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Mr. Vento. Dr. Frissell. 



STATEMENT OF CHRIS FRISSELL 



Dr. Frissell. Thank you. I am a researcher on the faculty of Or- 

 egon State University. I have a doctoral degree and a master's de- 

 gree in fishery science, a bachelors in zoology. Since 1985 I have 

 been doing research in southwest Oregon and a couple of other por- 

 tions of the state of Oregon looking at the cumulative effects of 

 human land use activities on salmon habitat and trying to develop 

 approaches to ameliorating the effects of those activities. 



My recent work, for the past year has been supported by the Or- 

 egon Rivers Council and its supporting foundations; and I have 

 been working with them on developing the science behind effective 

 restoration strategies, which I would like to emphasize is very dif- 

 ferent from the way we have been approaching piecemeal in the 

 past £ind fish habitat improvement in the past. And I am here 

 today with the support of the Rivers Council. 



I have also been an active member of the American Fisheries So- 

 ciety. And the Oregon chapter of that organization has been active 

 in monitoring and actively opposing the land use management 

 plans of the BLM and the Forest Service. 



Many professionals, if not most, in the area are very alarmed at 

 the direction that the agencies have been taking for the past 10 

 years, at least in this region. And it gladdens me to see that there 

 is at least a movement towards reforming the approach that those 

 agencies have taken to the management of aquatic ecosystems and 

 watersheds. 



I have also been a key member of the subcommittee of the Or- 

 egon chapter of American Fisheries that started the ball rolling on 

 this concept, and we have been working since 1989 to identify key 

 watersheds. Some of our work was used as a template or a proto- 

 type for the Gang of Four. 



So this concept of key watersheds and their critical role goes 

 back quite a ways in the scientific community. 



I would like to just share with you some results from the seven- 

 year study that we just wrapped up; I and my colleagues in Oregon 

 State and Southwest Oregon. From the standpoint of the water- 

 shed restoration issue that has been talked about a lot today, in 

 this region virtually all the native salmonid species are in decline, 

 some species precipitous, others more slow and chronic. But the 

 most commercially important species, coho and Chinook salmon, 

 have been in very serious decline in this region. 



American Fisheries Society has considered them endangered in 

 status throughout the area, and there has been a lot of discussion 

 that petitions are likely to be seen soon. In this area, the tip of the 

 mountains, there are high erosion rates typically in logged lands 

 and eroded areas and there has been very extensive logging on pri- 

 vate lands and somewhat less extensive but equally devastating 

 logging on the public lands. ,i. i 



One of the reasons, even though the practices on public lands 

 have been much higher level of responsibility than those of private 

 lands over the past few decades, the incentive of the land, our Fed- 

 eral ownership, is higher depending on how you measure it; but the 

 effects of the given area disturbed tends to be far in excess of the 



