183 



II DECLINES IN SAUIONIDS NOT SOLELY 

 TIED TO WATERSHED HEALTH 



Watershed health, tied to logging and forest roads, is often 

 considered the primai-y cause of declines in salmonids in forested 

 areas. However, there are a number of studies and anecdotal 

 evidence that other factors are important. 



A. South Fork of the Salmon 



Research on the South Fork of the Salmon River documented 

 significant damage to the watershed as a result of major storm 

 events coupled with concentrated jammer logging operations. These 

 short cable yarding systems required as much as 30 percent of the 

 harvest area to be dedicated to roads. A rapid decline in salmon 

 red counts was observed in the South Fork of the Salmon river 

 between 1957 and 1966 at a time when sedimentation was occurring in 

 the river. However, declines were also observed for salmon redds 

 in the Middle Fork of the Salmon, which is in a Wilderness Area. 

 Research by Megahan and Mclntyre indicates that the watershed 

 health related to forest management may have accelerated the salmon 

 declines in the South Fork but that other factors, presumably 

 downstream stresses, are contributing to the downward trend in both 

 streams (1) . 



B. Bull Trout 



Bull trout f Salvelinus confluentus ) is being considered for 

 listing as an endangered species. Contributing to declines in bull 

 trout are habitat damage, dam building, over-harvest, hybridization 

 with brook trout, and competition with non-native species. In 

 Crater Lake National Park a precipitous drop in bull trout has been 

 tied to the introduction of brook trout. In the Swan Valley in 

 Montana, streams in managed forest areas are supporting healthy 

 populations of bull trout (2) . 



Ill FOREST BMP'S AND MANAGEMENT ADDRESSING CRITICAL WATERSHED 

 CONDITIONS 



NCASI recently contracted with Dr. Dan Brinkley and Lee 

 MacDonald of Colorado State University to assess the effectiveness 

 of Best Management Practices in controlling non-point source 

 pollution from silviculture. They concluded that: 



"The quality of water draining from forest watersheds is generally 

 the best in the nation. Forest practices, particularly road 

 construction and harvesting, have the potential to degrade water 

 and stream quality primarily through increased sediment and changes 

 in channel conditions. Intensive research projects have generally 

 found that implementation of BMPs can prs'"--* - '':r';z?.tial 

 degradation of water quality" (3) . They also recommended more 

 research into cumulative watershed effects. In nearly all cases. 



