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Abstract
Demand for wood products and advances in logging technology post-World War II resulted in timber harvesting that extensively modified streams on the North Coast of California. To assess the resulting impacts to salmonid populations, the Department of Fish and Game conducted studies at widely spaced sites throughout the redwood region during the 1960s. In order to compare current salmonid communities with those documented earlier, we resumed investigations on the South Fork, Caspar Creek in 1993. During the last decade, total salmonid density was within the range observed during the 1960s, albeit generally in the lower half of that prior range. Biomass has remained consistent between the time periods. The salmonid communities shifted from ones in which coho salmon and steelhead were both well represented to ones that were greatly dominated by one species or the other. Stream surface area and substrate quality between the two time periods are similar. Explaining the cause of the different salmonid community patterns between time periods are problematic but is probably related to climatic differences in ocean conditions and precipitation patterns. Because there was a single, early summer pretreatment assessment of salmonids, the long-term effects of the 1960s era timber operations can not be determined.
Parent Publication
Citation
Valentine, Bradley E.; Macedo, Richard A.; Hughes, Tracie. 2007. Salmonid Communities in the South Fork of Caspar Creek, 1967 to 1969 and 1993 to 2003. In: Standiford, Richard B.; Giusti, Gregory A.; Valachovic, Yana; Zielinski, William J.; Furniss, Michael J., technical editors. 2007. Proceedings of the redwood region forest science symposium: What does the future hold? Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-194. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 247-256
