Coho Salmon Restoration Efforts Boost Local Economies

A contractor places woody debris in an Alsea Basin stream, part of an $870,000 coho salmon restoration effort. The state plans to spend more than $9 million to improve salmon habitat in Lincoln County. Much of that money will go to small contractors and labor. (Photo: Alsea Watershed Council)By Larry Coonrod Of the News-Times

OREGON COAST--Before European settlers arrived, as many as 2 million coho salmon returned each fall to spawn in Oregon coastal rivers. By the mid-1990s, habitat loss, over-fishing and poor ocean conditions had reduced that number to less than 50,000.

Now the state is readying the implementation of an ambitious coho conservation plan with significant near and long-term economic benefits for Lincoln County. The 2007 Coast Coho Conservation Plan calls for a minimum return of 100,000 coho to coastal rivers in poor marine survival years and 800,000 during optimal ocean conditions.

Freshwater habitat and ocean conditions both play important roles in coho survival rates. Years with significant cold-water upwelling pack the nearshore marine environment with a nutrient dense smorgasbord, increasing smolt survival dramatically. Warm water years mean less food and an influx of predators from the south. A good year for tuna anglers marks a bad year for salmon smolts.

With ocean conditions beyond human control, the state plan targets 2,500 miles of coastal streams for high-quality habitat restoration. The state defines high-quality habitat as water supporting 2,800 smolts per mile.
The plan calls for establishing 371 miles of high-quality habitat in six Lincoln County drainage systems:

Salmon River - 16 miles
Siletz River - 79 miles
Yaquina River - 136 miles
Beaver Creek - 11 miles
Alsea River - 129 miles

Those numbers include the main waterways and the numerous creeks that feed them.

Even before the state adopted the plan in 2007, stream restoration work was well underway. Between 1997 and 2003, the state, federal agencies and landowners plowed $107 million into coastal habitat projects . The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board spent $13 million.

Restoration work means jobs for local loggers and equipment operators and revenue for local businesses supplying material for projects. A University of Oregon study estimates that every $1 million spent for watershed restoration creates between 15.7 and 23.8 jobs directly and up to 5.7 jobs indirectly. Every $1 million spent on habitat improvement boosts the economy by $2.4 million, according to the UO study.
Government agencies work with watershed councils to identify and help fund stream projects. Watershed councils hire local contractors and purchase supplies through local vendors.

"We believe watershed councils are a very important economic engine in the rural communities on the Oregon coast," said Dan Avery, coastal coho conservation coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The state calculates the cost of building 371 miles of high quality coho habitat in Lincoln County streams at about $9.3 million.

$870,000 project in Alsea Basin

Between 2010 and 2011, the Alsea Watershed Council and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife cooperated on a joint project in the Alsea watershed to create high-quality habitat by placing more than 800 trees in 15 miles of stream. The logs came from nearby U.S. Forest Service land. Funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act paid for the $870,000 project.

"The economic benefits were huge," said Kelly Kittel, an AWS member and consulting biologist on the project. "Most of the money went to hiring people to do all that work."

The project created jobs for more than 30 people including, tree fallers, log haulers, tree markers, a helicopter crew and administrative positions. Placing logs in streams builds a complex structure of slower pools and side channels, providing smolt with food and cover and adults with good spawning areas. Without those pools and side channels, high winter river flows flush smolts into saltwater before they are ready.

"The beauty of this partnership is that 70 percent of the essential fish habitat in the Alsea Basin is on private land," said Kittel. "What the watershed council essentially brought to the table was access to landowners. Many of us are landowners, and there's that trust factor the forest service doesn't necessarily have with the public."

Canal Creek, a major tributary to the Alsea River, runs through the property owned by Kittel and her husband, Andy. Before the project placed dozens of trees and large root wads in the creek, the Kittels had never seen salmon spawn on their property. This year they have observed several.

Logging and development are often blamed for the near extinction of native coho, but misguided science played a significant role, as well. Those logs placed in streams? They used to occur naturally. However, at one time, scientists believed large woody debris blocked migrating salmon. Up until the 1970s, loggers were required to clean trees out of streams.

Avery, the ODFW biologist, says placing trees and boulders in streams is a "Band-Aid measure."

Given current funding for stream restoration, Avery says it will take at least 50 years to restore watersheds to a point where they naturally recycle material needed for good fish habitat.

"If you think about it, all the factors that have impacted coho have gone on for over a 100 years," he said. "It takes a long time to fix those things."

Landowners Need as Partners

Much of the stream areas identified for habitat restoration run through private agricultural land. Partnerships with landowners are a key element in conservation efforts. "There's a perceived conflict between coho production and agriculture," Avery said. "But we actually have quite a few folks in the agriculture community coming forward and planting riparian areas. They fish as well and see the benefits of having healthy streams."

Restoration efforts are starting to show signs of paying off. This year anglers were allowed to keep a limited number of adult salmon because there are not enough miles of suitable habitat to support all the smolts this year's spawning adults would produce, Avery said.

Recreation Fishing Economic Driver

An ODFW study found that Oregon residents and non-residents spent $2.5 billion on fishing, hunting, shellfish harvesting and wildlife viewing in 2008. Fishing accounted for $783 million of that.
At a local level, one only had to look at the number of anglers fishing near the south end of the Alsea Bay Bridge to see the immediate effect. In past years with no coho retention allowed, a crowded day might mean four or five anglers. This year, as many as two-dozen bank anglers crowded the shoreline along the south side of the bay.

Commercial Coho Fishing?

Coho once formed the backbone of the central coast commercial salmon fishery.

"They were the Douglas fir of the ocean," said Henry deRonden , a Newport fisherman and member of the Oregon Salmon Commission. "For as far back as these old boats were afloat, the coho were the mainstay of our industry because they are easy to catch."

Coho swim at shallower depths and closer to shore than the larger chinook salmon. They are also more aggressive in striking the lures used by salmon trollers.

"You can troll a car key on a hook and catch coho," one longtime Newport fisherman said.

With few exceptions, the state all but closed the commercial coho fishery 20 years ago. Many commercial fishermen were angered when this year's limited coho quota went entirely to sport anglers.

"We need to utilize these coho that are coming back to our rivers in such huge numbers," deRonden said. "Two or three years ago, we had a limited September commercial season for the coho, and some of the guys made up to $10,000 that month."

If Oregon ever sees large scale commercial harvesting of coho it likely won't be for years.

"Coastal coho are on the endangered-threatened list. We don't see that changing anytime soon," Avery said. "While the state has allowed a limited sport fishery retention, we are nowhere near the point the coho population can support a commercial fishery."

Restoration Success Hard to Gauge

Biologists estimate 283,000 returning coho to coastal rivers this year - more than double the number from a few years ago. How much the restoration efforts played in that, compared to favorable ocean conditions, is hard to tell.

"It takes a long time of monitoring restoration to identify that it's made significant changes," Avery said. "We think we are, but we couldn't say so with a lot of scientific certainty. We think habitat restoration is helping, but improved ocean conditions have been beneficial as well."

Contact reporter Larry Coonrod at 541-265-8571 ext 211 or larry@newportnewstimes.com