Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative |
Restoration of Oregon's anadromous fish resources presents many challenges, the biggest perhaps being to discover how people and salmon can coexist in the future. This challenge has no clear endpoint, no time when "success" can be declared forever. Some measure of success, however, may be reached if Oregon achieves a fundamental shift toward resource management philosophies and practices that support conservation and restoration of landscape and ecosystem processes more favorable to salmon. After all, a basic tenet of the Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative (OCSRI) is that all Oregon citizens share responsibility for the changes to the landscape and ecosystem processes that have hurt salmon and, likewise, share responsibility for restoration. Salmon are recognized as an integral part of Oregon's cultural identity. For the long-term, the challenge is to negotiate societal decisions that address the complex, conflicting issues of human population growth and competition for natural resources. This must be done in a manner that meets the needs of both salmon and people.
| Mission Statement |
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The mission of the Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative is to restore our coastal salmon populations and fisheries to productive and sustainable levels that will provide substantial environmental, cultural, and economic benefits. |
The key tenets of the Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative are: 1) an ecosystem approach that requires a systematic consideration of the full range of attributes of aquatic health, 2) a focus on reversing factors for decline and meeting objectives that address those factors, 3) use of adaptive management and a comprehensive monitoring strategy, and 4) involving citizens and constituent groups into the restoration process.
In moving away from a largely programmatic approach to natural resource management, Oregon is rapidly moving toward a geographically targeted, resource-based approach. This is in light of the growing recognition that ecosystems can best be maintained through a holistic management approach. The intent of the OCSRI is to conserve and restore functional elements of ecosystems that support fish, wildlife, and people.
The success of this effort will depend on sustaining strong and lasting local-state-federal partnerships. As we move away from the traditional "agency by agency" approach to solving resource management problems, we move toward inclusive and integrated planning and implementation at the watershed level.
The state natural resource agencies support the development of management strategies that recognize the entire range of potentially limiting factors--such as streamflows, riparian conditions, stream morphology, habitat diversity, and water quality. It is not work on any single factor that will protect salmon and their habitats, but rather conjunctive, interagency action based on identified limiting factors. In concert, agencies and local partners will design the appropriate remedies to protect and restore all attributes of aquatic health in coastal river basins. State natural resource agencies recognize that in order to be effective, this integrated approach must be well planned and focused on implementation. Locally based solutions will be strengthened, supported and monitored by state agency programs.
Oregon has a strong foundation for conservation of natural resources guided by existing statutes, administrative rules, and policies. Many of the actions recommended in this plan build on existing state programs. For example the Senate Bill 1010 program, a state program to address water quality problems on agricultural lands, is a key ingredient of the plan. Other examples include the Oregon Forest Practices Act and state laws governing water appropriations.
This section of the OCSRI Plan touches on many aspects of Oregon's effort to restore coastal populations of salmon and steelhead. Topics include the following:
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Oregon's Plan will be submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is currently considering whether to list two groups of Oregon coastal coho salmon as threatened species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. NMFS may determine that Oregon's plan is sufficient to achieve recovery of the species, thus making formal listing unnecessary. Although the initial emphasis of the Plan is on coho, this effort is intended to do far more than recover coho salmon. The goal of the OCSRI is to restore Oregon's coastal salmon and trout populations to a productive condition that will revive and maintain their cultural, recreational and economic roles in people's lives.
I. Reason for this Report |
This report would not be needed if salmon and trout populations in Oregon were healthy today. Native populations of salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat have declined, some dramatically, in Oregon during the century and a half since the region has been exposed to industrial-scale development. Many populations of salmon, steelhead, and trout are extinct today; other populations are at risk of extinction, and relatively few are in a condition that may be considered healthy.
Oregon's Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative (OCSRI) is an unprecedented effort to turn the tide on the salmon's decline. No single action by government or Oregon citizens will restore salmon and trout to a viable role in Oregon's culture and economy, but a cooperative effort, sustained over time, may succeed. This document presents the essential elements of a planning and action process that has been in progress since October 1995. The intent of this report is to describe progress to date and to list activities that are either underway or needed to restore the vitality of salmon and trout populations in Oregon coastal river basins.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is currently considering a recommendation to list two groups of coho salmon in Oregon as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act, could arrive at a variety of conclusions regarding the listing. Oregon is hoping to retain state authority over management of Oregon's natural resources. The goal of OCSRI is not merely to prevent the extinction of coho salmon in the coastal region, but to restore populations of salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout to levels that are considered healthy.
