The Habitat Protection Program furthers SRSC’s mission of salmon recovery by ensuring treaty-protected fisheries resources are protected from development and land use actions.

We are active in a variety of regulatory arenas including municipal, county, state, and federal processes that govern agricultural, urban, residential, and forest land uses. We engage with partner agencies, non-governmental organizations and landowners using a variety of tools to further the goals of habitat protection. Specifically, we review and comment on land use permits that have the potential to impact fisheries resources, conduct field reviews of proposed land use actions, collaboratively engage with stakeholders and landowners on project designs, and conduct spatial and statistical analyses on historical and ongoing land use impacts to fisheries resources and write reports and journal articles on our findings. We also provide technical support on habitat-related issues to policy makers at the SRSC member tribes.

Managed forest landscape south of the Skagit and the town of Lyman shows a mixture of forest ages from ongoing harvest. Although upland streams are too small and/or steep for salmon use, buffers and other protection measures are needed to maintain productivity downstream.
Managed forest landscape south of the Skagit and the town of Lyman shows a mixture of forest ages from ongoing harvest. Although upland streams are too small and/or steep for salmon use, buffers and other protection measures are needed to maintain productivity downstream.

The Habitat Protection Program is composed of two divisions that cover the breadth of regulatory and environmental review processes addressed by the program:

The Environmental Services division provides environmental review of non-forestry-related activities authorized by local, state, and federal permits that may affect fish habitat. We work with project proponents through permit processes with a focus on review of design elements that protect fish and shellfish habitat. Environmental Services staff also work with local, state and federal governments on projects they undertake that may affect fish habitat such as roads, bridges, levees and large hydroelectric projects on the Skagit and Baker Rivers.

The Forests and Fish division provides environmental review of land use actions in State and private timberlands with the goal of improving salmon habitat via implementation of the state’s forest practices rules. We engage with day-to-day forestry decisions, seeking solutions that are technically sound and support both resource recovery and ongoing forest management. Forests and Fish staff works closely with resource agencies (DNR, DOE, DFW), industrial and small forest landowners, and other tribes and organizations. Our touchstone is the 1999 Forests and Fish Report, which is the basis for Washington’s forest practices regulations and is based on the premise of using collaboration to achieve recovery of salmon and water quality while supporting a viable timber inudstry.

We provide a variety of technical and data services:

  • Technical assistance with application of forestry regulations – water typing, unstable slopes, forest roads, and channel migration zones.
  • Collaboration on streamside management strategies, including Alternate Plans.
  • Facilitation of cultural resource issues, in coordination with tribal cultural staff.
  • Providing access to archived data on fish distribution, historic forestry permits and other documents.
  • Applied research and monitoring
Biologists Susannah Maher and Mike Olis conduct a stream habitat and fish presence survey. 
Biologists Susannah Maher and Mike Olis conduct a stream habitat and fish presence survey.  
Senior Forests and Fish Scientist Gus Seixas checks his notes during a recent habitat survey.

SRSC Habitat Protection Program staff:

Nora Kammer—Habitat Protection Program Director
Curt Veldhuisen—Habitat Protection Program Director (outgoing)
Stan Walsh—Fish Biologist
Gus Seixas—Senior Forests and Fish Scientist
Mike Olis—Forests and Fish Biologist
Susannah Maher—T/F/W Biologist
Bridget Moran—Habitat Protection Ecologist