This winter we got enough rain and water flows for the coho salmon to make their way up the Lagunitas Creek watershed in Marin County. Coho salmon are in big trouble in California, so it was a heartening sight. In the 1940s, about a half a million fish would return to spawn in California streams, but today that number has fallen to less than one percent of that. A big part of their problem stems from historic logging practices on the north coast. While there’s little active logging in Lagunitas, there is throughout most of their range. Now it turns out that timber companies could be our best bet for saving salmon. California state legislation was recently introduced that could help make that happen.
I’ve written before about salmon in California. Salmon are in trouble for a lot of reasons, but poor stream habitat is a significant one. We’ve learned that putting fallen trees in rivers and streams is a really effective way to save them. Fallen wood gives salmon a place to hide from predators, take refuge from strong winter water currents, and keep cool in shaded water — as young salmon can die when water temperatures hit 75 degrees. All in all there are about 3,000 miles of coho streams California. About 80 percent, or 2,500 miles, have been logged heavily in the last hundred years, and not enough big trees have grown back yet to fall and create the habitat salmon need. More than half of those miles run through private lands, a lot of which belong to timber companies. The good news is that a handful of big timber companies are in a position today to help recreate a stronghold for wild coho salmon on the north coast, if we let them.
Why would timber companies want to do this? Some start off wanting to be good stewards of their lands and responsible members of the communities they work in. They also happen to be required by the state to help restore salmon habitat as part of their timber harvest plans. Salmon restoration projects involving getting downed trees into streams are right up their alley—they leverage the crews, equipment and expertise that the companies already have.
One of the biggest obstacles to doing more of these projects is the permitting process. Right now state regulations treat a salmon restoration project the way they’d treat a new bridge, dredging or gravel mining. That takes time, energy, and money that ought to be spent saving salmon. Assembly Member Huffman and Assembly Member Chesbro officially introduced legislation at the end of last month to change that and streamline permitting for coho projects, which could help timber companies trying to do the right thing.
This is a great step forward. The bill would make it easier and faster for timber companies to obtain habitat restoration permits. This – combined with proven, cheaper ways to actually conduct the restoration – could put us on track to restoring thousands of miles of coho streams. If we can remove this barrier, timber companies could become our partners in saving wild coho salmon from extinction and the news from Lagunitas Creek last month could become more commonplace on California’s north coast.