High Roberts Slideshow
Many Pacific Northwest wildlife species are susceptible to logging. Native Pacific Northwesterners the Pileated woodpeckers and bull trout are known as "indicator species" because they are very sensitive to changes in their environment, and thus their behavior or survival can be indicative of the environment's health and suitability as habitat for a host of native species. Both bull trout and pileated woodpeckers are harmed by logging. Bull trout only survive in streams carrying relatively low levels of sediment and with particular water temperatures. 
Logging causes runoff into streams and rivers, sharply raising sediment levels and thus water temperature, leaving waters both too warm and too "dirty" for the fish. Pileated woodpeckers require dead and dying trees and healthy ant populations to feed on, as well as live old-growth trees for nesting. Logging tends to remove all three of these tree types from woodpecker habitat, and consequently the woodpeckers do not survive or choose other habitats that have not been logged.
CRAG monitors and is successfully contesting timber sales that threaten bull trout and pileated woodpeckers in Oregon. To date, CRAG's efforts have halted seventeen timber sales that would have damaged ecosystems and destroyed habitats. For more information on timber sales we have prevented and logging projects we are currently monitoring, click here.
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- Get educated on forest issues - join one of our site visits. CRAG visits our National Forests to check out planned logging projects. Often we review these projects with scientists and forest management experts to verify the information the public receives from the government. To hear about upcoming trips, email info@crag.org.
- Get involved - Protect your right to be involved in decisions affecting your public lands! Click here to learn about current timber sales, and how to submit comments to the Forest Service. Read below for more information and links on the bull trout.
Range
Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) are North America's southernmost descendant of the arctic char subgroup of the salmon family. The species' native range includes the northern portion of the northwest United States (Oregon, Washington, northern California, northern Nevada, western Montana, and Idaho) and extends upwards to Canada and Alaska. Bull trout are now extinct in California despite reintroduction efforts and were nationally listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1998.
Habitat Requirements
The bull trout is a sensitive species that requires a cold and clean water habitat. It is thought of as an indicator species because of its stringent water quality requirements. Streams and rivers with healthy bull trout populations generally exhibit good water quality conditions and functioning ecosystems.
In order to maintain a healthy bull trout population a stream or river must have very cold water with a low level of fine sediment. Fine sediments can smother the eggs and fry during the incubation period, leading to a low percentage of survival to emergence. Bull trout fry (young fish) develop in a uniquely slow manner, making them susceptible to even small perturbations in water quality.
Bull Trout In Oregon
Currently, there are seventy bull trout populations in the Columbia Basin and nine populations in the Klamath Basin. Populations from twelve areas in Oregon are now considered extinct. Bull trout populations were historically present throughout the Willamette River system on the West side of the Cascades, including the Clackamas, Santiam, McKenzie and Willamette Rivers, but have since become significantly reduced in this region. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) believes that the McKenzie River and its tributaries in and around the Willamette National Forest support the only self-sustaining population west of the Cascades in Oregon. The sub-population within the main stem of the McKenzie consists of migratory fish that spawn in two tributaries, Anderson and Olallie Creeks, and possibly a third, Sweetwater Creek. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have conducted surveys within the McKenzie system in an attempt to document the status of this subpopulation. Between September and December of 2000, ODFW identified 94 spawning redds. ODFW also conducted pool counts within the main stem of the McKenzie and identified only 18 fish in 2000, well below peak counts from 1994-95. ODFW has also collected similar information for the Roaring River, a tributary of the South Fork of the McKenzie, identifying 23 redds in 2000 and identifying 4 fish in pool counts, the lowest number ever recorded. (Draft ODFW 2000.)
The sharp drop in bull trout populations is a direct result of land management activities including dam building, forest management practices, livestock grazing, agriculture, water diversion, roads, and mining. These activities severely damage the habitat that bull trout need to survive.
ODFW Reintroduction Plan
ODFW, US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the US Forest Service (USFS) considered the subpopulation in the Willamette functionally extinct as of 1990, the date of the last confirmed fish above Hills Creek Reservoir.In 1997, ODFW initiated a bull trout reintroduction program for the Middle Fork Willamette. ODFW concluded that the "Middle Fork Willamette bull trout will not continue to persist in the sub-basin without rehabilitation efforts" and that "the only way of holding onto the remaining genetic material was to provide a carrier for that material." (ODFW 1997). With that goal in mind, ODFW began transplanting fry from the McKenzie into the Middle Fork in 1997. Between 1997 and 2000, ODFW transplanted a total of 6,441 fry into the Middle Fork system. ODFW has conducted limited monitoring efforts to determine the success of these reintroduction efforts, but it is likely that the population is still struggling.
Timber Sales and Bull Trout Survival
Given the fragile status of bull trout populations west of the Cascades, activities that will place stress on their habitat need to be avoided or implemented with extreme caution. However, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue to contradict this knowledge by allowing destructive logging practices within the Willamette National Forest. The increased sediment and water temperature from logging makes it highly impossible for the ODFW's reintroduction program, and the bull trout, to survive. CRAG recently secured an important victory, protecting the bull trout from old-growth timber sales planned by the U.S. Forest Service and rubber stamped by the U.S. Fish and Widlife Service. Click here to learn more about this important case. (PDF 116kb)
- USFWS Bull Trout Page
- Bull Trout Threatened Listing in Federal Register (PDF 178kb)
- Status of Oregon's Bull Trout: Distribution, Life History, Limiting Factors, Management Considerations, and Status. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
- Protecting the Threatened Bull Trout. By Chris Winter. (PDF 65kb)
- USFWS Proposed Bull Trout Critical Habitat for the Willamette River Basin. (PDF 52kb)
- Status of Oregon's Bull Trout: Distribution, Life History, Limiting Factors, Management Considerations, and Status. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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