A Salmon Anchor Habitat Strategy

In-stream research shows that during periods of environmental stress salmon will seek out specific core areas. These are the areas which our strategy designates as refuges or "anchor habitats."

The table at right displays coho salmon data from snorkel-counts in Knowles Creek. These counts have been performed every spring since 1992 by Ecotrust restoration ecologist Dr. T.C. Dewberry. The numbers from 1996, a dry year, and 1997, a high-return year, illustrate his findings. Although the Old-growth/Upper Knowles area represents only 19% of the entire system, in a year of adverse conditions 79% of the fish fled to these nutrient-rich pools.

The full report, A Salmon Anchor Habitat Strategy for the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests, is available on this site.

"Everyone is thinking in terms of riparian buffer strips," explains Dewberry. "But that's not the only tool we ought to have in our toolbox. If we don't hang onto those core areas, we're going to lose the fish populations, no matter what else we do."

A Snorkel Count Comparison of Mainstem Knowles Creek Habitats
Reach	Number of Coho/ Percent of Total
	1996	1997
Old-growth/ Upper Knowles	4,312/ 79%	10,937/ 33%
Middle Knowles	1,132/ 21%	15,363/ 46%
Lower Knowles	0/ 0%	6,785/ 21%

An opportunity to convey the need for anchor habitats came as the Oregon Department of Forestry began preparing its new Forestry Management Plan for the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests. The Plan must address the 1998 listing of coho as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

In October 2000, Ecotrust, The Wild Salmon Center, and Oregon Trout issued a report to outline the environmental, economic, and legal benefits of adopting an anchor habitat approach for these state lands.

Curtailing logging on steep slopes plays a critical role in this strategy; limiting landslides and debris torrents in streams is crucial for salmon. Organic materials must be held within the system, not washed away.

The proposal also encourages active management — thinning and selective logging — in order to speed maturation of old-growth conditions in riparian buffers, allowing for two thinnings during a 125-year harvest rotation within the anchor habitats themselves. The goal is to grow the big trees that are necessary for the shade and the deep, nutrient-rich pools that fish require.

Anchor habitats partially or entirely on the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests (More about this map.)

Projected timber harvest levels over the next ten years would in fact remain unchanged under this proposal. An increased harvest of trees sickened by Swiss Needle Cast disease would offset the cutback in logging within the anchor habitat, riparian, and steep slope areas.

Our analysis shows that the adoption of this proposal will allow coho to recover and reach harvestable levels within 20 years. The benefits of a reborn fishing industry should therefore also be weighed in any economic considerations.

This anchor habitat strategy offers the best opportunity for the State of Oregon to protect the salmon, improve economic health, and meet its obligations under state and federal law.

The full report, A Salmon Anchor Habitat Strategy for the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests, is available on this site.