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STATEMENT OF GARY EDWARDS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR FISHERIES, U.S. FISH AND 

 WILDLIFE SERVICE, BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES, 

 SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS, CONCERNING WATERSHED AND 

 FISH HABITAT DEGRADATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 



MARCH 11, 1993. 



Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcomnittee. I am Gary 

 Edwards, the Assistant Director for Fisheries. I an presenting this 

 overview testintony on behalf of the Director of the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service. 



Before I begin my testimony I want to make two very important points. 

 First, a tremendous variety of fish and wildlife Sf>ecie8 are dependent on 

 Pacific Northwest watersheds. The specific focus of my comments today, 

 however, will be on how watershed degradation affects salmon and steelhead 

 trout populations. Second, land management is but one category of the 

 several factors that may have caused the decline of salmon and steelhead 

 trout populations in the Pacific Northwest. Irrigation, hydroelectric 

 dams, and overharvesting have also contributed synergistically with land 

 management to reduce the carrying capacity for salmonids in the Pacific 

 Northwest. For example, dams have made inaccessible to fish approximately 

 one-third of the historic habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes even 

 our efforts to restore fish populations have had unintended negative 

 impacts. No one can say with certainty the direct level of contribution to 

 salmonid decline of any of these impacts. For purposes of this hearing, 

 however, we have been asked to focus on the aspect of forest management and 

 its relationship to salmon in the Pacific Northwest. 



Pacific salmon and steelhead trout are well-suited to thrive in most river 

 basins of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Northern 

 California. Each ecosystem component within a watershed, from ridgetop to 

 sea, plays an integral role in the production of these stocks of fish. 

 Unfortunately, watersheds have not been managed as ecoeystems. Cumulative 



