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Cedar River and other tribu-taries of Lake Washington.Last winter the run was downto an estimated 125. "If wedon't do something, they'll begone in a few generations,"says Robert Everitt of theWashington Department ofFish and Wildlife.

The chief culprit in the de-cline may be another species,the California sea lion—andthe sea lions may pay withtheir lives.

To reach their spawninggrounds, the steelhead mustswim up the fish ladder atBallard Locks, on the LakeWashington Ship Canal. Thesea lions know a good thingwhen they see one: Since theearly 1980s they have congre-gated around the entrance tothe ladder, eating as many ashalf the steelhead each year.

The state tried shooting thesea lions with rubber-tippedcrossbow bolts, installing anet at the fish-ladder en-trance, and detonating fire-crackers underwater. Finally,in July 1994, it requested thatthe National Marine FisheriesService (NMFS) approve"lethal removal" by injection.

The sea lions are protectedunder the Marine MammalProtection Act. However, a1994 amendment to the actallows the killing of animalsknown to be endangeringsalmon populations, andsteelhead are members of thesalmon family. To evaluate theconflict at the locks, theNMFS convened a task forceof representatives of environ-mental organizations, univer-sities, sport fishing organiza-tions, Indian tribes, and gov-ernment agencies such as theU.S. Army Corps of Engi-neers, which has jurisdictionover the locks. In November1994 the task force recom-mended lethal removal, andthe NMFS approved it in Jan-uary. It was the first time per-mission had been given to kill

marine mammals in the Unit-ed States, though no sea lionswere killed last winter.

But is this really a case ofspecies versus species? Eightmembers of the task force—all six environmentalists andtwo of the four universityrepresentatives—don't thinkso. They say killing the sea

their place; they argue that thebiggest problem is the designof the fish ladder. The steel-head, which can reach threefeet in length, must find anarrow opening that variesbetween about one and fourfeet wide. Worse, the fish millaround the ladder's base fordays with no place to hide, in-creasing their vulnerability.

One way to provide coverwould be to install an artifi-cial kelp forest of Mylarstrips at the base of the locks.According to the dissenters,the NMFS has been request-ing such improvements forfive years, but the ArmyCorps of Engineers has notresponded. Task force mem-ber Donald Wynn of thecorps says his organizationhas recently been seeking waysto improve the ladder.

The task force's recommen-dation was based largely onthe fact that the steelhead'sdecline correlates with the ar-rival of significant numbers ofsea lions at Ballard Locks. But

two other factors also corre-late with the run's decline:the general decrease in theproductivity of the PacificOcean after El Nifios in the1980s, and degradation ofspawning grounds in theCedar River, where diversionsand flood-control measureshave reduced the surface area

by more than half."[The task force]

zeroed in on theeasy way out," says dissenterGlenn VanBlaricom of theUniversity of Washington."But we would have to killmany sea lions, and I don'tthink the public will buyinto that." —Robin Meadows

Taking the Long View

OUTSIDE A CLUSTER of wood-frame laboratories and dormi-tories in Oregon's AndrewsExperimental Forest, forestecologist Mark Harmon andan assistant were making"cookies"—each about thediameter of a tire, fashionedwith a howling chainsaw fromthe end of a log.

For a decade Harmon hasbeen analyzing this woodchemically and physically, fol-lowing the inexorable decay ofeach log. The work has yield-ed results already, includingdetails about the role fungiplay in cycling nutrients tothe forest soil.

But the most startling as-pect of the study might behow it defies a long-standingconvention. While most sci-entists limit research projectsto a few years, Harmon hasdesigned his study to be con-tinued by generations of sci-entists yet unborn: It will taketwo centuries for these logs todecompose completely.

The study is but one puzzlepiece in an almost dizzyingarray of research going onhere in the Andrews Forestand at a scattering of othersites in the United States thattakes not only the (oftenvery) long view, but also the(often very) holistic view. TheAndrews, a 16,000-acre parcelof mainly old growth setaside for research in theWillamette National Forest,is one of 18 Long-Term Eco-logical Research (LTER) sitesnow sponsored by the Na-tional Science Foundation.Other locales range from theChihuahuan Desert to theKansas prairie, from a rainfor-est in Puerto Rico to the lakecountry of northern Wiscon-sin. Although their approach-es vary, all the projects are at-tempting to use knowledgefrom an array of disciplinesto help piece together themystery of how entire ecosys-tems function over the sweepof time and space.

Critical discoveries have al-ready emerged. Some were an-swers to specific questions(might the messy-lookingjumble of sticks and logs inan old-growth-forest streamactually serve a biological pur-pose? Answer: yes, in spades).Others were pure serendipity(what caused the appearanceof the Hanta virus in theAmerican Southwest in 1993?Answer: weirdly, a weathersystem in the Pacific Ocean).

James Gosz, a University ofNew Mexico biologist whochairs the LTER coordinatingcommittee, says that scientific

lions would be California seapointless because lions are preying onothers would take steelhead trout.

A U D U B O N 23 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1995

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The far east of the western world.

The most easterly point in North America. Cape Spear National Historic Site, near St. John's, Newfoundland.

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REPORTStradition in the past discouraged effortslike these. "It just wasn't the way sciencewas supported," he says. "Funding tight-ly-focused projects of one to three yearshas been the norm because the feelingwas that you had to show results quickly.But ecological variables are often hugelydynamic. For example, if you study aplant population in a wet year you onlyget a snapshot, which could be complete-ly different from a dry year. It's like try-ing to characterize children by knowingthem for an hour."

