SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2019 | 9A
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Ana Hernandez, fisheries bi-
ologist with the Siuslaw Na-
tional Forest; and Graham
Trask, owner of Trask Design
and Construction, an aquatic
contracting business — were
released weekly through the
event at City Lights, culmi-
nating in the unveiling of the
eighth video.
“We’re hoping that this is
the video that is the most in-
spiring and that we can use to
really get the word out there
about the Siuslaw,” Tome said.
Each film showed people
and wildlife interacting with
the landscape and waters of
the region, complete with
jumping salmon, wriggling
amphibians and the humans
who are working to restore
the complex ecosystem of the
region.
“The order is not insignifi-
cant on how we want to show
these films to you,” Tome add-
ed. “This is how we want to
set the tone for this project:
by looking to the past to in-
form how we are restoring the
watershed. The word ‘resto-
ration’ inherently means that,
that we’re looking backwards
at ecological processes that
used to exist and we’re trying
to mimic those today and set
up our watershed to be more
resilient in the face of change.”
Each speaker represented
the many partners that Siu-
slaw Watershed Council works
with — though Tome empha-
sized that there are many more
partners that were not high-
lighted but are equally import-
ant to restoration efforts.
“This is a chance to look
at the different lenses of how
people look at restoration. It’s
a really compelling story,” he
said.
All the videos are now avail-
able on the watershed council’s
new website, www.siuslaw.org,
and linked through the orga-
nization’s social media.
In between introducing the
films during the event, Tome
offered insight into the coun-
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Siuslaw Watershed Council Executive Director Eli Tome worked with the watershed’s part-
ners to produce a series of eight short films explaining restoration efforts throughout the
Siuslaw and coastal lakes watershed. The films are available at siuslaw.org.
cil, its partners and its goals of
restoration.
“What we’re doing is look-
ing to the future and setting
up our streams and our wa-
tershed to be healthy in the
face of change. Restoration
is a loaded word because it
means we’re trying to restore
it to some previous condition
— but we’re really just trying
to mimic those functions and
set up our watershed to be re-
silient in the future,” he said.
Beers and Sundstrom both
talked about the region’s histo-
ry during their films. During a
question and answer period at
the close of the evening, they
and a gathering of other repre-
sentatives talked with the au-
dience about future solutions,
progress and getting people
involved.
“You want a forest, you’ve
got to have the fish,” Sund-
strom said. “You’ve got a cri-
sis with the fish, you’ve got a
crisis with the forest, you’ve
got a crisis with the economy,
you’ve got a crisis with the
students — and you also have
pessimism.”
While salmon numbers ar-
en’t anywhere near their his-
toric high — 400,000 used to
return to the Siuslaw basin
each year — or lows — a mere
500 in the 1990s — there has
been some progress.
Sundstrom continued, “It
isn’t something that happens
quickly, or can be determined
right away. These species are
coming back here in 3 to 4
years. … What we do know
is we are working and putting
the landscape on a trajectory
for passive restoration to bring
back the functions of a work-
ing watershed, and that may
take a long time. But it’s not
really getting worse.”
“We know that it once was a
huge stronghold for coho and
we know that it can be that
again,” Tome added.
While much of the wa-
tershed council’s focus is on
salmon populations, they are
just one part of the big picture.
“One reason we are focus-
ing on coho is that it is what
we call a keystone species,”
Tome explained. “They are
the most sensitive one in the
environment, so if we see
them trending in a good di-
rection, that means we are do-
ing something good for many
species. They are the most
sensitive one, but lots of other
species rely on them. If we set
up a landscape to be resilient
for coho, we’re setting it up for
many other species, too.”
During his film, Mead
spoke of the importance of
salmon for the future of the
entire region.
“Seth spoke a lot in his
film about connections to fu-
ture generations,” Tome said.
“That’s what we’re really want-
ing to do — to set up our wa-
tershed to be strong for future
generations.”
The council and its educa-
tional partners are working to
bring back ecology education,
a topic that has been cut from
area schools thanks to a lack of
state funding. Additional edu-
cational resources are available
through the council’s website.
“There’s no way to measure
the education of a child who
then grows up to become a
fish biologist and saves the
world,” Sundstrom said.
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Besides learning for them-
selves, people can also join the
watershed, donate to import-
ant projects or get involved
with the many outdoor resto-
ration activities in the area.
“I would say people should
get out to the sites and see
what’s happening on the
ground,” said Kelley. “There’s
nothing better than visual
representations of what you
can see out there. And have
conversations with these guys.
They’re the ones doing the
work every day and they know
so much about the watershed.
They have a lot of different
voices to share, different per-
spectives, and by opening
yourself to learning their sto-
ries, you can learn a lot about
what’s going on here.”
People who own land in the
watershed can also take part in
the Siuslaw Watershed Coun-
cil’s annual Native Plant Give-
away. In February, the council
gave out more than 10,000 na-
tive plants to homeowners. A
second giveaway is scheduled
for next week, though people
need to indicate interest by
Sunday, April 7.
People should also get in-
volved with the council’s many
partners who are working to
preserve and protect the entire
coastal region.
“Up here in the Siuslaw,
we have some great partner-
ships,” Beers said. “We’re the
Confederated Tribes of the
Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw — so we’re not just
focused on the Siuslaw wa-
tershed, we’re focused on the
Lower Umpqua, Coos Bay
and the Ring of Fire Water-
shed, the big ocean. We’re on
the West Coast Ocean Plan-
ning Committee and different
partnerships in every area. In
Coos Bay, we’re working on
something called the TCP, the
Traditional Cultural Property
designation that hopefully will
designate the entire Coos Bay
as a National Historic Preser-
vation Area. That’s because of
the hundreds of village sites,
gathering sites and all the dif-
ferent sites on the bay. It would
assist the federal government
in communications with local
county, state and tribal enti-
ties, especially when they are
pushing federal projects.
“We have great partnerships
up here and we look forward
to the ability to work with any
partners we can to protect our
land and waters.”
From large-scale projects
at Tenmile Creek and Tah-
kenitch Lake, to revegetation
and habitat reestablishment,
the mission of the Siuslaw
Watershed Council is stretch-
ing beyond the Siuslaw with a
message of restoration.
“A lot of folks, especially
in the region and state, don’t
necessarily know the Siuslaw,
they haven’t heard of us, and
we really wanted this to be
our chance to introduce our-
selves and to showcase what
an amazing place this is to
work in salmon restoration,
and how we can once again be
a stronghold for coho,” Tome
said.
The Siuslaw Watershed
Council is a nonprofit mem-
bership organization. For
more information on its his-
tory, projects, plans or to get
involved, visit siuslaw.org.