This report was completed by the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR, 1982) with funding provided in part by CDFG. CDWR had extensively studied erosion problems in the South Fork Trinity River basin prior to the completion of this report (CDWR, 1979; 1982b). The problems related to erosion from unstable lands, and the subsequent downstream effects on stream channels, is well described. The report asserts that a major limiting factor for survival of salmon are high sediment yields and the unstable, post-1964, streambed on the mainstem South Fork Trinity River. Both factors have resulted in low spawning success and poor rearing habitat.
Some of the recommendations for action are similar to the MSSDP in that both call for more extensive inventories of fish and fish habitat and removal of barriers. CDWR (1982) also suggested that spawning channels be created on flood terraces to increase spawning success and that gravels in the river be "cleaned" artificially. This report has a much stronger emphasis on forest practices and erosion control, and its recommended actions include:
* Begin surveys to assess need for reforestation and erosion control,
* Target basins with the worst erosion control problems as a priority and begin extensive watershed rehabilitation,
* Build better forest roads and put old, abandoned roads "to bed",
* Study feasibility of stabilizing stream side slides, and
* Change forest practices, especially on private land on South Fork Mountain.
Unfortunately, little of the work recommended by CDWR (1982) was implemented, other than barrier removal and increased fisheries inventories. Suggested changes in forest practices and road building on private land in the basin have not been embraced by the California Department of Forestry or private timber land owners. Watershed restoration has begun to be carried out on USFS lands in the basin, but the most unstable portions of the basin on private land still remain untreated.
Tomki Creek, located in Mendocino County, California, is a major tributary of the upper main fork of the Eel River. Land owners concerned with rapid gullying and erosion of valuable farm land approached the Mendocino County office of the Soil Conservation Service to initiate actions to abate this problem. Tomki Creek also has significant runs of fall chinook salmon and steelhead trout which were being adversely impacted by watershederosion problems. Runs of chinook had declined from 10,000 - 15,000 to between 350 and 2,400 fish annually (Tom Schott, personal communication). Widespread timber harvest prior to the 1964 flood, brush burning to expand cattle grazing areas, and sub-divisions were identified as factors adversely impacting fish habitat.
The plan for this basin, North Coast Erosion And Sediment Control Pilot Project: Tomki Creek Watershed, was prepared by the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (Mendocino RCD, 1983). Plan preparation was funded by the SWRCB and EPA under funds allocated under Section 208 of the Federal Clean Water Act. Conservation plans were formulated for private land owners who wished to cooperate. Field surveys of roads and gullies identified potential sediment sources throughout the watershed. Streambanks, another major source of erosion and sediment yield, were also inventoried for treatable erosion control sites.
Several private land owners began implementation of needed actions even while the Tomki Creek plan was being formulated (Mendocino RCD, 1983). Full implementation was projected to cost approximately $750,000 with funding mechanisms including SCS, CDF, and State Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Funds. Money actually accrued for projects came at least in part from non-point source pollution abatement grants from SWRCB and EPA. The program seems to have been responsible for a resurgence of fall chinook salmon populations in the late 1980's. Unfortunately, subsequent droughts and the introduction of a non-native predator, the Sacramento squawfish, have contributed to sharp declines in chinook salmon since 1990. Soil conservation measures for farmers and ranchers are still being implemented and are of long term benefit to the watershed.
Agencies, local land owners, and private business interests in Plumas County recognized that "erosion in the East Branch of the North Fork Feather River (EBNFFR) watershed was adversely impacting natural resources, land values, agricultural production, and hydroelectric resources." Dams on the East Branch, operated by PG&E for power generation, had accumulated 6-7 million cubic yards of sediment since being built in 1950. The Plumas County Resource Conservation District worked with 15 local, state and federal agencies, and interested landowners, in formulating a comprehensive erosion control plan. All participating entities have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the purpose of participating in Coordinated Resource Management Planning (CRMP).
This program was initiated in 1985 and has had substantial success in acquiring funding and implementing both erosion control measures and stream habitat improvement projects. While the CRMP started with small pilot projects, cooperators such as the SCS and SWRCB funded a major sedimentation study. Funding for projects identified to target sediment sources was then secured from the SWRCB and EPA under 319 H funds for non-point source pollution control. CDFG has funded stream habitat improvement projects and contributed staff time for consultation on projects. The California Department of Forestry (CDF) funded some restoration work through its CFIP program. The Stewardship Incentive Program, which was passed as part of the 1990 Farm Bill, provides Federal money for forest improvement that support the CRMP's activities.
Urban Streams Grants from the CDWR have funded channel reconfiguration on Wolfe Creek, in the town of Greenview, to reduce flood risk and enhance fisheries resources. The project has a ten year monitoring program which uses high school students, under supervision of professionals and funded in part by job training development funds, for data collection. In addition to other actions, the Plumas National Forest has recently begun a road closure and relocation program to reduce erosion risk and also has revised grazing permits to protect water quality.
