Urban and Rural-residential Land Uses: Their Role in Watershed Health and the Rehabilitation of Oregon’s Wild Salmonids

Authors

Michael Harte, Oregon State University
Victor W. Kaczynski
Clinton C. Shock, Oregon State University
J. Alan Yeakley, Portland State UniversityFollow
Robert M. Hughes, Oregon State University
Nancy Molina, Cascadia Ecosystems
Carl B. Schreck, Oregon State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Technical Report

Publication Date

12-31-2010

Subjects

Aquaculture -- Environmental aspects -- Oregon, Watershed management -- Oregon, Fish habitat improvement -- Oregon

Abstract

This technical report by the Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team (IMST) is a comprehensive review of how human activities in urban and rural-residential areas can alter aquatic ecosystems and resulting implications for salmonid recovery, with a geographic focus on the state of Oregon. The following topics are considered in the form of science questions, and comprise the major components of this report:

1. The effects of urban and rural-residential development on Oregon’s watersheds and native wild salmonids.
2. Actions that can be used to avoid or mitigate undesirable changes to aquatic ecosystems near developing urban and rural-residential areas.
3. The benefits and pitfalls of salmonid habitat rehabilitation within established urban or rural-residential areas.
4. Suggested research and monitoring focus areas that will facilitate the recovery of salmonid populations affected by development.

The fundamental concepts presented in this report should be applicable to most native salmonid populations across the state. IMST encourages managers and policy-makers with interest in a specific species or geographic region to carefully research local ecological conditions, as well as specific life history characteristics of salmonids in the region.

Conserving watershed condition and salmonids in the face of increasing development requires consideration of two distinct sets of processes. First are the human social and economic processes that drive patterns in land use change. Second are the ecological processes, altered by land use, that underlie salmonid habitat changes. This report focuses on the latter and summarizes the effects of rural-residential and urban development on native, wild salmonid populations and the watersheds upon which they depend.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12178

Citation Details

Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team (2010) Urban and Rural-residential Land Uses: Their Roles in Watershed Health and the Recovery of Oregon’s Wild Salmonids. Technical Report 2010-1.Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Salem, Oregon.