,000 workers.
       The restrictions that are being placed on commodity extractions on Federal lands
came from a variety of ecosystem concerns.  But unlike the spotted owl issue, salmonid
restoration has the significant incentive of providing jobs and making the proposal
politically viable.


Biblography:

Frissell, C.A., In Press. Topology of Decline and Extinction of Fishes in the Pacific
       Northwest and California.  Conservation Biology.
Meffe, G.K. 1992. Techno-Arrogance and Halfway Technologies: Salmon Hatcheries on
       the Pacific Coast of North America.  Conservation Biology. 6:350-354.
Moyle, P.B. and G.M. Sato. 1991. On the Design of Preserves to Protect Native Fishes.
       Battle Against Extinction: Native Fish Managment in the American West. pp 151-
       169. W. L. Minckley and J.E. Deacon, eds. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Nehlsen, W., J.E. Williams, and J.A. Lichatowich. 1991. Pacific Salmon at the
       Crossroads:  Stocks at Risk from California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.
       Fisheries 16(2):4-21.
Stanford, J.A. and J.D. Ward. 1992. Management of Aquatic Resources in Large
       Catchments:  Recognizing Interactions between Ecosystem Connectivity and
       Environmental Disturbance.  Watershed Management: Balancing Sustainablity and
       Environmental Change, pp 91-124. R. Naiman, ed. Springer-Verlag, New York.



