The compounding effects of climate change and logging are contributing to the degradation of Pacific salmon habitat, experts say, adding a reassessment of watershed logging and restoration practices will be key to helping struggling fish populations.
Clearcutting or logging everything in a given cutblock dominated the province’s forest industry in the latter half of the 20th century and it’s commonly practised in combination with different approaches that leave more trees standing. Slopes become unstable without tree roots as anchors, he said, while the logging roads alone add to the risk as ditches and culverts divert underground runoff to the surface, pushing more water, sediment and debris downstream at a faster pace.
Forests also provide shade and kelp keep streams cool, while logging in riparian areas can push water temperatures above the 18 to 20 C that salmon can typically withstand, especially when combined with the effects of climate change, said Jonathan Moore, a professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University.
Their modelling predicted that cooler temperatures as a result of basin-wide restoration would lead to increases in the abundance of juvenile chinook salmon, even when climate change projections for the 2080s were taken into account. A series of atmospheric rivers brought record-setting rainfall to southwestern B.C. in November, causing destructive landslides and flooding that severed key transportation routes and inundated a prime agricultural area east of Vancouver.
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