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Long Tom Watershed Assessment

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Long Tom Watershed Assessment Long Tom Watershed Assessment Prepared by Cindy Thieman For The Long Tom Watershed Council January 28, 2000 Funding provided by the Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board and City of Eugene Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview.....................................................................................4 Scope and Purpose of the Assessment ......................................................................................4 Chapter Descriptions...............................................................................................................5 Methods...................................................................................................................................7 Contributors............................................................................................................................8 Reviewers..............................................................................................................................10 Chapter 2 Sub-basins, Ecoregions, Vegetation and Land Use..............................................12 Location and Sub-basins........................................................................................................ 12 Ecoregions ............................................................................................................................12 Current Vegetation................................................................................................................15 Land use................................................................................................................................18 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................22 Chapter 3 Historical Conditions ............................................................................................23 Introduction...........................................................................................................................23 Historical Climate and Geology ............................................................................................23 Early Human Inhabitants.......................................................................................................25 Pre-settlement: Early 1800s..................................................................................................27 Settlement Period: 1848 Ð early 1900s...................................................................................31 Onset of the Modern Era: early 1900Õs Ð present...................................................................36 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................40 Chapter 4 Channel Habitat Types .........................................................................................42 Introduction...........................................................................................................................42 Methods.................................................................................................................................44 Results...................................................................................................................................45 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................47 Chapter 5 Hydrology and Water Use.....................................................................................50 Introduction...........................................................................................................................50 Factors Influencing the Flow of Water...................................................................................50 Long Tom Watershed Council 541-683-6578 1 Streamflow ............................................................................................................................52 Which Human Activities Increase Peak Flows? .....................................................................54 How Do Human Activities Decrease Peak Flows?.................................................................57 How do Human Activities Influence Low Flows? ...................................................................58 Summary of Human Impacts on Hydrology............................................................................61 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................63 Chapter 6 Stream Channel Modifications .............................................................................66 Introduction...........................................................................................................................66 How do channel modifications affect fish and wildlife habitat?..............................................67 How did we assess channel modifications?............................................................................68 Historic Modifications...........................................................................................................69 Current Modifications ...........................................................................................................70 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................73 Chapter 7 Riparian Zone Conditions.....................................................................................75 What is a riparian zone?........................................................................................................75 What did riparian zones used to look like in the Watershed?..................................................75 How did we characterize current riparian zones?..................................................................77 How did we evaluate current riparian zone conditions? ........................................................80 Results...................................................................................................................................81 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................85 Chapter 8 Wetland Types, Distribution and Functions ........................................................93 What are wetlands? ...............................................................................................................93 What types of wetlands are in the Long Tom Watershed?.......................................................93 Local Wetland Inventories.....................................................................................................96 Historic Wetland Conditions..................................................................................................99 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 100 Chapter 9 Sediment Sources ................................................................................................ 101 What natural features in the watershed affect sediment delivery to streams? ....................... 101 Potential Sources of Human Caused Sediment Delivery to Streams ..................................... 102 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 107 Long Tom Watershed Council 541-683-6578 2 Chapter 10 Water Quality.................................................................................................... 110 Introduction and Background .............................................................................................. 110 Water Quality Monitoring in the Basin ................................................................................ 114 Water Quality Conditions, 1990 to Present.......................................................................... 115 Watershed Summary............................................................................................................ 129 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 136 Chapter 11 Fish and Wildlife ............................................................................................... 139 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 139 Long Tom Watershed Fish Species ...................................................................................... 139 Habitat Requirements of Sensitive Native Species................................................................ 139 Fish Distribution ................................................................................................................. 143 Wildlife................................................................................................................................ 147 Chapter 12 Watershed Condition Summary ....................................................................... 161 Chapter Summaries ............................................................................................................. 161 Where is more information needed?..................................................................................... 168 What is
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