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Washington. On balance, significant protective measures are in place today in forestry, more so 

 than for any other water-uses or land-use practices. Anadromous fisheries response is expected 

 but will take years - perhaps decades - to become apparent. 



Municipal and industrial growth has also affected anadromous fisheries. Most urban and 

 industrial centers in the Pacific Northwest are located in Puget Sound in Washington, in the 

 Willamette Valley in Oregon, and along coastal bays and the Columbia River in both states. 

 Pollution and consumptive water diversions have parallelled population growth. Although all 

 major municipal and industrial dischargers meet present technology-based pollution control 

 technologies, many river reaches still do not support designated beneficial uses. Toxics are a 

 priority concern, and 30 to 50 water bodies in the region have serious toxics problems. Juvenile 

 salmonids subject to chronic pollution stress are weakened and fall victim to predators and 

 disease. They disappear. This is the effect of water pollution - subtle, unseen, insidious losses. 



Municipal and industrial developments have removed flood plain and estuary habitat. About 10 

 percent of estuary losses in Oregon were caused by fdling wetlands to create municipal and 

 industrial lands. In total, estuary loss in the Columbia River is about 40 percent, in Puget Sound 

 about 70 percent, and along coastal Oregon and Washington about 25 to 40 percent each. 



One can blame the massive Columbia-Snake River flood control projects and, to a large extent, 

 the Willamette River flood control projects, on the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, 

 Washington. They are the primary beneficiaries of the flood control projects. 



Natural Phenomena 



Finally, natural phenomena have affected native salmonids. Floods such as those in 1964-1965 

 greatly affected salmonid habitat in western Oregon and Washington. Agriculture and forestry 

 land uses aggravated these impacts. 



Ocean biological productivity is affected by climatic events. El Nino events brought warmer 

 surface waters and wind, as well as current reversals to nearshore ocean waters in Oregon and 

 Washington. Upwelling of nutrient-rich deeper waters was depressed. Correlations between 

 strong upwelling and good coho salmon growth and survival have been noted. This was dramatic 

 up to the mid-1970s in association with increased hatchery productions. Catch surpassed historic 

 records. Subsequently catches of coho salmon declined in the ocean as conditions changed with 

 the developments of the 1982-1983 El Nino. Ocean nursery conditions have apparently been 

 limiting coho salmon growth and survival since 1976 in the ocean nursery area off Oregon, and 

 appear to have also affected Klamath River fall chinook salmon in the OPI area. 



Predation pressures on salmonids have changed in recent decades in response to marine mammal 

 protection and to human induced changes in freshwater environmental conditions. The northern 

 squawfish is the primary freshwater predator of juvenile salmonids, and reduced river flows and 

 warmer temperatures are more optimal for squawfish than for salmonids. Smallmouth bass, 

 channel catfish, and walleye are also important juvenile salmonid predators in the Columbia 



