**Minutes of the 6 August 2004 meeting of the Oregon Coast Work Group
(OCWG) of the Oregon and Northern California Coast (ONCC) Technical
Recovery Team (TRT), Corvallis, Oregon**

**Attendance.** *OCWG Members:* Pete Lawson, Tom Wainwright, Kelly
Moore, Tom Nickelson, Mark Chilcote; *Staff:* Heather Stout, Justin
Mills; *Visitors:* Wayne Hoffman (MidCoast Watershed Council).

The meeting convened at 10:15 am.

1.  **Announcements.** Mark noted that there were two pink salmon found
    in the Coos River last year, one male and one female. The next
    stakeholders\' meeting will be August 24^th^.

2.  **Minutes.** Minutes of the 16 July meeting were approved with minor
    corrections. Action items from that meeting were reviewed.

3.  **Viability.** The viability committee reported progress on
    developing an approach to viability criteria. First, there was
    discussion of genetically based population size criteria. One issue
    was the estimation of effective population size (Ne) and its
    relationship to basin size and fish distribution; a genetic
    dispersal model relating Ne to basin size from Sewall Wright was
    presented as one approach. It was also noted that for many species,
    demographic risks require larger populations than genetic risks, but
    this is not necessarily true for highly resilient species such as
    salmon. Genetic heterozygosity is also a measure of diversity, so
    meeting minumum effective population size criteria contribute to
    maintaining within-population diversity.

> Second, there was discussion of diversity criteria. It was suggested
> that we could approach within-population diversity by subdividing
> large basins into 5^th^-field HUCs, with separate abundance/occupancy
> criteria for each. Other ways of subdividing basins (e.g. by
> ecoregions or habitat types) were discussed.
>
> Third, there was a discussion of the interrelations of the four VSP
> parameters---criteria chosen for one parameter depend on those chosen
> for other parameters. It was suggested that we should focus on
> process-oriented criteria that would guarantee that the ecological
> processes needed to maintain populations are met; the VSP parameters
> would follow naturally from this. Process-oriented criteria might
> focus on three aspects of habitat: amount, quality, and distribution.
> We developed a conceptual construct relating these habitat aspects to
> the VSP parameters.
>
> **Action Item:** Viability committee will meet to flesh out draft
> criteria, have them ready to present at the 28 September TRT meeting
> (distributed to TRT by 20 September).

4.  **Public Comment.** Wayne Hoffman had comments on several points: 1)
    He has concerns about the structure of the genetic model used to
    estimate Ne. 2) Within-basin dispersal distance might be
    density-dependent. 3) Using 5^th^-field HUCs could be
    problematic---there are many anomalies in their definition. 4) Under
    a hypothesis that genetic structure of salmon is based on selection
    for heterozygosity, Wright\'s model doesn\'t apply. 5) He has
    concerns that the genetic model ignores spatial and temporal
    patterns of mixing and straying, and could underestimate the effects
    of interbreeding among subgroups. 6) He is concerned about the
    minimum abundance targets derived from genetic considerations, that
    could imply very low numbers of smolts required for independent
    populations.

5.  **Population Document Update.** The historical populations document
    is ready to go, will be on the web and printed in time for the
    rollout in September. We discussed and approved a proposed response
    to a comment on the importance of small populations as a locus for
    adaptive radiation that could affect long-term viability of the ESU.
    This idea will also be brought out in the viability document.

6.  **Limiting Factors Update.** Justin is working with the Suzuki
    beaver model, getting it to run on our GIS layers. He is mapping
    habitat suitability for beavers combined with high coho intrinsic
    potential. It was noted that beaver can modify gradient and invade
    steeper areas, so may provide substantial habitat improvement in
    such areas.

> **Action Item:** Justin will continue on this.

7.  **Task Reports.** No update on state coordination or critical
    habitat designations. There is a new Governor\'s Natural Resource
    Director replacing Jim Brown, who has retired. The second
    stakeholders\' meeting was reported to be less contentious than the
    first. Next stakeholders\' meetings will be 24 August and 8
    September; Pete will talk about marine cycles at the August meeting.

8.  **Other Business.** We discussed our schedule and timeline. A
    suggestion was made to adapt the CHART report (not yet out) to the
    population level, and rework it as part of the TRT\'s limiting
    factors analysis for comparison with the State\'s habitat summaries.

> **Action Item:** Justin will begin to revise the CHART report.

9.  **Future Meetings.** We have a full TRT meeting in Ashland on 28
    September. The October workgroup meeting was tentatively scheduled
    for Friday 29 October.

10. **Public Comment.** Wayne Hoffman presented an alternative
    conceptual model relating habitat and the VSP parameters.

> **Adjourned.**