Kimberly M. Brown
Chris May
Face of Salmon
April 26, 1999
Ticket to Seminar

Entering the Watershed and What the River Reveals

What the River Reveals by Valerie Rapp, along with Entering the Watershed by Bob Doppelt, Mary Scurlock, Chris Frissell, and James Karr, both examine principles that apply to my group project this quarter.

For example, in her book, Rapp discusses the principles of developing individual prescriptions for each watershed, reconnecting people to rivers and watersheds; and working with a long-term perspective. These principals are important to my group project because the site has specific problems that need to be addressed that might not need to be addressed in other sites. For example, there are old culverts that are sticking out way above the water where the creek used to be diked and there is an old blown-out footbridge stuck in the creek that we need to make plans to have removed. Also, the site is covered with non-native blackberry bushes that we need to get rid off. Also, my group is striving to reconnect its surrounding community to the creek. We know that the landowner is interested in helping to restore salmon stocks in the creek as demonstrated by his permission in doing this project. Also, my group has found that the renters have some knowledge regarding salmonids and their habitat needs. We think this is great and hope to build on that knowledge to encourage the residents of that property and the other residents of the watershed to think of the long-term needs of the salmon and the importance of maintaining the habitat.

Entering the Watershed has some principles that our group project would like to employ. The first is to examine the history of the creek to "reconstruct the historical conditions of the entire watershed (creek) to the state that existed before extensive human-caused disturbance" (56). This principle is important so that my group can recognize the historic flow patterns of the creek, as well as determine which species of salmon are native to the creek. This will help in determining what specific habitat needs are required to accommodate the creek and to encourage salmonids to utilize the creek once again, such as the size of gravel and certain native plants. At our project site, the house is very close to the creek so my group understands that there will still continue to be human disturbance. However, we believe that we can educate the residents to do more to lessen their impact on the creek.

Other principles advocated in Entering the Watershed that my group hopes to use are incentives and regulatory mechanisms. By this, I mean the landowner will be provided with incentives or benefits for allowing a revegetation of the creek and the construction of an off-channel rearing pond on his property. Such benefits include free fencing to keep out horses and other animals, free plants for revegatation, and very likely, some free labor and free use of equipment to construct the rearing pond. By placing little to no financial requirements on the landowner, he is motivated to participate/cooperate in this project. On the other hand, regulatory mechanisms are necessary to ensure the landowner follows through with the long-term maintenance of the project. These regulatory mechanisms can include laws mandating the landowner to maintain the fence to keep his horses out of the creek and laws mandating that he not intentionally damage the riparian zone in any way. Other laws could include the limiting/ceasing of any additional development along the creek. These types of laws are important in making the landowner follows through with the project to ensure all funds expended and time spent does not go to waste. Although these types of regulatory mechanisms will not make sense to some, it will be important to demonstrate to the landowner why they are crucial to the success of the riparian zone, creek, and the salmonids.

One idea that was mentioned in Entering the Watershed that I particularly liked was the National Riverine and Riparian Conservation Act which would "protect and restore every riverine system nationwide, regardless of land ownership" (xxxvii). Although my group will not be able to apply this to our project, I think it is an important step that will greatly contribute to other projects nationwide. I feel very strongly for this, especially after learning that over half of the land in Washington State is privately owned (from my fall quarter project) and believe this is common for many states. I believe these types of acts will increase the amount of activity going on rather than just talk and non-action due to non-cooperative landowners.

At any rate, I feel these are just some of the principles examined in What the River Reveals and Entering the Watershed that apply to my group project. And, I am sure there are many more that we will have to study. After all, we need to gather all the information we can to discover an individual prescription for our creek.