SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2018
Siuslaw
from 1A
“I remember landing here
and just looking out the plane
windows and seeing the tall
trees and the fog and every-
thing. I thought it was amaz-
ing,” Tome said.
He was working for the
Bureau of Land Management at
the time, mapping channel
morphology and the different
habitat conditions for salmon
throughout
the
Pacific
Northwest.
“We were based out of the
U.S. Forest Service’s com-
pound on the Oregon State
University’s campus, and it was
for the Siuslaw National Forest.
So Siuslaw was the first river
name I actually learned how to
pronounce in Oregon.”
Tome ended up getting a
masters
degree
at
the
University of Oregon in
Community and Regional
Planning, and after some time
in Utah on the Colorado River,
he saw a job announcement for
the position of watershed
restoration project manager last
year and he knew he had to take
it.
“I saw the word ‘Siuslaw,’
and I said, ‘That’s the first
Oregon name I learned how to
say!’” Tome said. “So I was
just really excited to come back
here and work in this basin.”
The ultimate goal of the
SWC is to save the coho
salmon population in the
Siuslaw region.
“That’s a very lofty goal,”
Tome said.
It’s one that involves bring-
ing the timber industry and
environmental groups together,
helping to rebuild the economy
and recreating salmon habitats
than have been lost in the past
century.
Back in the 1800s, the
Siuslaw River was the second
most productive salmon basin
on the West Coast.
“It was the Columbia River
system, and then the Siuslaw,”
Tome said. “We were a very
productive salmon fishery. If
you look at old cannery data, in
the late 1800s, there were as
many as 400,000 fish that they
were catching in a year.”
The fishing industry was
unsustainable at that rate, and
the salmon dwindled in num-
bers. What was once almost
half a million dwindled to just
1,000 salmon returning per sea-
son in the 1990s. The salmon
entered the threatened species
list, and a moratorium on the
fishing industry was placed
until the salmon population
could rise.
But doing that was difficult
with the decades worth of
changes made to the salmon’s
upriver habitat.
“They really like that com-
plex habitat,” Tome said.
Salmon avoid large single
channels of water, like rivers,
because of the high velocity of
water. “Especially in a storm,
the water is going to shoot
down that one direction. Little
salmon can’t withstand that
velocity.”
Instead, salmon look for
smaller eddies and a multi-
threaded system with several
islands and back channels,
small ponds nestled between
wood and debris that falls in
from the hillside.
“If you think about one
threaded channel, most of what
they’re eating are insects
falling into the water,” Tome
said. “There’s going to be more
opportunity for the insects to
fall into the water if there’s
more vegetation throughout the
system. If there are islands, all
of a sudden you’re increasing
the amount of vegetation hang-
ing over the river. That creates
a complex environment where
those salmon can then spawn
and rear and live.”
But those types of waterways
were counterproductive to log-
gers, who need to push the logs
down the river. One of the ways
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fall.
The SWC also plans to
expand its annual September
Salmon Dinner into an all-day,
family event.
“I look at the future of the
watershed council as a commu-
nity organization that does
watershed restoration,” Tome
said. “And I’m really excited to
start having more capacity to
show people what we’ve been
working on and to work on
other projects that aren’t just
restoration focused.”
He also wants to expand his
outreach to more marginalized
groups in the region.
SIUSLAW NEWS FILE PHOTO
“We care for our environ-
People along the Siuslaw have been fishing for salmon for centuries. Once a thriving ment, our fish and our econo-
population, Siuslaw Watershed Council and area partners have worked together to my, and that all trickles down to
show the most vulnerable pop-
restore habitat, reduce pollution and keep both salmon and the Siuslaw region alive.
ulation are who we need to be
they did was called splash-dam fish are still able to get have the opportunity to be hearing from,” Tome said.
logging, as Tome explained:
through.”
delivered to the stream, and add “Sometimes those people are
“They would create these
For these reasons, the to that complex habitat.”
subsistence people living off
earthen dams across the valley, salmon population continued to
The timber industry asked the fish or off the land, some of
and then they would cut the dwindle to a point of endanger- what areas would be needed to those people’s voices are often
trees from the hillsides and ment.
help with restoration.
missed.”
float them in the pond.”
