In the journey from their natal stream to the ocean and back, these fishes must navigate a mosaic of landownerships and jurisdictions with differing riparian protections (Wilkinson 1993). Salmonids are highly mobile species that require diverse habitats throughout the river network to complete their life cycle (Flitcroft et al. 2007) is a primary concern in the management of anadromous fishes such as Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp.) (NMFS 2016 a), and ultimately for the maintenance of resilient social-ecological systems (Bottom et al. 2010) and variable riparian standards (Adams 2007, Olson et al. The fragmentation of aquatic ecosystems due to diminished habitat (Bradford and Irvine 2000, Fagan 2002, Fullerton et al. The spatial manifestation of varied policy efforts results in a “policy landscape” of diverse protective efforts, influencing ecological conditions and representing an important human imprint on the riverscape (Fig. In coastal Oregon, state and federal agencies create separate rules for riparian land management based on jurisdiction, resulting in a range of accepted standards for riparian condition (Boisjolie et al. This bureaucratic structure creates a fragmented approach to ecosystem management, requiring considerable coordination to develop integrated management strategies at the scale of the river basin (Rabe 1986, De Groot et al. policy framework for resource management divides ecosystems into individual components, e.g., air, water, land, or individual species, each managed by numerous state and federal agencies with varied management goals (Marcus 1980, Wood 2013). 2016), its foundation in the broader field of landscape ecology also included social considerations of land-use policy and management (Wiens 2002). Though the riverscape concept has informed new ideas in ecological research (Falke et al. A riverscape approach is thus useful for characterizing and evaluating the distribution of specific riparian land-management standards across broad geographic extents of diverse landownerships and land uses. Riverscape-scale studies seek to comprehensively assess biophysical processes throughout river systems, from estuary to headwaters, rather than in isolated segments or reaches. Linkages between upstream land use and downstream habitat make assessments of riparian protection at a riverscape scale informative for conservation planning across management entities (Fausch et al. To protect water quality and instream habitat conditions, riparian-management standards are developed by state, federal, and local entities to specifically restrict certain management actions, for example, timber harvest or thinning, and often include the adoption of buffers that maintain streamside vegetation (Lee et al. Maintaining riparian vegetation allows for multiple processes important to the formation, availability, and arrangement of instream habitats (Naiman and Décamps 1997, Tabacchi et al. Key words: coho salmon recovery ecosystem management fragmentation Pacific Northwest protective policy efforts riparian management INTRODUCTION By comparing the policy landscape to the biophysical landscape, our approach provides a novel framework for examining the spatial overlay of social and ecological concerns, and has direct relevance to assessments of population-scale restoration and recovery efforts. In particular, watersheds containing streams of high intrinsic potential to support coho salmon habitat were associated with gaps in protective standards. We found that the proportion of streams falling under protective efforts varied across watersheds in the region. Using a geographic information system, we quantified the spatial distribution of riparian management standards at multiple spatial extents: across the entire Oregon Coast Range, within the region’s 84 HUC-10 watersheds, and in stream segments with high intrinsic potential to support coho salmon habitat. The resulting variability in protection can complicate coordinated recovery efforts for threatened and endangered aquatic organisms, including migratory coho salmon ( Oncorhynchus kisutch), that rely on stream habitats throughout the river network. In western Oregon, USA, management standards for riparian lands vary across federal, state, and private landownerships and land uses, projecting a patchwork of protective efforts across the landscape. Riparian land-management standards are policy efforts that explicitly restrict certain management actions, e.g., timber harvest or land clearing, in stream-adjacent lands in order to protect water quality and aquatic habitat. In this context, we examined the spatial arrangement of protective policies for river networks. A riverscape perspective considers the ecological and social landscape of the river and its valley.
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