Two of the evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of coho salmon proposed for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act occur wholly or partly in Oregon.
II. Where Can the OCSRI be Found? |
The OCSRI Plan consists of 17 chapters and six appendices. Most of the main chapters will be placed on a web page on the Internet (http://www.governor.state.or.us/governor.html). Copies of the Plan and the appendices will be available for review at the following locations:
III. Revision of the Conservation Plan: What's New? |
The August 1996 Draft Conservation Plan received critical review by NMFS staff and a diverse representation of individuals and groups (a list of reviewers is provided near the end of this section). To date, over 600 pages of comments, suggestions and questions on the draft OCSRI Plan have been received. An effort was made to make all of these comments broadly available by placing them on the Internet (the address is http://www.governor.state.or.us/governor.html). Many of these review comments were useful and provided a basis for revisions to the Conservation Plan. A second draft of the Conservation Plan was delivered to the Oregon Legislature and stakeholders on February 24, 1997. Although time was short, a review of this draft by Legislators, constituents and NMFS technical staff provided additional constructive suggestions for improving the Plan that were incorporated into the final document.
To the greatest extent possible, this document reflects the constructive critical review that has been received. State agencies have prepared general responses to reviewers' questions and concerns, and these may be obtained by communicating directly with the respective agency. As noted repeatedly throughout this document, one of the great strengths of the Conservation Plan is an explicit recognition that it will continually be reevaluated and improved as necessary.
IV. Leadership and Infrastructure: Keys to Plan Development |
Leadership for the OCSRI originated with Governor John Kitzhaber. The Governor announced the planning effort to conserve and restore Oregon's coastal salmon and steelhead in October of 1995. One of his first steps was to establish a team approach for developing an action plan that would lead to restoring the health of coastal salmon and trout populations. The following key teams were formed early on: 1) A Salmon Strategy Team which revolves around the directors of key state agencies meeting with the Governor bi-weekly. 2) An Outreach and Education Team was directed to work with key agency stakeholders, ask for their advice, and present ideas for their comment. 3) A Science Team was established to work on technical issues. 4) An Agency Planning & Implementation Team was formed to coordinate many aspects of the development of the conservation plan. These teams are outlined briefly below.
Members of this team include the following:
In the routine work sessions of the SST and the Governor, members report progress implementing the Conservation Plan and resolve interagency obstacles. This team provides leadership and guidance on the overall direction of the conservation planning effort.
This team consists of public affairs representatives of the following entities:
Federal partners attended meetings on an ad hoc basis. This team provides a variety of support to the OCSRI including handling of public meeting and media strategy, newsletters and OCSRI updates, special events, and portions of OCSRI Plan production.
Scientists with expertise in matters related to salmon were invited to join the OCSRI. As a group, these scientists are referred to as the OCSRI Science Team. The team began work in March 1996, expanding from 16 to 20 people (13 on a primary team and 7 on a secondary team). The team includes representatives from the following state and federal agencies:
The major focus of the Science Team was coho salmon, but efforts will shift to include issues related to steelhead, chinook and chum in 1997. Science Team members will work on new assignments in the future as the need arises and are expected to provide analyses and data that may be requested by an independent scientific assessment team that will be appointed to evaluate progress of the Conservation Plan. Major issues currently being addressed by science team members include the following: sustainability modeling; mapping core areas for coho, chum, chinook, and steelhead; and monitoring
This team meets bi-weekly to develop work assignments, receive direction, discuss progress and seek solutions to problems. Individuals on the team have responsibility for leading (along with agency Directors) the OCSRI effort for their respective agencies. This team has a wide range of duties--from developing agency management measures and annual workplans to participating in development of monitoring protocols.
The Agency Planning & Implementation Team consists of the following members:
Maintaining momentum in Oregon's Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative hinges on continued leadership of state agencies with potentially conflicting missions and competing constituencies, as well as on continued leadership from the Governor and the Legislature.
