Progress Report 2 from the Science Working Group
and
Fish Benchmarks Summit Participants

Download entire report as a PDF file.

November 19, 2002

Hal Salwasser
Dean College of Forestry
Acting Director Institute for Natural Resources
Oregon State University

Logan Norris
Professor Emeritus
College of Forestry
Oregon State University

Jay Nicholas
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board

Summary

This is a progress report of work done and work still underway by a team of scientists and agency specialists to explain and refine the environmental Benchmarks used by the Oregon Progress Board. It documents changes made and changes proposed to improve the Benchmarks and it discusses work that remains for further improvements. The Environmental Benchmark project is a work in progress and this report documents progress as of the cover date.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists (Appendix 1) examined 10 of the 16 environmental Benchmarks that are tracked by the Oregon Progress Board. The intent of the environmental Benchmarks is to provide a fair assessment of the status and trends of Oregon's environmental health. The scientists were asked to clarify Benchmark definitions if necessary, explain the status of data for the Benchmarks, and define ecologically possible conditions for each of those Benchmarks for which such conditions could be identified.

For each benchmark, the scientists initially answered a set of questions designed to highlight the strengths and weakness of the existing measure. Answers to these questions constitute the majority of this report. Subsequent to that initial assessment, a "fish summit" was held on July 3, 2002, to consider revamping Benchmarks (BM) 85-87, following findings of the initial meeting that those Benchmarks needed work beyond the capability of the initial science team. Those recommendations are now incorporated in this progress report. Most recently, Hal Salwasser drafted additional findings in response to a request from Oregon State University President Paul Risser that the science team begin examining the congruence of Oregon's Benchmarks with national and international environmental indicators.

Principle Findings:

1. All of Oregon's environmental Benchmark subjects focus on the right kinds of factors to describe and track Oregon's environmental health.
2. Other Benchmarks/Indicators that could be added to better inform Oregonians of progress on environmental aspects of sustainability include:
   1. Percentage of stream and river courses meeting riparian management standards
   2. Soil quality and erosion rates
   3. Groundwater quality
   4. Nutrient conditions, e.g., nitrogen in waters
   These could be considered as developmental Benchmarks for future work.
3. If the Progress Board adopts all recommended changes, 7 of the 16 environmental Benchmarks could indicate Oregon's environmental health: wetlands, water quality, forestlands, freshwater species, marine species, terrestrial species, and invasive species.
4. Nine of the 16 environmental Benchmarks would still indicate administrative performance rather than environmental health: air quality, CO2 emissions, instream water rights, agricultural lands, timber harvest, solid waste, hazardous waste, at-risk species in protected areas, and state parks.
5. Ecological reference conditions can be and were described for nine Benchmarks.
6. Ecologically achievable conditions can be and were described for those nine Benchmarks.
7. Virtually all of the Benchmarks can and should be stratified by ecoregion or basin.
8. The conditions indicated by roughly half of the Benchmarks are probably interrelated, e.g., streams, wetlands, forestlands, at-risk species.
9. Ecologically possible conditions described for several Benchmarks could be considered upper limits possible to ensure sustainable ecological processes and functions given existing human transformations of ecosystems. The assembled scientists did not describe the lower bounds of sustainable ecological conditions, processes and functions, as those are policy choices to be made through administrative or political means.
10. There is weak alignment of the Oregon environmental Benchmarks with indicators proposed for use at national level. Some overlap exists and some uniqueness occurs in the various systems.

Policy-related issues warranting further discussion:

1. Nature and scale of decisions likely to be informed (influenced?) by information on the Benchmarks and the need to link local and basin-scale indicators currently being developed to monitor the effectiveness of agency plans and programs, e.g., the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, state forest plans, and the federal Northwest Forest Plan, to the Benchmarks.
2. Frequency with which measurements and analysis for each Benchmark are useful to decision making, given the temporal and spatial variability inherent in Oregon's ecological systems.
3. Accuracy of measurements needed for policy or program decisions at each scale.
4. Implications of the interaction or interrelatedness among some individual Benchmarks.

Specific Recommendations

1. Adopt changes recommended in this report to clarify the definition of certain Benchmarks and commission work on developmental Benchmarks to responsible state agencies.
   1. BM 77 - Develop reliable estimates of original wetland acreage in the state and tie the new Benchmark definition to it. Task to DSL.
   2. BM 78 - Accept as is in this report.
   3. BM 79 - Accept as is in this report.
   4. BM 81 - Work toward replacing existing Benchmark with acreage of forest type and structural stage by ecoregion (under study as a developmental Benchmark). Oregon Department of Forestry is doing this as part of the Forestry Program for Oregon, work currently underway.
   5. BM 82 - Accept as in this report. Assure that harvest quantity is included in benchmark description.
   6. BM 85 - Proposed for November 19, 2002 decision to change to "percent of monitored freshwater species not at risk." Task ODFW to implement. Set policy target for indicators - Progress Board.
   7. BM 86 - Proposed for November 19, 2002 decision to change to "percent of monitored marine species not at risk." Task ODFW to implement. Set policy target for indicators - Progress Board.
   8. BM 87 - Proposed for November 19, 2002 decision to change to "percent of monitored terrestrial species not at risk." Move current BM 87 to BM 88. Task ODFW and ODA to implement. Set policy target for indicators - Progress Board.
   9. BM 88 - Work toward replacing with developmental Benchmark "Percent of at-risk species meeting conservation strategy goals." Task Institute for Natural Resources and Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center to develop. There is no relevant policy target for this Benchmark as currently worded.
   10. BM 89 - accept as is in this report.
2. Link data collection and management for the Benchmarks to ongoing work in the state to coordinate agency plan and program monitoring and data management (this is underway now).
3. Explore possibilities for improving alignment of Oregon Benchmarks with national and international indicators. Task to Institute for Natural Resources as part of future revisions to State of the Oregon Environment Report.
4. The Progress Board should move toward expressing Benchmarks in a way that shows the explicit relationships that exist between many of the environment Benchmarks.