210 



th«ir impacts from present practices which continue to 

 evolve . 



4. Headwater logging and reading will not necoeaarily 

 create excess sediment in streams, natural events 

 cause slope failures and such failures are important in 

 the ecology of salmonid habitat development and use. 

 They replenish stream gravels and nutrients and we 

 wo\lld have serious productivity problems without them. 

 I am not advocating slope failures, but i am pointing 

 out that they xc9 part o£ the natural process. The 

 io^ortant point is not to increase the frequency of 

 slope failures through human activity. Soil losses are 

 not in the best interest of landowners who need these 

 soils to maintain forest productivity. Soil 

 conservation for forestry and for fisheries are 

 compatible goals. 



Some direct and miscellaneous points by Professor Hoyle should 

 also be addressed: 



Page 2, 2nd paragraph. The decline of coho aaltoon is 

 purtievlarly severe la California, the southernmost part of their 

 range. ...even the hatchery coho are in decline and the mixing 

 of hatchery and vild stocks in some streams has probably 

 contributed to the decline of wild stocks." 



Professor Moyle has neglected estuaries and particularly the 

 importance of ocean factors in his comments. Estuary losses and 

 degradations are severe in Oregon as revealed in our recent 

 studies. From my worlc on the tJSrwS wetland status mapping 



froject in northern California, one could imply serious estuary 

 ossea in northern California and related serious wetland losses 

 nearby. Estuaries and marshes are critical cos^wnents of chinook 

 salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout habitat, and are important 

 coarponents for coho salmon and steelhead trout habitat. These 

 fish grow rapidly in these habitats if they are not limited in 

 their acreage and quality, and they use the estuary habitat to 

 transition to salt water. If food becomes limited in the 

 estuary, the salmonids must enter the ocean prematurely. The 

 larger the smolt upon ocean entry, the higher its survival 

 probability will be. In coastal Oregon and Washington, 90 

 percent of estuary losses were from land reclamation for 

 agriculture and 10 percent were from dredge and fill activitxes 

 to create municipal and industrial areas. These percentage 

 losses are probably similar for northern California. 



I 

 in 1976, there was a major current change that has seriously 

 affected coastal coho and northern California and southern Oregon 

 Chinook salmon growth and survival. 



California and Oregon coho salmon populations are depressed. 



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