The OCSRI Plan has been developed in an open environment that has actively solicited, considered, and incorporated suggestions from all affected and responsible parties. State agencies have worked cooperatively with stakeholders and constituents; conservation organizations have been asked to submit recommendations; agencies have been asked to consider recommendations in two recent scientific analyses of the salmon crisis; NMFS staff have critiqued an initial management measures package submitted by state agencies; and federal management partners have been asked to join in the effort.
V. Major Science-Based Components of the OSCRI |
The monitoring program revolves around biological and physical sampling conducted to determine if salmon habitats and populations are responding as expected to conservation and restoration efforts. Monitoring is integral to the refinement and verification of staged targets and biological objectives and will aid in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of management measures and investments.
Ecological status and trends data will be provided by the monitoring strategy and will allow decision makers to assess objectively whether or not the State's ecological resources are responding positively, negatively, or not at all to the recovery program. Decisions can then be made on where changes in objectives and agency management measures or other areas are needed. Using the comprehensive monitoring strategy, the State will monitor to see that the factors for decline are being halted and reversed, and that the State's comprehensive recovery strategy is producing the desired results. The OCSRI monitoring group will track the overall accountability of the plan, and will measure changes in salmon populations and in the environmental conditions necessary to support salmon populations. The monitoring program is described in more detail in Chapter 16.
Voluntary public participation in the monitoring program is a key element to the success of these efforts. Involvement in monitoring will provide important educational benefits to those who come forward. Participants such as landowners, educators, students and conservation groups will be more interested in the results of the OCSRI if they have participated in the monitoring.
An independent team of 4-5 scientists with recognized expertise in salmonid ecology, habitat requirements, artificial propagation and management will be established to help the OSCRI partners base restoration efforts on the most sound science available. The team will provide an independent audit each year on the strengths and weaknesses of the OCSRI. They will focus on the adaptive process of compiling new information and results generated in part from the monitoring program. The assessment team will provide additional accountability to the Conservation Plan. The work of this team is described in more detail in Chapter 13.
Key Scientific Underpinnings of the OCSRI |
Chapter 6 of the Conservation Plan provides the conceptual foundation for the OCSRI--the basis for the Plans problem definitions, strategies and specific activities. The three primary elements of the foundation providing the scientific basis and giving direction to salmon management and restoration activities are outlined below.
Adoption of the explicit conceptual foundation is an important first step. The theories, assumptions and principles need further elaboration and their relevance to Oregon's coastal streams has to be described. In addition, measures within the plan will have to be reviewed and revised where necessary to ensure consistency with the conceptual foundation. The last two steps cannot be completed before the deadline for this version of the OCSRI Plan. Those important tasks will be assigned to the independent science team as part of their first annual audit of the program.
Near the turn of the century, coastal coho salmon were harvested principally by gill-net fleets that fished in coastal estuaries and the lower reaches of coastal rivers. Based on records of canned coho salmon from these fisheries, an average of 500,000 adult coho salmon were landed annually during the 1890s. Assuming these fisheries harvested 40 percent of the run, coastal coho salmon north of Cape Blanco numbered about 1.25 million adults annually around the turn of the century. While other assumptions may be made regarding methods of estimating turn of the century coho abundance of Oregon coastal coho, it is clear that returns in some years exceeded a million fish.
From the turn of the century through the 1930s, annual abundance of coho salmon averaged about 900,000. By the 1940s and 1950s, however, annual production had declined to half that level. During recent years, annual production of wild coho in Oregon coastal basins has been dramatically less, around 50,000 to 80,000 fish under adverse ocean conditions.
A habitat-based life cycle model has been developed to evaluate the productive capacity and sustainability of Oregon coastal coho salmon. Predictions of productive capacity offer an idea of the magnitude of improvement that might be achieved if the OCSRI is successful. Details of this assessment are contained in Appendix III and Chapter 14. Population modeling indicates that productive capacity, proportion of habitat in which populations are sustainable, and spawning escapement needs vary in direct proportion to cyclic changes in productivity of the ocean environment.
