Watershed and landscape scale actions for mitigating impacts on urban salmonids

Abstract

Protecting or improving the condition of aquatic ecosystems within urban and rural-residential developments will help ensure that developed lands contribute to the persistence and recovery of wild salmonid populations across broader spatial scales. The purpose of this chapter is to review actions that can be taken to reduce impacts and facilitate rehabilitation of salmonid habitat and watershed conditions, with a focus on policies in the State of Oregon and practices that apply throughout the Pacific Northwest region. As described more fully in Chaps. 2 and 3, the State of Oregon established the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds in 1997, with the mission to restore the watersheds of Oregon and to recover the fish and wildlife populations of those watersheds to productive and sustainable levels in a manner that provides substantial ecological, cultural and economic benefits (Oregon Revised Statute 541.898(2)(a)). Although state-level efforts such as the Oregon Plan chart out a very worthy goal, unless proactive measures are taken to avoid or mitigate the effects of current and future development, it will be difficult to reverse or slow the impairment of aquatic habitat quality and function as the human population and economy continue to increase in the Pacific Northwest.