Biological Opinions - Bureau of Reclamation

IGD, or used in constructed habitat projects, the LWD will begin providing benefits to coho
salmon and its rearing habitat.
11.3.8.5 Timber Harvest
Timber harvesting in the action area has had a long-lasting effect on fish habitat conditions.
Most notably, harvest of streamside trees during the early and middle 1900s has left a legacy of
reduced large woody debris recruitment and contributed to elevated stream temperatures,
particularly along the Klamath mainstem and along the lower reaches of the Scott River.
However, Reclamation’s Klamath Project plays a significant role in elevating water temperatures
in the Klamath mainstem (NRC 2004). Sedimentation from modern-day harvest units, harvestrelated
landslides and an extensive road network continues to impact habitat although at much
reduced levels as compared to early logging. Ground disturbance, compaction, and vegetation
removal during timber harvest has modified drainage patterns and surface runoff resulting in
increased peak storm flows which has increased occurrences of channel simplification and
channel aggradation. Simplification of stream channels and sediment aggradation results in loss
or destruction of salmonid habitat as pool complexes and side channel winter rearing habitat are
often lost or degraded to such an extent as to no longer provide refugia for developing juveniles.
In order to combat the severe alteration of salmon habitat caused by historical forest practices,
several forest practices and management plans have been enacted in the Klamath basin. The
Northwest Forest Plan (NFP) is an integrated, comprehensive design for ecosystem management,
intergovernmental and public collaboration, and rural community economic assistance for
federal forests in western Oregon, Washington, and northern California. Since adoption of the
NFP in 1994, timber harvest and road building on Forest Service lands in the Klamath basin have
decreased dramatically and road decommissioning has increased. It is expected that
implementation of the NFP will help to recover aquatic habitat conditions adversely affected by
legacy timber practices.
Along the lower Klamath River, Green Diamond Resource Company owns and manages
approximately 265 square miles of lands below the Trinity River confluence for timber
production. The company has completed an habitat conservation plan for aquatic species,
including SONCC ESU coho salmon, and NMFS issued an ESA section 11(a)(1)(B) incidental
take permit on June 12, 2007. The 50-year habitat conservation plan commits Green Diamond to
combating sediment production from approximately half of its high- and moderate-priority road
sites, property-wide, over the first 15 years of implementation as well as places restrictions on
timber harvest on unstable slopes and in fish-bearing watercourses. The habitat conservation
plan is expected to reduce over time the impacts of Green Diamond’s timber operations on
aquatic species habitat.
11.3.8.6 Restoration
There are various restoration and recovery actions underway in the Klamath Basin aimed at
removing barriers to salmonid habitat and improving habitat and water quality conditions for
anadromous salmonids. Congress authorized $1 million annually from 1986 through 2006 to
implement the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program. The Klamath
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