Habitat Management & Restoration

Fish habitat in the Pacific Northwest Region extends over 20,000 miles of streams and 200,000 acres of lakes. This habitat is critical for maintenance of wild stocks of fish. It is estimated that 70% of the remaining high quality habitat for wild salmon and trout in the Columbia River basin is located on National Forest system lands. The location of the National Forests, covering most of the headwaters of Oregon and Washington's major rivers, makes them particularly important for their delivery of high quality water off the National Forest, to habitats and homes in the valleys below.

To protect these precious aquatic environments, the National Forests of the Pacific Northwest Region are managed by a broad Aquatic Conservation Strategies within the Northwest Forest Plan and PACFISH/INFISH.  As forests in this region revise their forest plans, aquatic environments will be managed by a new Aquatic and Riparian Conservation Strategy comprised of five elements:

• Riparian Managment Areas (RMAs), with special management guidelines for activities;
• Key Watersheds, a system of refugia for at-risk fish species;
• Watershed Analysis to define needs for monitoring and restoration activities;
• Watershed Restoration – comprehensive, long-term programs designed from the whole watershed perspective;
• Monitoring and Adaptive Management.

Restoration activities include road removal or improvements (for fish passage, or to reduce erosion), slope stabilization, stream-side planting, channel reconstruction, and adding in-stream structure (like trees or boulders). View past restoration projects across the region in our Aquatic Restoration Accomplishment Reports.  Restoration efforts are closely coordinated with State, Federal and Tribal salmon and water quality recovery efforts. Forest biologists and hydrologists work closely with partners on watershed councils to analyze conditions, identity needs, prepare work plans and implement projects. We realize that to restore fish habitat, we must look at whole watersheds and work with many landowners to achieve success. (see Whole Watershed Restoration)

Restoration activities are guided by an Aquatic Restoration Strategy (ARS) that specifies focus areas and appropriate investment and treatments. Prioritization starts at the river basin scale, and progressively scales down to watershed and subwatershed levels. Once a focus watershed has been selected by the partners, an action plan is prepared, identifying key habitat forming processes, limiting factors, and the core actions needed to put the watershed on a track of rapid recovery (see Watershed Condition Framework). Once these actions are completed, partner focus shifts to the next focus watershed. The region and partners have completed high priority restoration actions in over 20 watersheds in the last decade.

Additional Information:

Inventory of aquatic habitat and stream conditions

Monitoring and evaluation of aquatic habitat management

Publications, Reports, Partnerships & Videos - Find key summaries and highlights from our program of work.