Lane County, Oregon

The watersheds of Lane County are important for providing fish and wildlife habitats, recreation areas, and high quality water resources.  Recently, it has become a concern that human activities are negatively impacting these areas and their inhabitants.  

The coastal watersheds were once important spawning areas for Coho salmon and other anadromous fish species.  Unrestrained logging, road construction, and irresponsible land use practices have lead to extensive erosion, landslides and general stream degradation which have decimated these important fish habitats. 

The Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board was developed to provide technical assistance, administer a grant program, promote education and public awareness, and support local watershed councils. Several communities in Lane County have charted watershed councils to better protect these fragile ecosystems.
 

Lane County Watersheds

The USGS has devised a five level hierarchical system for delineating hydrologic units.   All watersheds within Lane County fall under the Pacific Northwest Region.   Regions or first fields, are divided into sub-regions (second fields), which are divided into basins (third fields), then into sub-basins (fourth fields), with the final division being watersheds (fifth field).  Watersheds are the smallest unit of definition in this system and are assigned ten digit Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC).  As an example the the HUC is given for the first sub-basin in the table.  The Long Tom River is a watershed within the Upper Willamette sub-basin and has the HUC, 1709000301.     

The majority of Lane County empties its waters into the Willamette River Basin.  The Willamette River flows north to the Columbia River which flows to the Pacific Ocean.  The other two basins, North Oregon Coast and South Oregon Coast, empty their waters directly into the Pacific Ocean.  

Links:
Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board
http://www.4sos.org/group/gweb.html

For the Sake Of the Salmon
http://www.4sos.org/

The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds
http://www.oregon-plan.org/index.html

Department of Environmental Quality
http://waterquality.deq.state.or.us/wq/

Sources:
For the Sake of the Salmon, www.4sos.org/
Hulse, David et.al., Willamette River Basin A Planning Atlas, University of Oregon, 1998
Reed, Jim. Advanced Cartography, Spring 1998, University of Oregon
State Service Center for GIS (SSCGIS), Salem, OR 97310 www.sscgis.state.or.us

Copyright © Department of Geography, University of Oregon 1999