Share the Vision:

A healthy, vibrant watershed filled with native fish, wildlife and plants.

A community dedicated to the current and future health of the watershed.

A watershed where people can enjoy nature.

57420-2 Old Portland Road

Warren, Oregon 97053

Phone: 503-397-7904

Fax: 503-397-9101

 *Working toward healthy communities and creeks from headwaters to the bay*

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The purpose of this report is to provide a broad foundation for effective restoration of native fish species and their aquatic habitat in the Scappoose Bay watershed. The report follows the guidelines of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Manual (WPN 1999).

This assessment presents the existing baseline information on watershed conditions (based on available reports and data) and oral history interviews. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was built to display, analyze and store much of the data. Habitat factors for the decline of salmonids are compared, and major protection and restoration opportunities are identified and prioritized. This Phase I assessment does not generally provide the detailed field reconnaissance and comprehensive field studies that are necessary for proceeding with specific protection and restoration projects. Rather, this assessment lays out the groundwork for a second phase of assessment that bridges the gap between identifying major areas for action and conducting specific projects.

Although relatively small in size (85,000 acres), the Scappoose Bay watershed historically supported four of six species of salmon found in the Pacific Northwest. It contained a broad diversity of habitats, ranging from small, steep mountain streams to extended low-gradient stream valleys to the lowland floodplain of the Columbia River estuary.

Over the past 150 years, the watershed has been impacted by a broad range of uses: agriculture, forestry, surface mining, and residential and industrial development. The dramatic decline in all species of salmonids in the watershed is not due to one or even several independent habitat-impacting activities, but rather to a complex interplay of activities that have degraded specific habitats used at particular times in the life histories of the fish. Included in this complex scenario is the effect of introduced hatchery fish and fishery management policies, as well as the shift to poor ocean conditions along the Oregon and Washington coasts throughout the 1980s.

Scappoose Bay Watershed Assessment 2000