A Report
on Coastal Clatsop County Watersheds

facts about the county's coastal forests, salmon habitat, and ownership; and (3)Recommend changes in the way we do forestry so that native salmon will be restored, communities sustained, and jobs protected.

While all of the information in this report has been widely available to researchers, much of it has never been brought to the public's attention. The numbers are dramatic and explain much of what has happened to the areas native salmon. There is much hope for coastal salmon and water quality because local watershed councils have laid the foundation to restore local streams and there is now a clear picture of how forestry must change. One thing is beyond doubt: the next era of watershed restoration work must begin to address how Weyerhaeuser manages its lands if salmon habitat is to be restored.

What Was the Original Clatsop County Forest Like?

The best scientific estimates of what the original Coast Range and Clatsop County forest was like are based on studies of fire scars and pollen and charcoal taken from lake sediments. These site-specific analyses indicate that before European settlement, the forest was much older and contained much larger trees than today's forest. More often than not throughout its natural history, Clatsop County's forests were old growth, filled with trees more than 200 years old. Recent analysis by researchers at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station provide powerful evidence in support a long-term old growth condition. Their analysis suggests that old growth covered an average of 48 percent of the Coast Range over the past 3,000 years, and that forests containing trees greater than 80 years old covered an average of 71 percent of the land. (Wimberly/ Spies, p. 31). Timber industry "information" stating that Coast Range fires occurred frequently and that the natural forest lacked a high percentage of old growth and late-successional forest is misleading.

Pause a moment and think about the above numbers. The change to the Clatsop County's forest has been nothing less than dramatic.

How Does the Forest Shape Salmon Habitat?

Large forests slow sediments moving from the hillsides to the streams. When landslides in forests or debris torrents in upper-watershed streams occur, they both may deliver large wood along with coarse sediment (rocks and gravel) to watershed streams. In the lower, gentler streams, large wood interacts with sediment to create the complex channels that provide good rearing habitat for juvenile salmon. The complex habitat created by the interaction of sediment and large wood provides the safe habitat necessary during relentless winter rains.

Large wood also controls the way sediment moves through the stream system. Large wood and coarse sediment, including rocks and small boulders, are the building materials of stream beds that enable a stream to connect with its flood plain, form side channels, and exchange nutrients with riparian vegetation and the flood plain water table. Beavers add to the complexity by creating pools within the low-gradient streams. The important point to remember is that the complex habitat created by large wood and sediment plays a protective role during

winter storms — storms that may prove fatal for salmon in today's simplified stream conditions.

Our brief description of how forests provide for salmon habitat is well established in the technical literature and is familiar to folks

working in watershed councils like the Ecola and Necanicum. The role of large wood in salmon habitat is well described in numerous

publications and the state's Oregon Watershed Assessment Manual (Watershed Professionals Network, 1999).

What Do Salmon and Trout Need to Thrive?

Coho salmon and steelhead trout require a variety of stream conditions for reproducing and rearing. Spawning and rearing generally takes

place in the lower streams with a gradient of less than 3 percent. Streams such as Beerman Creek, Williamson Creek, the lower portions

of the Necanicum River and lower Ecola Creek are examples of low gradient streams. The recent purchase of low gradient portions of

Ecola Creek by the City of Cannon Beach is an a wise move that now must be followed by an overall reform of upslopw forestry.

For spawning, coho require clean gravel, ranging from the size of a pea to the size of an orange. Rearing requires cool water temperatures:

salmon prefer water tempreture between 53 degrees and 58 degrees Fahrenheit, but may tolerate temperatures up to 68 degrees. Young coho and steelhead (fry) emerge between February and early June, and occupy backwater pools and the margins of streams. During summer, coho prefer pools in small streams. In winter, they prefer off-channel alcoves, beaver ponds and dam pools.

Large Wood

The critical component in creating good salmon habitat — clean gravel, backwater pools, side channels, and off-channel alcoves — is the large conifer wood provided by older forests. The importance of large wood for coastal streams can hardly be overstated. According to Upstream: Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest, a 1996 report produced by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, "Perhaps no other structural component of the environment is as important to salmon habitat as is large woody debris, particularly in [Northwest] coastal watersheds…" (Upstream, p. 194).

