A big win for fish, a big win for Oregon.

After a decade of hard work, the foundation for the first network of “fish refuges” in Oregon solidified as the Oregon Trout Board of Directors and the Forest Trust Land Advisory Committee both approved a network of protected areas for wild fish in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests on Oregon’s North Coast. With this agreement, Oregon Trout marks a high point in our pursuit of greater protection for North Coast Rivers.

Long recognized as a stronghold for native steelhead, salmon, and trout, in 1996 Oregon Trout founded a working group with other conservation and environmental organizations to promote the creation of conservation reserves in the State Forest. This effort evolved and in October of 2000 we published a report with our partners Ecotrust and the Wild Salmon Center detailing the creation of a network of protected areas for salmonids called “anchor habitats” in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests. We held a well-received conference promoting anchor habitats in the State Forests in conjunction with the release of the report in October 2000.
Between 2000 and 2002, we engaged the Oregon Department of Forestry (the primary land manager in the area) in a series of conversations and negotiations regarding the establishment of anchor habitats for salmonids. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was involved as well, and we were encouraged by their addition of data as to the specific watersheds that should be designated anchor habitats. The final anchor habitats agreement was signed in early 2003 and Oregon Trout is proud to have been a part of putting real conservation on the ground. Seventeen watersheds were identified as the core of salmon recovery efforts on the state forests, the springboard from which we believe recovery of salmon runs within the range of historic variability will occur.

These watersheds will be managed in accordance with a strategy that prioritizes salmonid recovery while balancing multiple purposes of state forests, including logging. This strategy is accomplished by lowering short-term risk to salmonids in salmon anchor habitats while landscape strategies foster the development of properly functioning aquatic systems and suitable habitat forest-wide.

The primary benefits of anchor habitats are the increased protection of riparian areas and steep slopes. Within the protected areas, no-touch riparian buffers will be extended from 25 feet to 100 feet wide on all fish bearing streams. Some non-fish bearing streams will receive protection as well, and clear-cutting on steep and unstable slopes will be held to a higher standard. In all, 151,683 acres of state forestland will be protected in anchor habitat designation. The anchor habitats will be implemented in July of 2003, and will remain in place for ten years, at which point they will be evaluated and presumably continued to speed salmon recovery. This agreement is a first step, both in the Tillamook and in the State of Oregon. In the Tillamook, Oregon Trout will continue to work to monitor and improve the anchor habitat network, expanding the efforts to include the once productive lowlands. In Oregon, we envision anchor habitats and fish refuges throughout the state, harboring the full complement of Oregon’s native fish species.