Program on the Environment

Understanding the differences between land cover for salmonid spawning grounds to increase their low abundance levels in the Lower Columbia River Basin (LCRB) due to human land-use impacts is crucial for preservation. The historic salmonid population in the LCRB was over a million currently estimates are around the thousands. Salmonids provide many benefits such as driving the Alaskan fisheries where it produces more than half of the seafood in the United States providing economic growth for the region. They also provide native tribes with subsidence and an ecological balance of nutrients in the streams and rivers of the ecosystem with their mortality. This study was aimed to find land cover correlations that may negatively affect salmonid abundance in the LCRB. In my internship, I examined spatial land cover data with an Ecosystem Diagnosis and Treatment (EDT) model which is a model that will evaluate species extinction risk with different ecological variables to examine spawning areas of two different salmonid species (Winter Steelhead and Chum) that may have impacted by different types of land usage as seen in their abundance levels. Spawning areas that have a higher risk are more associated with more development and agricultural land cover. Understanding these correlations and the methodology that was used to find patterns can help us dive further into specific land covers that are the most impactful. This can lead to better land management, policies, and more efficient strategies to preserve salmonid abundance.