Oregon Coastal Salmon Restoration Initiative

Chapter 17E
Strategies and Actions Designed to Provide an Increased level
of Risk Reduction to Core Areas

"Core areas" are stream reaches (including their connected sub-basins) or watersheds within individual coastal basins that currently support relatively high densities of spawning and/or rearing. Therefore, they are of critical importance to the persistence of salmon populations that inhabit the basin. These reaches or basins have been provisionally identified on maps to provide information that can help agencies, watershed councils, soil and water conservation districts, and landowners prioritize efforts to conserve and restore habitats that support salmon.

Core area maps have been developed for all of the larger coastal basins, noting core areas for coho, chinook, chum, and steelhead. These maps represent an effort to build on previous attempts to identify areas that are especially important to salmonid production and the maps are expected to evolve as new and better information becomes available. A description of the mapping process and a schedule for revising the provisional maps are included in Chapter 15.

Maps of provisionally identified core areas are being distributed to watershed councils, soil and water conservation districts, agencies, and interested landowners. These maps provide a basis for beginning to prioritize conservation and restoration efforts, but do not dictate assignment of priority for action or investment of funds.

Core areas will be used or applied through several strategies:

• The government agencies and grassroots organizations will be asked to consider and use the core area knowledge to design effective programs that will support and sustain the life history needs of each species within the core area. Watershed councils will be explicitly requested to explain how they used the maps of provisional core areas in the development of their watershed plans.

• Core areas will be considered when assigning priorities (for development, funding and/or implementation) with regard to protection, restoration and assessment activities. While core areas will be considered, this process does not imply that conservation and restoration efforts will be limited to core areas or that funding for projects will be limited to core areas.

• Providing connectivity among core areas will be considered when assigning priorities with regard to protection, restoration and assessment activities. Under measure ODFW-IV.B.1, ODFW will apply this strategy by prioritizing restoration actions in physical proximity to core areas to assure project proximity to core areas to foster more rapid expansion into restored habitat and provide connectivity. ODFW biologists and other agencies working with watershed councils and the various initiatives will utilize this strategy whenever possible.

• Core areas will be considered first when assigning priorities for watershed analysis or assessment, monitoring actions, and limiting factors determination. Data collection within a subset of core areas, particularly with regard to aquatic habitat surveys and juvenile population surveys, will be more intensive and comprehensive (see Chapter 16).

In addition to these strategies, a number of significant agency actions/measures have been either prioritized toward or specifically directed at habitat within core areas. Two key issues have been raised about physical habitat protection within core areas: riparian protection and road-sediment risks. These two issues have been specifically addressed through core area measures on forest lands.

Riparian protection and road-sediment risk on forest land are regulated through the Oregon Forest Practices Act and related administrative rules. The rules establish a desired future condition for riparian vegetation. For most fish-bearing streams, the desired future condition is to grow and maintain stands similar to "mature forest conditions" within riparian management areas of specified widths. These various widths represent approximately 70 to 95 percent of the potential source area for large woody debris recruitment, respectively. For non-fish-bearing streams, the desired future condition is to grow and retain vegetation sufficient to support the functions and processes that are important to downstream waters, which have fish, maintain the quality of domestic water, and supplement wildlife habitat across the landscape.

The prescriptions described in the rules have been designed to meet the desired future conditions on average across the landscape. However, the prescriptions are based upon some assumptions about stand condition and growth and may not ideally address all site conditions. Monitoring is in place to evaluate the adequacy of the prescriptions and the assumptions upon which they were developed. On OFIC member industrial lands in core areas and state forest lands through western Oregon, a higher level of assurance of meeting the desired future condition on a site-specific basis in the most timely manner will be provided through several voluntary measures that retain additional conifer within riparian areas along both fish-bearing and non-fish-bearing streams.

Forest roads represent a high risk for increased sediment delivery to streams. For roads and other activities that may be sediment sources, the forest practice rules include state-of-the-art practices that, when implemented, minimize sediment source and delivery. However, many roads built prior to current practices retain higher risks for sediment delivery than would be the case if the roads had been constructed under the current standards of design. The OCSRI Plan addresses the legacy of risk posed by forest roads through an aggressive program to identify and correct potential risk related to cut- and fill-slope failure, road surface drainage, stream crossings and fish passage. It is expected that approximately $130 million will be spent by industrial and state forest lands over the next ten years to address the legacy road issue. Emphasis of this effort will be given to roads within core area watersheds.

Measures related to core area protection are described briefly below. These measures are described in more detail in the agency workplans in Chapter 17C.

Actions/Measures Specific to Core Areas

ODF 8: Riparian hardwood conversions: Hardwood conversions allowed under the FPA will require an additional review process before implementation within core areas.

ODF 19: Additional conifer retention along fish-bearing streams in core areas: OFIC members have voluntarily agreed to harvest no more than 25 percent of the conifer that are in excess of the standard basal area target in those situations when the actual stocking in the RMA exceeds the standard target. (Note: this will also be done on state forest land, but is not exclusive to core areas.)

ODF 20: Limited RMA for small type N streams in core areas: OFIC members will establish limited RMAs of 20 feet for small type N streams for the purpose or retaining snags and downed wood.

ODF 22: 25 percent in-unit leave tree placement and additional voluntary retention: This is a voluntary measure to retain up to 100 percent of the in-unit trees along Type N or F streams. OFIC members will voluntarily change the ratio of 50 percent conifer and 50 percent hardwood, to 75 percent conifer and 25 percent hardwood when requested on a site-specific basis.

Priority Given to Implementation within Core Areas

DSL: Will review scattered tracts of State Land Board lands to evaluate their coho habitat potential with priority to parcels within core areas.

ODF 1: Road erosion and risk project: Industrial forest landowners have agreed to implement a voluntary program to identify risks from roads and to address those risks.

ODF 2: State forest lands road erosion and risk project: State forest landowners have agreed to implement a voluntary program on state-owned lands to identify risks from roads and to address those risks.

ODFW-I.B.2 and ODF 4: Stream habitat assessments: For the last three years, industrial forest landowners and state forest lands have contracted with ODFW to complete stream habitat surveys following ODFW protocol.