Maps from Washington state’s Department of Natural
Resources show more than a thousand miles of the state’s streams
contain no fish. But they’re wrong.
This
distinction is important because state law requires that loggers
and developers leave protective corridors of vegetation for erosion
control next to fish-bearing streams. But biologists fear the
mapping mistakes have already hurt Washington’s troubled wild runs
of salmon, trout and steelhead.
The Point No
Point Treaty Council, a tribal group, reported a 72 percent error
rate along streamside habitat in the Hood Canal area. About 1,200
miles of streams on the Olympic Peninsula are mislabeled, according
to another study by the Quinault Indian
Nation.
Carol Bernthal, habitat coordinator for
the Point No Point Treaty Council, told the Associated Press, “If
you had 10,000 forest permits and a 70 percent error rate, that
means 7,000 of those permits did not have the full riparian
protection required by law.” She said, “This is not an academic
issue.”
The Department of Natural Resources’
last river assessment project in the early 1970s was underfunded,
forcing cartographers to rely on aerial photographs and existing
topographical maps, says John Edwards, the state’s manager of
forest practices. He said more accurate ground surveys were just
too expensive at the time.
A conglomeration of
state regulators, biologists, foresters and the Department of Fish
and Wildlife recently drafted an emergency proposal to upgrade
mismarked riparian habitat immediately. To be exempted from the
proposal, developers and loggers would have to prove no fish exist
in their streams.
* Patrick
Dowd
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Where’s the fish?.
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