Perspectives from Long-Term Monitoring: Evaluating Status and Trends in Fish Habitat Across Forest Management Practices in Oregon's Coastal Watersheds

Salmonid populations are best viewed with a broad spatial and temporal lens, however the commitment to invest in large-scale, long-term monitoring programs is rare. Distinctively, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has been monitoring aquatic habitat and salmonid distribution and abundance since 1998. Monitoring was intended to track changes and assess the effects of land management and widespread restoration efforts, as part of a state-led strategy to both conserve and restore salmonid populations and their watershed habitat. Using these long-term datasets, we evaluate and contrast habitat quantity and quality among forest management in coastal watersheds within the distribution of coho salmon and resident cutthroat trout. We focus on the potential of these forested landscapes to support high quality, complex habitats given their immutable landscape characteristics. We posit results relative to riparian management policies and the opportunity for habitat improvement on the landscape. Preliminary results suggest that the quantity of high quality habitat remains lower than conservation goals across all forest ownerships, but differences have been detected in wood volume, channel shading, and quantity of riparian conifers among ownerships.  Our results reflect riparian and upland forest management dissimilarities, highlighting potential lag effects of instream wood recruitment.