A forest of large trees is the key element that creates coastal stream habitat. In ways that are complex and not completely understood, a mature forest landscape moderates sediment, provides nutrients, supports water insects, and allows for pockets of cool water that give salmon places to hide from the heat (IMST p. 18; NMFS White Paper, p. 17-18). The National Marine Fisheries Service suggests that at least 80 pieces of wood larger than 24" in diameter and 20 feet long, considered key large wood, should be present in each mile of stream. Poor habitat has fewer than 30 pieces of key large wood per mile, and sections with fewer than 15 such pieces per mile are considered nonfunctioning. Take a look at Ecola or Necanicum rivers and see if 24" or larger diameter logs are present. Chances are you will see few pieces.

Locally, large wood enters coastal Clatsop streams when trees die from disease, are knocked down by wind, come rushing down steep slopes in landslides or are released from steep upper streams in debris torrents. Not all large wood is the same. Very large pieces are particularly important and come from the big spruce, hemlocks and Douglas firs. Large wood enters streams primarily from within 300 feet (98 meters) of the water. But scientists note that unstable upper slopes and stream beds are also an important source of large wood (IMST p. 23).

The Current State of Coastal Clatsop Watersheds

Nowhere is the regional shift from an abundant forest to a small timber-poor forest clearer than in the coastal Clatsop area. An analysis of forest vegetation conducted in 1995 by the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS) project of the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) research office in Corvallis--offers a picture of the coastal Clatsop area. Of the areas 84,266 forested acres, 76 percent is covered with trees less than 10" in diameter at breast height (DBH), or by non-conifer trees of all DBH sizes. Lands that are covered with non-conifer or small conifer trees are a poor source of large wood for streams. Another 16 percent of the landscape is covered with conifers and mixed stands between 10" and 20" DBH, which have only a moderate potential to recruit large-wood. Only 8 percent of the basin's land contains conifer or mixed stands over 20" DBH. We may consider forests with trees 20" and larger DBH good land for recruiting large wood to streams.

Potential for Coastal Clatsop Area Forest to Recruit Large Wood to Streams
	Poor	Moderate	Good
Acres	65,094	13,379	6,793
Percentage	76%	16%	8%

A Coast Range Association interpretation of the 1995 CLAMS vegetation layer for stream large wood recruitment

Coastal Clatsop Stream Habitat Conditions

Current stream conditions mirror the change in the coastal Clatsop forest size. During the 1990s the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) conducted 64 stream habitat surveys within the Necanicum and Ecola watersheds. When the stream survey data is interpreted using the standards described in the Oregon Watershed Assessment Manual, stream habitat appears to be in severe trouble. Not all ODFW surveys inventoried key large wood and complex pools - two very important indicators of salmon habitat conditions. Of the 15 surveys that did survey for key large wood and complex pools the results show that no surveyed stream reaches contain desirable levels. Twelve surveys found key large wood levels undesirable and three surveys recorded at-risk levels. The same pattern held for complex pools--pools with a large wood component-- where 12 surveyed reaches were found to be in an undesirable condition and 3 surveyed reaches were at risk.

It is important to stop for a moment and review what the above numbers mean. Elements of critical habitat failing at the 100 percent level

is not the kind of information for scratching one's head and saying "gee, we don't know." These are locomotive size signals that call for Weyerhaeuser to do what's right for salmon and reform their forestry.

Unfortunately, the problem with stream habitat isn't limited to just the large wood. Of the eleven stream habitat elements benchmarked by the Oregon Watershed Assessment Manual, the Necanicum and Ecola ranked best in shade. The high marks for shade, however, appear to be an result of where ODFW chose to conduct their surveys. The second best habitat element is gravel which scored a desirable rating in 57% of the 61 reaches surveyed. The ratio of pool area to total stream area scored the third best rating at 53% desirable. In six other critical habitat elements, the Necanicum and Ecola were deficient 92 percent to 70 percent of the time. We suggest the reader review carefully the coastal Clatsop Habitat Condition form below. The numbers clearly suggest forestry reform is next on the agenda for salmon restoration and overall watershed protection.

