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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Salmon Feed Forests; Forests Shelter Salmon

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

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09/22/01

A new scientific article in the journal "Ecology" indicates that

salmon in the rivers of the U.S. Pacific Northwest "nourish and

sustain" adjacent forests, which in turn provide riparian habitat

that shelters the salmon. Ecological conservation does not

correspond well to human constructed boundaries. In particular, the

well being of marine and aquatic ecosystems are intimately dependent

upon maintaining terrestrial ecosystems. Governments, donors and

environmentalists must do a better job of addressing wholesale

ecological decline, which threatens the global community with

widespread and broad-based ecosystem collapse and abject human

suffering. This will require focusing less on carrying out one-off

projects and campaigns in one ecosystem type, an approach that

represents little more than environmental triage. An ambitious,

well-funded holistic program for "global eco-security", that

integrates ecosystem sustainability and sustainably meeting the needs

of all the World's peoples, is a global imperative. Conservationists

must focus more on maintaining large, whole and fully operational

ecosystems as the basis for equitable and just human societies.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Salmon Feed Forests; Forests Shelter Salmon

Source: Copyright 2001 Environment News Service (ENS)

Date: September 21, 2001

Byline: Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, September 21, 2001 (ENS) - Salmon in the rivers of

the Pacific Northwest nourish and sustain the forests through which

they travel, suggests new research. A report released Thursday argues

that efforts to protect Pacific salmon need to include comprehensive

tactics focused not only on the fish, but on their larger ecosystem.

The study by scientists James Helfield and Robert Naiman of the

University of Washington shows that the health of salmon populations

both depends on and influences the vitality of land based ecosystems

like forests. Their research calls into question traditional single

species approaches to fisheries management, endangered species

legislation, and ecological restoration.

The findings come at a time when Pacific salmon have disappeared from

or are in serious decline throughout most of their historical

spawning range in North America.

Salmon benefit from the plants that line the banks of their spawning

grounds. These trees and bushes, known as riparian vegetation for

their proximity to river's natural banks, provide many of the

conditions that salmon need for successful spawning.

The riparian plants provide shade, which helps to regulate the

temperature of the spawning grounds. Trees and large bushes provide

snags and other debris that creates sheltered areas along the river

in which young salmon can find refuge, and also help river sediments

in place, reducing erosion.

Without healthy riverbank ecosystems, an otherwise clean and healthy

river may not be able to support a viable salmon population, the

researchers found.

But the researchers also learned that salmon give just as much back

to the riparian plants. Salmon die shortly after they have spawned,

adding vital nutrients to the water and nearby ecosystems, they

found.

Helfield and Naiman compared the amount of nitrogen in riparian

vegetation near spawning sites with sites without salmon along two

rivers on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska. They found that

plants in spawning sites contained a higher level of nitrogen, an

important nutrient, than did their reference counterparts.

The differences between spawning sites and non-spawning sites were

significant in all plant species studied except for the red alder, a

tree species that gets most of its nitrogen from the air.

"This study allows ecologists to see that the relationship between

riparian vegetation and salmon is a two way street," Naiman said. "As

a main limiting factor for terrestrial plant growth in many northern

and temperate forests, nitrogen is of vital importance to plants, and

the nitrogen derived from spawning salmon is an essential addition to

the ecosystem."

The presence of salmon may explain why trees in the riparian zone are

often larger than trees farther away from the riverbed. For example,

in Helfield and Naiman's study, the growth rates of Sitka spruce

trees located near spawning sites were more than triple that of sites

with no salmon.

This means that the large woody debris that protects young salmon in

streams and rivers can be produced in less than a century along

salmon rivers. Along rivers without salmon, it can take more than

three centuries for trees to grow trunks and branches large enough to

shelter salmon.

Because of the mutually dependent relationship between salmon and

riparian vegetation, a decline in salmon could cause changes in the

forest. Those changes may in turn harm the salmon, speeding up their

decline.

Helfield and Naiman say that scientists and policymakers who are

working to ensure a healthy salmon population must be aware of these

relationships.

"The traditional approach of focusing on just getting more salmon

into the rivers is not going to work. We have to devise more

innovative ways to ensure the viability of the riparian and river

ecosystems," said Helfield and Naiman. "This study is a clear

demonstration of the complex series of interactions that take place

within any ecosystem, and we must be mindful of not upsetting these

exchanges through our restoration efforts."

Already, controversy over the best way to protect wild salmon has led

to a landmark court decision overturning federal protections for

Pacific coastal coho salmon. Earlier this month, a federal judge in

Eugene, Oregon ruled that there is no evidence that wild coho salmon

are genetically distinct from hatchery raised coho, and reversed a

decision listing the coho as threatened under the Endangered Species

Act.

The ruling could spell the end of federal protections for dozen of

salmon species across the country, and remove federal requirements

that critical salmon habitat - including riparian riverbank

vegetation - be conserved or restored.

The University of Washington report appears in the September issue of

the journal "Ecology."

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