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since I will be addressing your committee with such scholars 

 as Dr. James Sedell, I will only offer my assessment of what 

 healthy watersheds remain in my region. Those rivers that flow from 

 Wilderness or Roadless Areas on U.S. Forest Service lands such as 

 Smith River, Wooley Creek, Dillon Creek, Clear Creek, upper Blue 

 Creek, lower Hayfork Creek, New River, and the North Fork of the 

 Trinity River are the only systems that possess high quality fish 

 habitat at this time. The attributes that all these watersheds 

 share are: no or few roads or if they are roaded then roads are 

 well designed, diverse vegetative cover including lots of older age 

 conifers, sufficient large woody debris adjacent to streams to 

 provide for natural recruitment, and the absence of large numbers 

 of livestock or heavy mining activity. 



I am sure that the role of healthy riparian zones in forested 

 lands will also be covered by the testimony of Dr. Sedell, but I 

 would like to make sure that such attributes are not overlooked on 

 streams through alluvial valleys, such as the Shasta River. 

 Undercut banks beneath root masses of riparian trees provide the 

 best fish habitat in these valley streams which were once the most 

 productive of fish habitats. Stream side trees provide shade to 

 these rivers, moderating stream temperatures, and prevent bank 

 erosion which preserves valuable agricultural land. Open access for 

 cattle to stream side areas for over 100 years has destroyed 

 riparian vegetation. This often leads to down-cutting of streams 

 which can result in a drop in the local water table and a reduction 

 in the productivity of the land. 



3) Are existing management regimes on state, federal, and private 

 land adequate to prevent further degradation of watersheds and fish 

 habitat? If not, sure there statutory or administrative barriers 

 that would hinder changes in management regimes for rivers? Are 

 there other barriers (economic, social, or political) that might 

 also create problems? 



Current management regimes have almost completely failed to 

 prevent watershed and stream degradation and further damage is 

 likely without fundamental change. Some barriers to sound 

 management require administrative changes while others necessitate 

 legislative action. 



Public Forest Lands : While the U.S. Forest Service has shown 

 increasing recognition of the problems leading to decline of 

 fisheries resources, implementation of meaningful change to prevent 

 future damage varies from one forest to another. Six Rivers 

 National Forest has been under scrutiny by an active environmental 

 community and has therefore implemented some very progressive 

 policies with regard to timber harvest on erodible terrain. 

 Adjacent forests, where local communities were primarily interested 

 in timber extraction, have shown less sensitivity in the past to 

 fisheries and wildlife issues. 



All National Forests have been caught in the conflict of 

 "getting the cut out" to generate revenue, knowing that the last 