(Necanicum & Ecola Watersheds)
64 Total Stream Surveys (1991-1998)

Coastal Clatsop Native Salmon Populations

The state of native fish abundance for the coastal Clatsop watershed area shows the predictable effect of habitat loss. Scientists say they can't be certain exactly how many fish returned to coastal basins a century or more ago, but canning records offer us a hint. In 1981 the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife published a report on the historic cannery catch for coastal Oregon and the lower Columbia (Mullen, 1981). Cannery records give an indication of the number of salmon returning to local watersheds. Also, the journal Fisheries published an article on historic and current salmon abundance for the Northwest and British Columbia (Gresh, 2000). In that report the authors provide ODFW estimates from the 1950's that indicate the commercial catch rate for coastal Oregon was, on average, 40% of total salmon abundance. A Coast Range Association analysis of the aforementioned two reports indicates that approximately 4.5 acres of coastal watershed land area provided for 1 returning coho salmon. This overall ratio would be expected to change depending on the local underlying geology. Sandstore watersheds would have much higher coho populations and volcanic/basalt watersheds would have lower coho populations. Using the 4.5 to 1 ratio, however, indicates that coastal Clatsop watersheds likely supported a native coho salmon abundance of 19,200 fish.

During the 1990s the ODFW conducted surveys of returning native coho for coastal streams. ODFW random fish surveys for the years 1990 to 1999 for the Necanicum and Ecola basins counted, on average, 487 spawning coho each year. In 1992, the two watersheds saw their lowest coho return for the decade counting only 185 wild fish. Even the 1,135 wild coho that returned to the watersheds in 1991, that decade's high, are but a pale shadow of historic numbers. Readers should consult their local watershed councils for recent year surveys. During the

past four years ocean conditions have been more favorable to salmon survival and coho and steelhead numbers have improved.

1990s Coastal Clatsop Native Coho
Estimated Historic Yearly Abundance of Coho	1990 to 1999 Average Annual Coho Return
19,200	487

Salmon Distribution

The remaining coastal Clatsop native coho are most likely not evenly present throughout the watersheds. Snorkle surveys for numerous north coast rivers, including the Ecola, conducted by fish biologist Charlie Dewberry bear out the fact of uneven salmon distribution (Ecotrust, 2000). Most likely, fry and juvenile coho are congregating in the few best remaining stream areas for summer conditions. Low population numbers and concentration in small portions of the stream system expose the population to catastrophic loss from a singular event such as a landslide or debris torrent. That's why the scientists tell us it is important to identify the best remaining places, known as refugia, and protect the landscape from any further destabilizing activity that threatens the fish.

Who Owns the Coastal Clatsop Forest?

It's no mystery why forest conditions, salmon habitat, and fish numbers are depressed in coastal Clatsop watersheds: past and current

forestry has transformed the landscape upsetting natural patterns that are key to salmon survival. According to Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) records, 72 percent of the coastal Clatsop forest acreage is owned by private, industrial forest companies. One industrial forest owner, Weyerhaeuser, dominates ownership. After decades of forest liquidation by previous land owners, Weyerhaeuser - through a hostile takeover of Willamette Industries - took control of the Necanicum and Ecola watersheds. Past industrial land owners gave the profits to their investor shareholders and left the people Clatsop County and Oregon with the cost of restoring the watershed. In effect, past owners privatized the gain realized through timber sales and transferred the cost of watershed restoration to society at large.

Coastal Clatsop Forest Ownership
Private		Federal		State & Other
Industrial	Non- Industrial	BLM	Forest Service	State	Misc.	Total
60,177	15,376	0	0	6,300	1,974	83,827
72%	18%	0%	0%	8%	2%	100%

Not all coastal Clatsop lands are owned by Weyerhaeuser or other industrial owners. 18 percent of the area is owned by private, non-industrial owners, defined as those owning less than 5,000 acres. These are the folks generally referred to as small woodlot owners. While

the federal government owns no land in the coastal area the state of Oregon owns 8 percent. Oswald West State Park being the largest state holding. The ODF data classifies the remaining 2 percent of the ownership as "miscellaneous". Given the predominance of private industrial ownership their forest management is a critical issue of concern.

Industrial Forest Management

Because the coastal Clatsop area has such fertile timberlands, Weyerhaeuser can grow a marketable log in a very short time. Weyerhaeuser

cuts their forests on short rotations of 40 to 50 years. If we assume Weyerhaeuser manages for a forty year rotation, the average age of a coastal Weyerhaeuser tree will end up being twenty years of age. This means that on 72 percent of the basin's land area, the age and size of

the forest will continue to be radically different from the original native forest and far less than what is required for salmon recovery.

The coastal forest was reduced by a handful of profit-seeking companies. A huge old growth landscape was converted to one of a permanent small plantation forest. The watershed has been changed to the detriment of public values. No one knew the full consequences of removing the original forest but we are now paying the price in poor stream habitat condition and impoverished salmon populations.