Based on the current habitat-based model, production of coho at full seeding might range from a little under 200,000 adults under adverse ocean conditions to a little over 400,000 adults under favorable ocean conditions. These predictions will undoubtedly be revised in the future, especially as data from the proposed OCSRI monitoring program is incorporated into the model.
Coho salmon have been considered the most important commercially caught salmonid in Oregon, and until recently, were usually the most common salmonid in most coastal streams. Compared with other anadromous salmonids in Oregon, coho salmon have a very simple life history, with populations primarily on a 3-year cycle.
Adult coho salmon are distinguished from other Pacific salmon species by the presence of small black spots on their backs and the upper lobe of their tails. Adult coho salmon typically mature at 4-12 pounds. Juvenile coho salmon are identified by long, narrow, widely-spaced parr marks and the long white leading edge of the anal fin.
Oregon lies near the southern boundary of the range of coho salmon in North America, which extends from Point Hope, Alaska to Monterey Bay, California. Within Oregon, coho salmon are found in the Columbia River and coastal streams. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has provisionally identified 94 populations of wild coho salmon on the Oregon Coast.
While wild coho salmon occur in most coastal basins, the most important producers occur from the Coquille River north, including: Nehalem River, Tillamook Bay tributaries, Nestucca River, Siletz River, Alsea River, Siuslaw River, Umpqua River, Coos River, Yaquina River and the Coquille River. The Rogue River is the only main producer of the Oregon portion of the southern ESU, south of Cape Blanco.
In addition, three lake basins on the central coast are important producers of coho salmon: Siltcoos Lake, Tahkenitich Lake and Tenmile Lakes. Although coho salmon production in these lake basins has drastically declined since the introduction of warmwater fishes, spawning survey counts indicate that these systems are still perhaps the most productive coho salmon habitat on the Oregon Coast.
Adult coho salmon migrate into fresh water in the fall to spawn. Spawning of wild coho salmon usually occurs from mid-November through February. Adult spawning coho salmon are typically 3 years old, and they are often accompanied by 2-year-old jacks (precocious males) from the next brood. Spawning occurs primarily in small tributaries located throughout coastal basins. The parents normally exhibit strong homing to their natal stream. The female digs a nest (redd) in the gravel and lays her eggs, which are immediately fertilized by accompanying adult males or jacks. The eggs are covered by digging and displacing gravel from the upstream edge of the nest. Each female lays about 2,500 eggs. The adults die soon after spawning.
The eggs hatch in about 35-50 days, depending upon water temperature (warm temperature speeds hatching). The alevins remain in the gravel two to three weeks until the yolk is absorbed and emerge as fry to actively feed in the spring. Juvenile coho salmon spend one summer and one winter in fresh water. The following spring, approximately one year after emergence, they undergo physiological changes that allow them to survive in sea water. They then migrate to the ocean as silvery smolts about four or five inches in length.
The smolts undergo rapid growth in the ocean, reaching about 15-20 inches by fall. Little is known of the ocean migrations of coho salmon from Oregon coastal streams. However based on what is known, it appears migrations are mostly limited to coastal waters. Initial ocean migration appears to be to the north of their natal stream. After the first summer in the ocean, a small proportion of the males attain sexual maturity and return to spawn as jacks.
Migration patterns during the fall and winter are unknown. Those fish remaining at sea grow little during winter but feed voraciously during the next spring and summer, growing to about 23- 33 inches in length. During this second summer in the ocean, a percentage of these maturing adults is vulnerable to capture in ocean troll and recreational fisheries, usually to the south of their natal stream. The survivors return to their home streams or neighboring streams where they spawn and die to complete the life cycle.
Habitat Requirements
Spawning and rearing of juvenile coho salmon generally take place in small low gradient (generally
<3 percent) tributary streams, although rearing may also take place in lakes where available. For
spawning, coho salmon require clean gravel, ranging in size from a pea to an orange; for rearing
they require cool water temperatures (53-58 Fahrenheit preferred, with 68 maximum). Fry
emerge from February to early June and occupy backwater pools and the stream margins. During
summer, coho prefer pools in small streams, whereas during winter, they prefer off-channel
alcoves,