Talk on Monitoring Stream Habitat

Mark Stone collects scale samples from a salmon carcass as part of a spawning grounds survey. | Photo courtesy of LSWCD

For the past 22 years, the Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District (LSWCD) has been monitoring stream habitat conditions and the populations of salmon and steelhead on the central coast. The public is invited to join the MidCoast Watersheds Council's February meeting to listen to a presentation about the work of the MidCoast Monitoring Project (MCMP) and what has been learned from this long term work. This meeting will take place on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 NW Beach Dr., Newport). 

The presentation will be made by LSWCD Biosurveryor Mark Stone, who will take a look at the past, present, and future activities of the MCMP and LSWCD, including beautiful images he's gathered from some of the special places this work has taken him. Stone has worked with LSWCD since 1996, initially joining as part of the Hire-the-Fisher Program. His more than two decades of experience working firsthand in the streams of this region have given him insight into how stream habitat and salmonid populations have changed over time.

The MCMP undertakes Aquatic Habitat Inventories and salmon and steelhead Spawning Grounds Surveys all over Lincoln County from the southern boundary near Yachats up to the northern boundary in the Salmon River Basin. The Spawning Ground Surveys for adult chinook, coho and chum salmon are conducted from late August to the end of January. From February to the end of May, steelhead and lamprey spawning grounds are surveyed. Typically 50 stream miles are covered for Spawning Grounds Surveys. From June to mid-August salmonid habitats in central coast watersheds are surveyed by conducting Aquatic Habitat Inventories on various streams to document their conditions and changes over time. Typically, 10 miles of Aquatic Habitat Surveys are conducted annually.