“So we really wanted to get
“They said, ‘We see you
Has the population of salmon
When the trees were ready, ahead of that,” Tome said.
want to protect some timber- increased? While Tome wasn’t
dynamite was used at high tide,
In 1987, Oregon created the lands,’” Tome said. “‘We can’t sure of exact numbers, the
creating a burst of floodwater Watershed
Enhancement protect all of it, but what are numbers have risen to tens of
down the valley, transporting Board, and in 1997, the Oregon your priorities? And if we pro- thousands.
the logs downstream to the Plan
for
Salmon
and tect small areas of land, where
The SWC isn’t looking to
mill. The process destroyed Watersheds was established. is that going to give you the bring the population back to
much of the habitat and com- That’s the year the SWC was best benefit and investment for what it was in the 1800s, but to
plexity in the river.
created.
restoration.’ So we’ve come up a point where the population is
“If you look at the old survey
“We’re working really hard with places that we think are resilient.
maps, a lot of streams were on restoration,” Tome said. the best value and the best areas
“There’s not a number that’s
described as a mess,” Tome “The mission of our organiza- to preserve.”
associated with that,” Tome
said. “There wasn’t one clear tion has always been threefold:
For the economy, the council said. “It’s more than it’s the
single stream. The valley was community, economy and envi- has worked to give jobs to local trend, and we see that it’s a sta-
wetted across valley walls. It ronment.”
contractors for the restoration ble population. It’s strong.”
was an integrated system, there
Environmentally, the council projects.
Tome noted that salmon pop-
was a lot of tree, wood and has been restoring the habitats
“On a given project, we can ulation has dipped in the last
swamp habitat. And now, we over the past 21 years with the hire multiple contractors some- few years, but that is from nat-
have mostly single threaded help of hundreds of volunteers times,” Tome said. “As much ural causes.
channels. We simplified the and donors giving their time.
as we can, and we usually do.”
“The ocean is in a cycle right
waterways because it works
“One cool project we have in
And then there’s is trickle now where there are less nutri-
better for the human landscape the summer is a large wood down throughout the economy, ents,” Tome said. “The more
to have one channel.”
placement project,” Tome said. where locals spend their money nutrients that are available for
Area loggers also used rivers “We go through the stream and in the community.
fish that are in the ocean can
as their primary mode of trans- we look at areas that the trees
Saving the habitats can also help make them stronger so
portation for equipment in the would have naturally accumu- have a greater impact on water they don’t die off. That’s mak-
early days, when roads were lated from what would have quality, holding the water in the ing it harder for the salmon.
limited in the Siuslaw region. been delivered through land- system for longer, filtering Those conditions go on a rela-
But to get the barges next to the slides, or something on the through the natural filters of the tively reliable cycle. We expect
river bank, they had to clear out landscape would have tied landscape.
the ocean conditions to be poor
the logs and complex systems them up. We go through and
The council’s work also for the next, this year and next
that made up the habitat.
strategically place large trees helps with flood retention, year at least.”
Those who worked to rebuild into the water. And so we have slowing down water in the
Tome also stated that the
the salmon population also cre- excavators that tip the trees rainy, winter seasons.
oceans have been warmer
ated problems. Thinking that over and carry them down to
If there’s one thing that recently due to climate change.
log jams posed a barrier for the the river. And then we put them Tome felt the SWC do better
“But we can expect the num-
fish, restorers began to remove in these log jams.”
with, it’s with communicating bers to go back up after that. It
them from the habitats.
They’ve also worked to cre- with the community.
has to do with nutrient cycling
“And that turned out to be ate bipartisanship between the
“We’re bad at telling our in the ocean,” Tome said.
wrong,” Tome said. “Science is environmental movement and story,” he said. “A lot of our
So what is the future really
an iterative process and we’re the timber industry.
work happens deep in the like for the salmon population
always adapting and learning
“The environmental move- woods. It’s not where people go and those who fish in the
from our mistakes. We learned ment as a whole has said they and see it. And they might not Siuslaw region?
that wood was important for don’t want clearcutting,” Tome know that their neighbor was
“There’s definitely a bright
fish. What we do now is have said. “So we went through and hired by us to do this work.”
future here,” said Tome. “With
big trees with holes in them. figured out what particular
The council has been work- a lot of the work that we’ve
Water is flowing through them, trees existing in the basin need ing with the Siuslaw Vision been doing with our partners in
as they’re like a big sieve. The to be protected because they 2025 group on hiring an educa- the basin, I think the salmon
tion and outreach position at have a better shot. We have a
the council.
lot of organizations and a lot of
Tome envisions birding tours groups that are working toward
and kayaking trips, as well as a their recovery.”
river clean up scheduled for the
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