How much has been lost in Clatsop County's coastal forest? As explained earlier, Coast Range stream habitat is maintained by the constant recruitment of large wood into streams from adjacent and upslope forest. A good indicator of potential large wood availability is the timber industry's standard measure of saw timber, the Scribner board foot (bf), which measures 1 inch thick by 1 square foot. Calculating the decline in Scribner board foot volume for coastal Clatsop industrial timberlands provides a sense of the background forest condition driving poor stream habitat conditions.

Here is a fair assumption of change to forest size on the 60,177 acres of industrial forest out of the 83,827 coastal forest acres (131 square miles). Of that 60,177 acres, about 88 percent, or 52,955 acres, are actually trees. Rivers, roads, and rock make up the rest. Assuming a forty-five year cut, the average amount of Scribner board foot of timber per industry acre is about 12,000 bf. For small trees, Scribner board foot volume understates actual wood volume. So, to be generous to Weyerhaeuser, we will double the figure to 24,000 bf per acre. Therefore, current industrial timber volume in the coastal Clatsop stands at approximately 1,270,938,240 bf.

Before conversion to industrial plantations, the forest that stood on coastal Clatsop industrial land was old growth. A coastal old growth stand, depending on age and condition, may have had anywhere from 60,000 bf to 200,000 bf per acre. For this analysis we will use 120,000 bf per acre. While the old growth forest certainly had rivers and rock it did not have roads. We will assume that the original forest covered 95 percent of the industrial land area which calculates out to 57,168 acres. Therefore, the coastal Clatsop industrial lands originally contained 6,860,178,000 bf of virgin timber.

The timber industry has re-grown approximately 1.3 billion board foot of timber and not re-grown 5,560,000,000 bf of timber. And, because Weyerhaeuser has given no indication to date that it will improve past forest rotation times of 40 to 50 years they will never re-grow more than what they have today. Past timber land owners have trucked off slightly over 81 percent of the forest never to replace it. And, that which has been regrown is of a very different character than the original forest.Current industrial timber volume is roughly 20 percent of the original natural volume. It is no surprise that the average desirable value of the four large wood habitat elements from Necanicum and Ecola stream surveys are less than 8 percent.

Watershed Disturbance

Weyerhaeuser's current forestry will not only maintain a permanent small tree size, the frequency of clearcutting creates disturbance far in excess of past natural levels. In the past, watershed disturbance was driven by large, infrequent replacements of stands by fires and periodic, intense storms. In either case -- storm or fire -- the huge wood volume of large trees remained. Today, clearcutting leaves the land barren while at the same time exposing the freshly cut-over land to the impact of intense storms. Coastal watersheds are dynamic, where large wood and pools exist in streams changes from decade to decade and storms move sediment and fallen trees through the system. But, intense short rotation forestry produces a land barren of large trees and exposed weakened soil. Current forestry will result in disturbance too intense and unbalanced and will threaten all the hard work of lower watershed restoration by the watershed councils.

It All Comes Back to Forest Management

The loss of old, mature forest in the coastal Clatsop area — and resulting loss of salmon habitat —  is unprecedented. Scientists say natural conditions and processes are the best for fish; unnatural conditions and processes eventually will drive the native salmon to extinction. While salmon may be able to survive unnatural conditions in the short term, "the longer the habitat stays in a reduced state, the greater the risk to the population" (Wimberly/Spies, p. 20). In other words, chronic habitat loss can drive — and is driving — coastal Clatsop's native coho salmon to extinction. The next downturn in ocean conditions may be the final event that ends our local native coho population.

The numbers cited in this report are powerful and challenge the Board of Forestry and Weyerhaeuser to adequately uphold the public's interests. Forest condition and stream habitat reflect an unprecedented decline in ecological values. The responsibility to recover Clatsop County's coastal watershed habitat rests on Weyerhaeuser and the Board of Forestry. Weyerhaeuser, even if not directly responsible for

the liquidation of the original forest, must accept the need to change its forestry and the burden to recovering stream habitat. Accepting responsibility is not about public feel-good statements by local public relations staff. Weyerhaeuser will have accepted its public trust duty

when it enters into honest discussions with local officials, watershed councils and local residents about adjusting its upslope forestry regime. The company must move towards creating a significantly larger forest on the landscape. The cost of such a shift in Weyerhaeuser forestry does not have to be placed on the company's shoulders. There is no reason not to start the process now.