This active CRMP has acquired and spent over $5 million on projects to date (Jim Wilcox, personal communication). Several of the representatives from participating agencies sit on the fund raising sub-committee, so that the widest range of funding mechanisms are explored. The non-profit Plumas Corporation was formed by the County to carry out projects identified by the CRMP, as well as to implement other economic development projects. The program has been responsible for the creation of many local jobs. Under the terms of the MOA, the Plumas Corporation has the ability to sole source contract with the USFS and other participating agencies. This helps to insure that jobs created by restoration activities are available to local workers.
While five years of drought have masked any apparent increases in fish populations to date, it is clear that erosion has been decreased, that riparian zones are healthier, and that water quality has been improved (Jim Wilcox, personal communication).
The expansion of Redwood National Park (RNP) in 1978, included approximately 30,000 acres of the lower Redwood Creek watershed that had been impacted by logging and road construction. Congress included $33 million in funding for a 15 year program of watershed rehabilitation, with the primary goal of controlling accelerated erosion and sediment delivery to streams.
Scientific staff, including geologists and biologists, were hired to provide a sound basis for rehabilitation work. Park staff recognized the importance of research, planning and monitoring to guide and evaluate the watershed rehabilitation program. It was further recognized that in-stream fisheries enhancement projects in the main stem of Redwood Creek, or in tributary watersheds, would not be effective or cost-effective until widespread sediment sources had been addressed and treated.
Through aerial photo interpretation and limited field knowledge, RNP scientists initially categorized and mapped the newly acquired lands. A map of ground disturbance and erosional landforms provided staff with an initial means of prioritizing sites for additional, more detailed field mapping (USNPS, 1981). Geologists then performed field inventories of roads and hillslopes, first in the highest priority areas, to identify existing and potential erosion problems and to define needed treatments.
After problem areas were identified and treatments prescribed, heavy equipment was contracted to perform excavations, to repair stream diversions, to restore natural drainage patterns and to stabilize existing and potential road-related landslides (Weaver et al., 1987). Much of the work performed was preventive, aimed at "storm-proofing" existing and abandoned roads. It was felt that the most cost-effective rehabilitation techniques were those that would prevent future erosion and sediment delivery to stream channels.
Early in the Redwood National Park program, a proportionately large amount of funds and effort was incurred in the application of hand labor techniques to control small gullies and surface erosion from widespread bare soil areas (Weaver et al., 1987). In the first two years of the program, studies conducted by park staff revealed the comparatively minor importance of these surface processes in delivering sediment to the channel system (Weaver et al., 1981). The hand labor measures used to treat these problems were costly and reduced sediment yields only slightly (Weaver and Madej, 1981).
As a result of subsequent monitoring and evaluation studies, heavy equipment treatments were found to be much more cost-effective and subsequent park efforts focused largely on these more heavy-handed techniques (Weaver and Sonnevil, 1984; Weaver et al., 1981). Recent work has included extensive obliteration of former logging roads that are no longer needed for park management. Some restoration work has been conducted largely for aesthetic purposes.
Tributary watersheds under National Park Service management are expected to show substantial decreases in future sediment yield and relatively rapid recovery from severely aggraded channel conditions. However, since rehabilitation work was initiated in 1978, the watershed has not experienced more than a five year return interval runoff event. Rehabilitation work has not been storm-tested, and tributary streams have not carried sufficient flows to cause significant sediment flushing from aggraded channels.
The goal of watershed rehabilitation in Redwood National Park was to protect remaining old-growth redwood groves in the park, and to restore logged watersheds to a "self-functioning redwood forest ecosystem" (USNPS, 1981). Fisheries restoration was not the primary objective of the program. Approximately 2/3 of the Redwood Creek basin, upstream from the park, consists of private industrial forest lands. Sediment generated from these areas is transported through downstream park reaches of Redwood Creek. While sediment yield from park watersheds has probably decreased significantly, the "effects of logging on private lands in upper watersheds appear to have offset the gains made by restoration inside the park" (Frissell, 1993; Weaver et al., in press). The large amount of sediment still in transit from past flood events also has inhibited recovery of fisheries resources (Madej et al, 1986).
The Nooksack River in northwestern Washington has been impacted by excessive sedimentation related to roads, timber harvesting and floods (Harr and Nichols, 1993). The American Fisheries Society (Nehlsen et al., 1991) reported that coho salmon from the Nooksack River had been extirpated and that spring chinook were at high risk of extinction in the basin. Federal and State agencies joined the Nooksack and Lummi Indian Tribes in an effort to restore the depleted spring chinook salmon. The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest controls a significant portion of the Nooksack River watershed and has initiated an important pilot project on Canyon Creek within the basin.
Peak Northwest (1986) found that road failures within the Canyon Creek watershed were a major contributor of sediment to the stream. Areas disturbed by roads had landslide rates 110 times greater than on undisturbed slopes and six times greater than logged areas. Most roads that failed were built in the 1950s and 1960s, were located in mid-slope locations, were often poorly designed and constructed, and had not received maintenance in 10 to 15 years. To decrease erosion risk these "largely impassable roads and landings in the Canyon Creek watershed......were decommissioned by stabilizing fills, removing stream crossings, recontouring slopes, and re-establishing drainage patterns to reduce landslide hazards" (Harr and Nichols, 1993).
