Long before the recent "threatened" listing of spring chinook salmon by National Marine Fisheries Service, a local group began work to determine how healthy chinook populations may be restored in the McKenzie Watershed. The Upper Willamette Spring Chinook Working Group brings together biologists and resource managers throughout the area, with the objective of identifying limitations to salmon recovery and actions that may improve fish populations and the habitat on which they depend.

The McKenzie River, which provides spawning habitat for the largest population of spring chinook in the entire Willamette system, will be a crucial link in recovery of this salmon species. Of the 46,500 Willamette chinook that are predicted to enter the Columbia River, 1,500 wild fish will continue to the McKenzie River where they will spawn and die.

The spring chinook working group has identified several high priority issues related to the recovery of Willamette spring chinook populations. Issues range from changes inwater temperature patterns and limited access to spawning areas high in the watershed due to dams, to loss of habitat in floodplain areas because of residential development. The group has begun to identify possible actions that may increase the McKenzie chinook population, and will work cooperatively with local jurisdictions and communities toward a goal of salmon recovery. Currently the Spring Chinook Working Group is completing a technical review of Lane County's Riparian Ordinance.

<Previous Page>