MID-OREGON COAST RIVER STEWARD

Paul Englemeyer:
pengelmeyer@peak.org

Native Fish of the Mid-Oregon Coast

• Winter steelhead
• Sea-run and resident cutthroat trout
• Coho salmon (ESA listed)
• Fall chinook

Background

Oregon’s mid-coast has a number of important streams supporting native, wild salmonids. Ten Mile Creek is a focal point because this small watershed is surrounded by U.S. Forest Service land and there are adjacent watersheds in full wilderness protection. The creek flows directly into the surf of the Pacific Ocean.The stream is a life cycle monitoring site for salmonids, so there is considerable attention being directed to improving its conditions for salmonids. Much of the bottomland is privately owned, but cooperative efforts have resulted in much of the stream habitat being protected.

Ten Mile Creek has native, wild winter steelhead, sea-run and resident cutthroat trout, coho salmon and fall chinook. The stream is not stocked with hatchery fish. However hatchery strays do enter it and do reproduce. Controlling stray hatchery fish numbers is a major problem.

The creek is closed to summer trout fishing, so juvenile salmonids are protected. The effects of ocean harvest of salmon, especially coho, have had a large impact on this and other coastal streams. The coho were listed as a threatened species, but were removed by legal action along with other coastal Oregon streams. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing the wild coho be listed as a threatened species, while the state of Oregon is saying it should not be listed. The wild winter steelhead will be the subject of a coast wide conservation plan.

Local investment in the protection of the Ten Mile Creek watershed is encouraging. Paul Engelmeyer  is busy leading groups in the basin to learn about stream ecology and he has been effective in protecting habitat. He is also knows harvest management and is effective in controlling those impacts.