{"id":1410,"date":"2022-11-18T19:09:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2022-11-21T19:15:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T19:15:20","slug":"fishing-for-information-about-salmon-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/2022\/11\/18\/fishing-for-information-about-salmon-habitat\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing for information about salmon habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OSU College of Forestry researcher is investigating whether log jams create lasting salmon habitat in the coast range<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Graduate student Madelyn Maffia collects data along a coast range stream<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When winter and the rainier months hit Oregon, the rivers and streams around the state can really start flowing \u2013 and waterways can turn into a tough environment for small fish like juvenile coho salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These fish need a safe place to live for the winter months, where they won\u2019t get swept away by rapid flows \u2013 and Catalina Segura<\/a>, an associate professor in forest engineering, resources, and management and the Fisher Family Faculty Fellow, is investigating the effectiveness of large wood restoration projects to create good habitat for these fish \u2013 and if they can offer a lasting solution for coho salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segura started this project back in 2014, just few weeks after she joined the College of Forestry. At the time, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) was working to restore salmon habitat in the Oregon coast range. To do this, they installed approximately 35 large log jams on tributaries of the Siletz River to create winter habitat for coho salmon. The log jams help slow down the flow and create calmer pools of water for the salmon to live in during the wetter months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segura launched a research project to investigate how this effort was changing the conditions of the streams \u2013 and whether it was actually helping create good habitat for coho salmon. Along with graduate student Russell Bair, she analyzed the conditions of the streams before and after the log jams were installed and quantified the created of new habitat for small salmon during high winter flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conduct this kind of field work involves collecting a lot<\/em> of data, she says. Segura\u2019s team has collected thousands of survey points about the topography of the streambeds, the size and placement of large wood, the velocity of the water, and the existence of salmon habitat. The various iterations of this project have been a great training ground for students, she says, as she\u2019s been able to involve and mentor many graduate and undergraduate students in this field work over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the first round of field work and data analysis, Segura discovered that the restoration work had, in fact, increased salmon habitat \u2013 by about 30 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis finding was important and offers applicable takeaways to stream restoration efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, her work was not done. After reaching that finding, she started to ask a new set of research questions about the sustainability of the restoration efforts \u2013 and how lasting the habitats might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to know what would happen to this effort over time,\u201d she said. \u201cHow sustainable would this change be? How long would this change last?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madelyn Maffia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Her current iteration of the project is probing that line of questions. Along with graduate student Madelyn Maffia<\/a>, she\u2019s measuring the current state of the streams for salmon habitat. She wants to find out if that 30 percent number has gone up or down over the last few years \u2013 which could hold important implications for future restoration efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to know this information when thinking about how to restore rivers because ultimately there aren\u2019t enough resources to restore every mile of river,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis will help decision-makers understand the most effective places to invest resources to restore waterways and create salmon habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating safe habitat for the coho salmon is important because coho salmon have been on and off of the endangered species list for years \u2013 and coho salmon hold great economic, cultural, and environmental significance. Salmon has been a vital food for Tribes in Oregon for thousands of years and is still a meaningful cultural symbol for tribes, including the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, whose Tribal land overlaps with part of Segura\u2019s research site. Some of Segura\u2019s work was supported by the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, which is organized by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is ongoing and keeps growing. She\u2019s currently partnering with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to assess how her findings about the restoration projects and hydraulic changes line-up with ODFW\u2019s research into the health of coho salmon. \u201cWe want to see how our assessment of geomorphic changes compares to their biological metrics for salmon,\u201d she said. \u201cCollaborating on this assessment will allow us to uncover a richer story about how successful this kind of restoration efforts are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OSU College of Forestry researcher is investigating whether log jams create lasting salmon habitat in the coast range When winter and the rainier months hit Oregon, the rivers and streams around the state can really start flowing \u2013 and waterways can turn into a tough environment for small fish like juvenile coho salmon. These fish… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3455,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1292536],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1423,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofforestry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}