Large rain-on-snow storm events in 1989 and 1990 resulted in hillslope failures on abandoned, untreated roads, as well as along major, active haul roads in northwestern Washington. However, decommissioned roads and landings in the Canyon Creek watershed experienced only one failure, and it delivered no sediment to nearby stream channels. Harr and Nichols (1993) are optimistic that erosion reduction in the Nooksack watershed will play a key role in reducing landslide risk and "increasing the likelihood that endangered native salmon stocks will be able to survive." The USFS has also placed a moratorium on logging and road building in the Canyon Creek watershed until conditions in the watershed and stream system improve.
The decline towards extinction of numerous salmon stocks throughout the Pacific Northwest (Nehlsen et al., 1991) has caused a re-evaluation of fisheries restoration strategies (Frissell, 1993). Evidence suggests that sedimentation from land management activities has led to chronic problems for salmon stocks that inhabit streams flowing from disturbed forest lands throughout the region. The Scientific Panel on Late Successional Ecosystems identified a network of key watershed reserves on federal lands which should be secured and restored to improve protection of remaining populations of imperiled anadromous fish (Johnson et al., 1991). Other researchers have concluded that refugia can protect remaining wild fish populations. These residual populations can then provide colonists to reestablish populations in adjacent, disturbed areas which have been depleted of wild stocks (Yount and Neimi, 1990). If no refuge areas remain, then aquatic ecosystem restoration may be prolonged or entirely precluded (Neimi et al., 1990).
Pacific Rivers Council (1993), in recognition of the degraded state of rivers and plummeting aquatic biodiversity, has called for a widespread effort to abate problems on public lands related to sedimentation of streams. The new approach, based on ecosystem function, watershed dynamics and conservation biology, calls for protecting the last habitat refuges for Pacific salmon stocks, and implementing erosion control steps necessary to prevent damage to these high quality streams (Pacific Rivers Council, 1993; eg. green colored streams, Plate 2, this report). The core watersheds suggested for protection are those identified by Johnson et al. (1991). Although these streams are often relatively undisturbed, many have a history of land use and patterns disturbance that would still pose threats to these areas if they are not restored. After refugia basins are secured, adjacent watershed areas would be restored so that nearby streams would eventually provide an increased habitat base for colonists from healthy refuges (PRC, 1993).
The Pacific Rivers Council proposal (1993) calls for implementation of this strategy on public lands throughout the Pacific Northwest. It requests that Congress provide $150 million over five years to initiate the task of securing and restoring key watersheds, and stresses that jobs created through the program should go to local forest workers and equipment operators.
A great deal can be learned from the success and failure of other large scale efforts to restore salmon and steelhead by those hoping to restore salmon and steelhead to the South Fork Trinity River. Programs such as the Middle Fork Eel River summer steelhead management plan have been largely implemented while others, like the Salmon River spring chinook recovery plan, are just getting underway. It would be wise to establish lines of communication with program managers in these other river basins so that the learning process can continue as the South Fork Trinity River program moves forward.
Models involving private sector partners show positive signs that cooperation can be won and that participation can benefit land owners as well as fisheries resources. Severe erosion problems from gullies were abated on grazing lands in the Tomki Creek watershed. The fall chinook population appeared to show signs of a rebound, but ecological problems in the main Eel River, including introduction of predacious squawfish, seem to be limiting success. The Plumas Corporation, which spearheads the East Branch of the North Fork Feather River Restoration Program, has shown that fisheries restoration can be an economic development tool. Sediment control in the East Branch is helping to restore fish habitat, maintain productivity of forest and grazing lands, and prevent the reservoir lower on the river from filling with sediment sooner than planned.
The Middle Fork Eel river restoration provides the most encouraging model, because it has been a success and because it located immediately adjacent to the South Fork Trinity River. The watershed was allowed to recover, poaching was decreased, and the steep, confined channel of the river helped restore pool depth. Summer steelhead dive counts showed an increase from 166 adult fish in 1966 to 1,800 in 1988. On Idaho's South Fork Salmon River, sediment problems that were degrading fisheries habitat were decreased substantially by initial efforts in the 1970's, but erosion again increased when timber harvest and road building were resumed. Only small scale timber harvests are now allowed in the South Fork Salmon River drainage, and an even more aggressive sediment control program is now underway. Limiting factors outside the basin, such as ten large dams in the lower Snake and Columbia Rivers, have also thwarted success of this program. Redwood National Park had good success in reducing erosion from logged and roaded lands within the park, but fisheries in Redwood Creek have not recovered because of continuing upstream erosion problems and over harvest of fish in the ocean. Over 75% of the 280 mi2 basin upstream from the park is still privately managed for timber, and erosion from these lands continues to contribute to aggradation within the park.
Many of the elements suggested elsewhere in this plan for restoring salmon and steelhead to the South Fork Trinity River have been shown to work in other basins. A recurring problem seems to be that, even if objectives are met within the basin, success in restoring fisheries is not achieved because of external limiting factors. While future efforts in the South Fork Trinity River restoration move to prevent erosion and improve flows in the basin, external factors, such as fishing pressure and hatchery practices, must also be addressed to restore salmon and steelhead populations.Chapter 16