108 



to frequent, continuing, and justified disruption of plans and projects by citizen appeals 

 and litigation. 



The primary response to date of the Forest Service, BLM, and other agencies 

 has been to pour millions of dollars into adding artificial structures in an attempt to 

 "fix" streams that have been damaged by logging and other land uses. These 

 structures are exceedingly expensive, and most streams, because of cost or limited 

 access, can never be treated (Bisson et al. 1 991 ). Furthermore, where landslides, road 

 failures, and similar watershed problems are persistent or ongoing, such structures 

 have high failure rates, and a high incidence of adverse side effects (Frissell and Nawa 

 1 992). This very expensive program amounts to cosmetic surgery, an unsuccessful 

 attempt to treat and/or obscure the serious damage inflicted by logging and other 

 development activities on stream ecosystems. In many national forest plans, artificial 

 structures are portrayed as the principle driver of fish populations, and a primary 

 means of mitigating the adverse effects of damage to water quality and fish habitat 

 anticipated from the proposed timber program. Continuing or accelerating declines of 

 coho salmon and many of the other target species are testimony to the failure of these 

 programs. Funds for these ineffective programs should be transferred to new 

 restoration projects that would eliminate the causes of habitat degradation and 

 promote the recovery of natural ecological processes (Frissell and Nawa 1 992, Frissell 

 1993 and references therein, Frissell et al. in press). 



Steps Necessary for Recovery 



To ensure the future of the Pacific salmon and other aquatic species, many 

 major changes must be made in public lands management. Most of these changes are 

 incorporated in certain alternatives of the 1991 report to Congress of the Scientific 

 Panel on Late Successional Ecosystems. Among these changes are: 



1) A moratorium on logging and construction of roads in watersheds 

 having a major component of roadless area and other "critical areas" 

 supporting high diversity or productivity of sensitive species. These 

 critical areas should be identified based on (but not limited to) the lists 

 and maps in the Scientific Panel on Late Successional Ecosystems' report 

 to Congress, the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society's 

 Critical Areas inventory. Dr. Peter Moyle's (University of California at 

 Davis, Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology) Aquatic Biodiversity 

 Management Areas, and similar scientific sources. 



2) National Forest- and BLM District-scale population viability analyses for 

 anadromous fish and other sensitive species, based on historical and 

 present-day distribution, abundance, and actual or potential threats to 

 specific populations and subpopulations across all land ownerships within 