Coastal Clatsop's Watersheds Are Important

Some people within the timber industry believe it isn't worth recovering salmon in highly altered watersheds like the Necanicum, Ecola or Arch Cape Creek. They argue that the cost to Weyerhaeuser is too great to save the native fish. At the same time, many scientists urge the government to save the best remaining habitat through the immediate and strict protection of priority watersheds. Special watersheds that are rich in habitat are referred to as refugia areas. Between the need for refugia watersheds and the complaining about costs, someone unfamiliar with the overall science might think that coastal Clatsop watersheds are not a priority for restoration. This isn't the case at all.

Recovering native salmon within all Clatsop County watersheds is necessary for maintaining salmon coast wide. According to the National Research Council's Upstream report, if the salmon runs on individual rivers are lost, so too will be the larger population of salmon along the Oregon Coast: "An adequate number of returning adults for every local breeding population is needed to ensure persistence of all the reproductive units… The result of regulating fishing on a metapopulation basis [i.e.., all coho along the Oregon Coast] and ignoring the reproductive units that make up a metapopulation [i.e., coastal Clatsop River coho] is the disappearance or extirpation of some of the local breeding populations and the eventual collapse of the metapopulation's production" (Upstream, p. 363).

While the above Upstream quote is addressing fishery management, the message is clear: -- not only does a salmon population need a certain amount of abundance to reproduce, it also needs to be well distributed between watersheds and within watersheds. When habitat declines, not only does the total number of fish decline but their distribution may become concentrated in the few best remaining watersheds or sub-basins. Concentration cuts them off genetically and exposes a small population to potential destruction by a large natural and human caused event .

We know that salmon are closely linked to the condition of the land through watershed processes that create and maintain habitat. In the same way that maintaining each river's native salmon is required for the survival of the species as a whole, maintaining and restoring each basin's salmon habitat is crucial to the survival of salmon as a whole. That means that native Oregon coast salmon cannot be sustained by protecting the habitat on public lands and walking away from private land watersheds. Private lands bear no less of a burden than public lands in ensuring the long-term survival of salmon runs as a whole.

The Need to Move Toward a More Natural Forest Condition

Every salmon stock in every basin is a key brick in the house of its species as a whole. Top scientists say "emulation of the historic range and distribution of conditions at the landscape level is essential to accomplishing the mission of the Oregon Plan" (IMST p. 34)— in other words, restoring salmon. Returning the forests to a more natural condition (not the original condition) so that salmon populations can thrive requires fundamental change to Weyerhaeuser's forestry. In basins owned by Weyerhaeuser, such as the Necanicum and Ecola, no one is talking about going back to an old growth forest. It is likely that an industrial forest sufficient to restore native salmon will be a far cry from the original native forest condition. However, we must move very quickly and far from the current model of Weyerhaeuser forestry.

Specific Recommendations for Restoring the Coastal Clatsop:

The following recommendations for changing private forestry are tied to the current discussion occurring before the Board of Forestry in Salem. The list of recommendations is highly relevant to watersheds with land ownership and forest practices like the Necanicum and Ecola. This list is based on the main points of the IMST report and other key scientific reports like Upstream.

1. Manage forestry at a whole basin scale and not at the scale of one activity.

Forest harvest must be planned at the basin scale through local planning, either through voluntary effort or regulatory mandate. Cowboy forestry must end and watershed forestry must begin. Oregon's forest practices rules must consider the entire landscape — including the cumulative effects of forest practices. A landscape perspective is critical for determining where and how much disturbance (i.e., clearcutting) may occur locally (one site), and how large an area may be impacted.

2. Include the recovery goals of the Oregon Plan for landscape level forest management in the Oregon Forest Practices Act.

The state's rules governing forestry are primarily intended to ensure sustainable timber harvest. Oregon's forests and native salmon are so closely linked that the practice of forestry must sustain native salmon and their habitat.

3. Increase forest harvest rotation time.

A win-win opportunity exists because current rotations occur before trees are reaching the size that maximizes log production. Increasing rotation times is a win-win for communities, the timber industry, and salmon. Increasing rotation lengths on commercial forest lands moves forest management closer to natural disturbance regimes and helps reduce — but not eliminate — many impacts to salmon habitat associated with commercial logging. By allowing forests to grow older, and therefore bigger, longer rotation management will provide large wood for streams and understory vegetation for a variety of wildlife and plants. Long rotations mean fewer acres are logged each year, reducing other cumulative impacts while helping to keep habitat connected across the landscape.

