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Note: This issue is no longer available for purchase. "Fish
Habitat Restoration Work"
It's true some of the habitat damage being repaired is the result of poor past logging practices, but much of it is the result of disturbances unrelated to logging: poor road engineering, flooding and livestock grazing. No matter, companies are tackling the problem with heavy equipment, hard cash and a commitment to recreate the physical characteristics biologists believe were present in Oregon stream channels before so many of the region's communities took root beside waterways. Beautifully photographed, this is issue is very instructive for anyone interested in learning more about efforts to restore salmon and steelhead habitat along Oregon's fabled rivers and streams. It is particularly timely given the salmon/dam breaching debate.
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Fifty years ago, the State of Oregon hired loggers to remove rocks and logs from stream channels. Back then, the conventional wisdom among fish biologists was that such obstructions impeded fish passage. Now the state and its industrial timberland owners are paying loggers to put rocks and logs back into stream channels, where they provide hiding and rearing habitat for fish.