By Carol Savonen People have always traveled along, and settled near, water. Early Oregon settlers followed major river drainages, down the Columbia or across the Cascade Mountains, then passed down river corridors to the west. These same routes became the major transportation corridors in the state. Like beads on a necklace, the urban centers of Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, Salem and Portland are strung together by the Willamette River. East of the Cascades, major population centers like The Dalles, Bend and Pendleton are also on rivers. About 70 percent of the people in our region live on about 2 percent of the total land mass of the Pacific Northwest. With that concentration of humans, many square miles of what was once premier salmon habitat--low-elevation wetlands, salt marshes, estuaries, streams and backwaters--are now covered with parking lots, factories, lawns, airports, shopping centers, subdivisions and roads. "Aquatic habitats in urban areas are more highly altered than in any other land-use type in the Pacific Northwest," explained Stan Gregory, river ecologist in Oregon State University's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. "The proportion of the streams within the urban areas that are degraded is greater than the proportion of highly altered streams on agricultural, range or forested lands. Though the total urban area may be small, cities and towns are located at biologically critical positions on major rivers, tributary junctions and estuaries." "Our urban areas contained low-elevation wetlands and estuaries
that were some of the most productive salmon habitat on earth," said
Geoff Pampush, executive director of Oregon Trout, a conservation group. |
 In some areas in Oregon, what was premier salmon habitat -- low-elevation wetlands, salt marshes, estuaries, streams and backwaters -- is now covered with parking lots, factories, lawns, shopping centers, subdivisions and roads. This is Portland.  Oregonians in cities and small towns around the state will need to make changes in how they live to make salmon recovery successful in their areas, many observers say. |
"People think that forest land is the best habitat for salmon. That may be true today, but in the past, low-elevation areas where our cities lie were some of the best spawning habitat."
What changes have occurred in our urban areas over time, from a salmon's point of view? Mary Abrams, soil scientist and natural resource manager for the City of Portland describes some of the ways urban life impacts salmon:
- While salmon have declined, people have become ever more plentiful.
Human populations have skyrocketed in the Pacific Northwest in the past
two centuries, from 100,000 in about 1800, to 1 million in 1900, to almost
10 million as we approach the year 2000. According to the National Research
Council's calculation, if the population growth continues at the rate it
has in the past half century, the population in 2100 will be more than
65 million people.
- We have eliminated or degraded most of the wetlands in our urban areas.
These streams and rivers were once important spawning and rearing habitats.
They have been dammed for early hydropower, polluted, channelized, stabilized,
culverted and dewatered. Estuaries, wetlands where fresh water meets saltwater
and crucial rearing areas for several species of salmon, are places where
people built towns and dredged waterways. The Columbia River estuary, now
a center for industry and shipping, has lost almost two-thirds of its tidal
swamps and marshes because of diking and filling.
- We have altered the natural way water travels in our urban regions.
Hundreds of square miles of pavement prevents natural rainwater from cycling
back into the groundwater or entering streams and wetlands. Natural seeps
and springs have dried up. Rain hits roofs, rain gutters and parking lots,
then flows into storm sewers and is channeled out into the sewage system,
then into the rivers. Flood control structures such as dikes and berms
prevent water from following its natural course on river floodplains.
- Urban runoff is not just rain--it is pollution. Petroleum products,
air pollution byproducts, lawn and garden chemicals, sewage and other urban
dirt gets picked up by rainwater and flushed into our rivers. People illegally
dispose of household chemicals down storm drains. Construction sites send
large amounts of sediment into the waterways in the rainy season.
- When we cut trees for views and development, we remove the cooling
shade along urban waterways.
- With increasing needs for urban drinking water, we take water out of salmon habitat for human needs. The more water we take for urban use, the less is left for salmon.
With the listing of the steelhead as threatened on the lower Columbia River--including the Portland Metro area--the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has come "downtown" to urban Oregonians.
"The listing of the steelhead was a major wakeup call to us," said Eric Sten, Portland city councilor, who is coordinating Portland's response to the National Marine Fisheries Service steelhead listing. "We have no quarrel with it. They are going extinct. The big question is, can the listing become a key force in restoring salmon in our area?
"Portlanders generally really want to see rivers and streams cleaned up," continued Sten. "They want to get waste out of the Willamette and restore fish habitat. We are trying to respond with a proactive plan. And we are going to need a lot of help."
According to city councilor Sten and natural resource manager Abrams, major Portland-area efforts to help the steelhead recover will include:
- Getting rid of raw sewage in the Willamette River. By separating the
storm water system from the sewer system, there will be less overflow of
raw sewage into the river during periods of heavy rain.
- Establishing stricter rules for floodplain and stream corridor development,
including better erosion control in and along waterways with construction
practices and timing.
- Increasing public awareness about how daily activities such as the
consumption of water and the use of pesticides and lawn chemicals affect
local streams and rivers.
- Reducing use of chemicals in city parks and other public lands.
- Restoring habitat for salmon on the Willamette River and tributary streams.
"All these things we propose are in and of themselves good, regardless of the steelhead listing," added Sten. "If we clean up our rivers, I really think the fish will come back. They are tough creatures."
But urban areas are more difficult to restore than agricultural or forested areas.
"You can't just go in and tear everything out in the city and bring it back to its original state," said Abrams. "But you can be sensitive to the needs of the aquatic ecosystem when you redevelop or build a new area.
"Basically what we are doing now is assessing what our impacts as a city are," she said. "Then we will learn how to change."
Groups such as the Portland Home Builders Association have serious concerns about the consequences of increased regulations that may come with saving the salmon.
"We are very concerned with what might happen with measures to restore salmon runs in Portland and other cities on the Willamette," said Kelly Ross, director of government affairs of the Portland Home Builders Association.
"We've already gotten a taste of restrictions through Title III [a requirement Metro, a Portland-area regional government agency, is implementing along with local governments]. With that, we've had to adhere to increased setbacks from all waterways with our equipment and buildings. We have to have a 50-foot corridor on all sides from a stream, river or wetland. And that requirement might even get bigger. We already use silt fences, which are really expensive. Now there's talk of shortening the construction season, to keep it out of the rainy season."
Ross said he is not against saving salmon. But he thinks for urban interests to truly work successfully to improve odds for the salmon, there needs to be a broad-based effort by all parties involved--from citizens, to urban industries, to farming, fishing, ranching and forestry.
"All various interests need to take a cooperative approach, and be sensitive and aware of what other groups are giving up," Ross continued. "You have to be careful that no one group is feeling singled out. No one should be forced to correct a situation if others don't have to. Everybody has to give something up. Otherwise salmon recovery will never work."