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By John Griffith
There are several different types of trees that grow in the Eel River watershed: redwoods, doug firs, tan oaks, live oaks, black oaks, madrones, bay laurels, willows, alders, cottonwoods, and the list goes on. When these tree species grow in a watershed thats home to salmonids, I call them Salmon Trees.
Salmon Trees are always best for fish when theyre left in an intact old-growth forest. Most of our watersheds remaining old-growth groves are protected in parks frequented by tourists from all over the world. A few old-growth groves still in danger of being chainsawed down grow on privately owned lands and are frequented by tree-sitters from all over the country. As you read this, youth are sitting more than a hundred feet up in a redwood tree that they named Spooner. Spooner and the many other ill-fated ancient trees that grow in a tributary watershed of the Eel called Nanning Creek are scheduled to be cut down.
While not the preferred landscape, even second-growth and third-growth forests of Salmon Trees are good for the watershed. Well, at least theyre better than the logged-up clearcuts or those barren hills that were chomped naked by cow mouths, terraced by an army of sheep hooves, and then dominated by invasive European asses, excuse me, grasses.
Salmon and other native fish evolved in certain river conditions and reward us when we maintain those conditions with lots of their succulent flesh (a.k.a. productive fishing industry). These conditions include clear and cold water, deep pools, spawning habitat (clean gravels), lots of aquatic invertebrates (water bugs), places to hide from predators, and places to rest (side channels, slack-water pools). Salmon Trees are essential in providing these conditions. Lets discuss them one at a time.
Clear water: What if every time you went to retrieve your Cup of Noodles from the microwave, a thick brown fog came pouring out as soon as you opened the door? Now you cant see a thing. Youd have to grope around the kitchen to locate the oven again and then pat around the greasy inside until you found your food. Now imagine a juvenile salmon searching for a little bug in dirty, cloudy water. In our watershed thats often their challenge.
Erosion puts silt (dirt) in the water, raising the level of turbidity (muddiness, as when particles and sediment are stirred up). Erosion is caused by a multitude of things, including road cuts, overgrazing, clearcuts, poorly planned railroads, off-road vehicles, you, and volcanoes. Since much of the Eel River watershed is comprised of ancient seafloor that was lifted out of the waves in a series of major earthquakes, our soils are sandy and more often prone to minor erosion eventsas well as major ones like land avalanchesthan most watersheds in the U.S.
Tree roots stabilize soil, even on steep slopes. When a clearcut happens on a mountainside, the roots that keep the stumps in place continue their soil-holding function for a few more years after the tree is dead. But when those roots rot, we have tragic landslide events. Sometimes peoples homes are destroyed, but almost every time the salmons homes are.
Cold water: Some of us envy the fishes ability to breathe underwaterespecially you abalone divers. But some fish, like salmon, need more oxygen in the water than others. People who care about salmonI call them fish-headswould describe this water-bound oxygen as being dissolved oxygen. And cold water holds more dissolved oxygen than warm water. Cold water also discourages some fish diseases (think Klamath fish kill) as well as invasive fish that thrive in warm water such as pikeminnows.
Salmon prefer temperatures somewhere between 48 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Shady rivers are cooler rivers, and Salmon Trees provide that shade. Replanting native trees along denuded banks is a way to help keep lots of dissolved oxygen in the water for our fish. Riverside trees were usually the first ones axed in the old days, when logs were rolled or dragged down mountains into the streams and floated to the mills. Livestock also did their deforesting part by wrapping their lips around and consuming any young tree sprouts attempting to replace the galleries of mature willows, alders, and cottonwoods that once shaded the tributary streams of the Eel.
We mustnt forget water diversions in the demise of a cold Eel River. The shallower the river, the more quickly it can warm. While much of our water is still being diverted, the need for lots of healthy Salmon Tree forests has never been more essential.
Deep pools: The bottoms of pools are nice and cool. You already knew that from the time your nephew accidentally knocked your cooler off the rock into the river and you went diving after your beer. Pools are great places for us to go swimming and relax. Theyre good places for fish to go swimming and relax too. Imagine if you always had to walk against a gale-force wind. Wouldnt a large rock or a wall be a nice place to get behind for a break from those energy-zapping, lip-chapping gusts? Deep pools provide that same kind of break for fish that sometimes need a rest from the constant barrage of a ripping current. Pools are also good places for fish to hide from flying predators like osprey, kingfishers, and bald eagles. During lower flows the current downstream of a pool is often moving faster than the water in the pool itself and therefore able to sort gravel in such a way that is good for spawning habitat. Fish-heads call this area (or habitat type) a pool tailing.
