Effects of Habitat Enhancement on Steelhead Trout and Coho Salmon Smolt Production, Habitat Utilization, and Habitat Availability in Fish Creek, Oregon, 1986 Annual Report.

Abstract

Construction and evaluation of salmonid habitat improvements on Fish Creek, a tributary of the upper Clackamas River, was continued in fiscal year 1986 by the Estacada Ranger District, Mt. Hood National Forest, and the Anadromous Fish Habitat Research Unit of the Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW), USDA Forest Service. The study began in 1982 when PNW entered into an agreement with the Mt. Hood National Forest to evaluate fish habitat improvements in the Fish Creek basin on the Estacada Ranger District. The project was initially conceived as a 5-year effort (1982-1986) to be financed with Forest Service funds. The habitat improvement program and the evaluation of improvements were both expanded in mid-1983 when the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) entered into an agreement with the Mt. Hood National Forest to cooperatively fund work on Fish Creek. Habitat improvement work in the basin is guided by the Fish Creek Habitat Rehabilitation-Enhancement Framework developed cooperatively by the Estacada Ranger District, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Pacific Northwest Research Station (see Appendix 2). The framework examines potential factors limiting production of salmonids in the basin, and the appropriate habitat improvement measures needed to address the limiting factors. Habitat improvement work in the basin has been designed to: (1) improve quantity, quality, and distribution of spawning habitat for coho and spring chinook salmon and steelhead trout, (2) increase low flow rearing habitat for steelhead trout and coho salmon, (3) improve overwintering habitat for coho salmon and steelhead trout, (4) rehabilitate riparian vegetation to improve stream shading to benefit all species, and (5) evaluate improvement projects from a drainage wide perspective. The objectives of the evaluation include: (1) Drainage-wide evaluation and quantification of changes in salmonid spawning and rearing habitat resulting from a variety of habitat improvements. (2) Evaluation and quantification of changes in fish populations and biomass resulting from habitat improvements. (3) Benefit-cost analysis of habitat improvements developed with BPA and Forest Service funds on Fish Creek.