A Win-Win Strategy

A Coast Range Association report-- Forests That Work --indicates that moving to 140-year rotations from 45-year rotations may increase timber inventories by more than 500 percent, reduce acres clearcut annually by 68 percent, increase the volume of timber harvested by 40 percent, and increase positive cash-flow off the land for owners by as much as 100 percent. We need not fear a reduction in clearcutting because current overcutting is wasting timber growing capacity. Industrial land-owners will harvest more sellable logs and more valuable logs by cutting less.

4. Approximate the size and pattern of natural disturbance regimes in logging areas.

For management to emulate natural landscape patterns, logging must shift to more closely resemble the size and frequency of local natural disturbance. In basins like the coastal Clatsop, fire disturbance occurred infrequently, but often affected a large swath of land. Logging will act more like a natural disturbance if timber harvest occurs in fewer places but perhaps at larger scales. While this recommendation of the IMST appears to have merit, the potential for abuse exists. More information and specificity is needed for this recommendation to be implemented.

5. Manage logging for both upslope and riparian areas.

In coastal watersheds, it is necessary to eliminate the regulatory distinction between riparian buffers and the upslope lands that feed streams. We must overcome the failed management strategy in which the buffers (comprising a small percent of the landscape) were expected to substitute for the land conditions under which salmon thrived. Integrating the upper slopes into a salmon protection strategy shifts timber management from the needs of industry to one defined by the needs of riparian biological and physical functions (IMST pp. 19-20). "Analysis and adjustment in management practices must occur in upslope forests throughout the watershed" (IMST p. 13). Such integration emulates historic disturbance patterns, is based on "our best understanding of ecosystem structure and function," and therefore helps recover imperiled salmon.

6. Protect small, high gradient streams, with or without fish.

All streams make important contributions to fish habitat — large wood, sediment, and gravel — even if they don't run throughout the year and even if they don't contain fish themselves. The IMST stresses that non-fish-bearing streams make important contributions to downstream processes (IMST p. 31). A stream that shows no fish during modern surveys may have contained them before industrial forestry wrought havoc on the land. Protecting those streams may have direct habitat benefits for salmon, or may protect salmon that stream surveys missed. Harvest rotations of 100 to 200 years will increase the watershed's amount of intact forest and will greatly protect small streams.

7. Require all landowners in all basins to restore fish habitat.

The cumulative effects of logging on all Coast Range forests has been a major factor in the salmon's demise. Restoring each basin — and each basin's salmon population — will be critical to the species' recovery. The bulk of the coastal Clatsop basin, and the Coast Range's forests in general, is in private, industrial ownership. Since the entire land area in a basin is critical to restoring individual salmon populations, and since individual salmon runs are critical to restoring the overall health of the larger salmon population, all landowners in all basins must take major steps toward restoring the landscape.

8. Implement a scientifically valid monitoring program.

As Jack Ward Thomas, the former head of the U.S. Forest Service once said, "Ecosystems are not only more complex than we know, they are more complex than we can know." The science of salmon and their ecosystems is evolving. As we change forestry, it is extremely important to monitor the effectiveness of each improvement in management. The wise integration of the changes in scientific information with land management practices requires consistent, thorough, and scientifically sound monitoring.

9. Protect all existing core habitats while the above changes are put in place.

Immediate protection for the most important functioning or potential habitat (refugia watersheds) is critical to prevent continued losses of salmonid genetic diversity. There is no substitute for immediate protection as a hedge against the impacts of current practices and of future ones. This includes specific areas in basins such as the coastal Clatsop.

Conclusion

The coastal Clatsop areas once-great coho salmon now risk extinction because the forest that maintained stream habitat is greatly reduced. Through the best current science, we know much about how forests naturally function and we know much about what salmon need. This report has presented solid data on coastal Clatsop area forest, stream habitat and salmon populations. We now know the general features of what's wrong on the landscape, why it's wrong and who made it that way. We also know much of how to undo it. We have a crisis of unprecedented proportions, one that harms the land and the fish as well as the human community and its economy. The direction we need to go is clear. Road map in hand, we need only build the political will to change the timber industry and restore the forest and salmon.


Copyright © Coast Range Association   Last updated: March 12, 2005