So what do Salmon Trees have to do with deep pools? Well, as we discussed earlier, tree roots prevent erosion by stabilizing soildeep pool-filling soil. Trees that fall into the water also create a dynamic known by fish-heads as scouring. The tree that falls with one end resting underwater on the riverbed and one end on the bank causes the water to dig (scour) around it and create a pool. When fish-heads purposely put a log into a river for that reason they call it a digger log.
Spawning habitat (clean gravels): Salmon Trees create spawning habitat and keep gravels clean. But why do salmon need clean gravels? Because salmon eggs breathe. Spawning salmon dig a hole with their starved bodies (they stop eating once they enter fresh water but still strike at stuff that looks like food, which is why you can catch them with a lure), then they lay and fertilize their eggs in this hole. Next, they go a short ways upstream of that hole and dig another one. The current washes the gravels stirred up by the digging to cover the salmons first hole and the eggs. If mud were used for this purpose, their air-breathing eggs would be smothered. But since salmon use gravel, the cold, dissolved oxygen-containing water can infiltrate the spaces between the gravel and keep the salmon progeny alive. Without Salmon Trees keeping the soil in place, upslope erosion can occur, burying the eggs. Sadly, that happens all the time.
Erosion also embeds potential spawning gravel in a dirty cement-like compaction that makes it really hard or impossible for the salmon to make a nest (redd) with their emaciated bodies.
Lots of aquatic invertebrates (water bugs): Upon seeing a squiggly or slimy thing scurrying through the water, some people scream, Eww, bugs, gross! Juvenile salmon say, Yum. And Salmon Trees are behind this delicatessen. Leaves and other tree parts that fall into the river are food, habitat, and nutrient providers for aquatic insects. Salmon Trees support a viable ecological system for aquatic invertebrates in many other ways that I dont have the space to write about. Just remember: Everything is connected to everything. A food source needs a food source to be a food source. Without that connectivity we all starve to death. If a hungry water bug could speak English it would certainly ask us to plant more Salmon Trees.
Places to hide from predators and places to rest (side channels, slack-water pools): We already talked about how even a fish needs a break. Thats especially true for newly hatched salmon. Their little bodies cant resist a strong current any better than the office ladies at my work can resist chocolate. They just get swept away. Thats why side channels, slack-water pools, and slow-moving water at river edges are so important to fish, and chocolate gifts so important at workespecially after youve turned in messy paperwork.
When a Salmon Tree falls into the river, it can divert some flow into the gravel bar and scour an ideal refuge (a side channel or slack-water pool) for the tiny fish babies. That same Salmon Tree provides cover to hide from the roving eyes of air stalkersfeathered predators hunting from above. A fish-head attempting restoration work might secure a couple other logs with rebar to a placed or naturally fallen digger log, and they call them cover logs. Together all these strategically placed and rebar-connected logs become salmon habitat structures. These structures create pools and pool tailings, slow the water down for young fish, and provide excellent places for them to hide. This type of restoration work is being done by several different groups all over our watershed. Lots of planting of Salmon Trees is happening as welland now you know why.
Fish need Salmon Trees for the reasons I mentioned and others that I didnt get into. Humans need Salmon Trees not only because we depend on salmon but for another purpose that has recently become more evident. Trees absorb carbon gasses that contribute to the warming of our planet. At the most recent Salmon Restoration Federation conferencesuccessfully organized by Dana Stolzman from SRFone of our regions finest writers and philosophers, Freeman House, publicly stressed the importance of cooperating in preparation for climate change. Like many others, Freemans words confirmed truth for me the way the advice from a wise and respected grandfather would.
We must evolve beyond thinking of ecological restoration as a process of saving just one economically viable speciessuch as salmonand its habitat. Ecological restoration has become the practice of continuing the survival of the human race, our watershed roommates, and our shared habitats. If we work to facilitate nature by keeping what is healthy intact and accept that it will migrate and adapt, we can buffer ourselves against the direst effects of climate change. By understanding the climate-changing process while doing what is necessary to boost the number of salmon (and other native species) in our watershed, we are in fact building the food production capacity and cultural connectivity of our childrens nutritional store. Saving and restoring anadromous fisheries, the Salmon Tree forests, and the Eel River is no longer just a moral and political struggle for outdoor recreationists, fish-heads, and ecologists to engage in. It is the ritual of survivalyour survival.