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Northwest. We have a responsibility as a people to pass on to future generations a 

 different legacy than biologic, economic, and social impoverishment. We can leave a 

 regional legacy of ecological health founded upon an ecosystem perspective toward the 

 restoration and sustainable use of our rivers, streams and watersheds. 



The key points of this testimony are summarized in Table 1. 



I The Ecological Health of Pacific Northwest Watersheds Under Present 

 Management Regimes 



Rivers and Streams 



Historic, and existing public and private land-use in the Pacific Northwest, have simplified 

 the natural structural complexity and hydrology of the region's rivers and streams (Bisson 

 et al. 1992; Seddell and Froggatt 1984). In other words, our rivers have been 

 straightened, stripped of their streamside forests, isolated from streamside wetlands, and 

 cleared of the in-stream woody debris that provides essential habitat for salmon, other fish 

 and aquatic organisms, and riparian wildlife. Loss and degradation of riparian forests is 

 extensive throughout the Pacific Northwest due to past and present forest management 

 practices, development pressures, and the invasion of exotic plant species (Sedell and 

 Froggatt 1984). Riparian forest degradation has resulted in loss of stream and river 

 habitat complexity (Bisson and Sedell 1984; Grant 1986). 



Sustainable management practices for riparian forests are lacking. Maintaining biological 

 diversity and fish habitat involves much more than the present set-aside forest buffer 

 strips (Naiman et al. 1992). Indeed, ecosystem management of riparian forests is 

 synonymous with managing fish habitat complexity (Sedell et al. 1989). 



The natural river and stream flow patterns of virtually all Pacific Northwest rivers and 

 streams have been altered as a result of historic land-use. Alterations include: dams, 

 water withdrawl for irrigation, river channelization for flood control, diking of river 

 floodplains for agriculture, forest management practices, and cattle grazing. The 

 consequent modifications of river flow, physical channel properties, and sediment 

 movement appear as cumulative effects throughout the river network (Simenstad et al. 

 1992). The cumulative result of decades of poor land-use practices in the Pacific 

 Northwest has been the loss of the capacity of our rivers to support historic numbers of 

 fish and other aquatic organisms (Bisson et al. 1992). 