The Andrews project is one of theoldest of the LTER efforts, having con-tinued for more than two decades.Chemists, geologists, mammalogists, bot-anists, and even experts in satellite imag-ing have done research involving every-thing from injecting radioactive tracersinto tree sap to boring into soils to studyinsect life, from monitoring rapidchanges in tiny algae to measuring theslow movements of landforms overdecades. The work has provided much ofthe scientific basis for the notion thatold growth itself has biological value.

Other studies have generated equallyimportant insights. At the Konza PrairieLTER site, in the Flint Hills of Kansas(see "What Good Is a Prairie?" page 36),research has shown that although burn-ing prairie is critical for maintaining it,too-frequent burning of prairie refugesmay actually reduce biological diversity.

And then there's the mystery of theHanta virus, which broke out on andaround the vast Navajo reservation inNew Mexico in 1993. Once medical in-vestigators had linked the virus to infect-ed deer mice, they began to wonder ifthey were looking at the front end of anew epidemic. But data from the state'sSevilleta Desert LTER site showed thatthe region's seed-eating-mouse popula-tion had increased in response to an ex-plosion of seed-bearing plants, itself anapparent response to an unusually wetspring brought on by an El Nino weathersystem thousands of miles away in thePacific. The scientists' prediction: Thedisease would subside with El Nino. Bythe end of the year, it had done just that.

Why continue such studies? "On onelevel it's a frontier issue," says Fred Swan-son, the geomorphologist who directs

A CDUBON

24 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1995

the Andrews project. "People are still outthere on the scientific frontier, looking insome new places and finding interestingstuff. But the benefits can be practicaland tangible. These are the ecosystemsthat feed us, provide our drinking water,give us aesthetic pleasure." In light ofthat, he says, "the time and the resourcesdevoted to these studies are a prettysmall price to pay:' —Jon R. Luoma

ENVIROTECN

Cleaning Up With Horseradish

ACCORDING TO JERZY DEC, a research as-sociate at Pennsylvania State University'sCenter for Bioremediation and Detoxifi-cation, Armoracia rusticana—the ubiqui-tous horseradish—could become an im-portant tool in the cleanup of phenols,which are water and soil pollutants pro-duced by a wide range of industries.

Minced horseradish plants added tocontaminated water neutralizes pollutionby virtue of enzymes that cause the phe-nols to form a stable bond with otherchemicals generally present in industrialwaste. The newly formed compounds,which are water insoluble, then precipi-tate out and are easily removed. The ad-dition of hydrogen peroxide initiates theprocess, which can clear as much as 100percent of the phenols from tainted wa-ter in just half an hour.

In a paper published last year in thejournal Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Decsaid the process represents a major im-provement over other forms of organicremediation, which may require weeks ormonths to act. The process is also effec-tive in contaminated soil, where it bindsphenols to humus.

Hundreds of thousands of liters ofphenol-containing wastewater are gener-ated every day at a typical industrial site.And hundreds of tons of soil may becontaminated by spills or as the result ofcontinuous emissions of toxins. Giventhe magnitude of the problem, says Dec,another advantage of horseradish is itscost-effectiveness. In one test, mincedhorseradish retained 100 percent of itsneutralizing effect after being used 15times; and supplies are plentiful. In fact,the plant itself is considered somethingof a problem. As gardeners know, it costsless to grow horseradish than to preventits growth. —Robert Frenay

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CLEARLY SUPERIOR

By Ted Williams

The BlackstNow Runs Bl

oneue

`vr

H ow the Clean Water Actsaved a river—and why theact itself must be preserved.

I WAS PAYING more attentionto the river than to the digni-taries. They and it were bab-bling happily in front ofSlater Mill in Pawtucket,Rhode Island, on the stickymorning of July 18, 1995.The speakers expressed greatpride in the restoration of themill, the restoration of theBlackstone River ecosystem,and their valley's contributionto our nation's manufacturingheritage. "It all started here,"they kept explaining. Whatstarted here--the Americanindustrial revolution—turnedinto the worst ecological dis-aster this continent has everexperienced.

The Blackstone rises underthe streets of Worcester,Massachusetts, and flows 46miles to Providence, RhodeIsland. It was the first pollut-ed river in America, and as faras I can determine, it's the on-ly one whose headwater flowis mostly outfall from a re-gional sewage-treatment plant.Slater Mill—a cotton-spin-ning operation constructed in1790 by Samuel Slater, MosesBrown, and William Almy-was the United States' firstwater-powered textile mill.The three fathers of our in-dustrial revolution took it up-on themselves to extinguishthe river's prolific runs of

salmon, shad, alewives, andblueback herring. Never be-fore had Rhode Island per-mitted anyone to build a damwithout providing fish pas-sage. When enraged fishermentore down the barrier, Slaterand his associates, with theforces of law and order ontheir side, rebuilt it.

By the 1830s there was amill dam for every mile ofriver, usurping the power ofthe Blackstone as it plunged438 vertical feet to Narra-gansett Bay, a more precipi-tous drop than that of theColorado through the GrandCanyon. In 1828 an elaboratecanal-and-lock system hadmade landlocked Worcester aseaport, but such transporta-tion was rendered obsolete 19years later by the Providenceand Worcester Railroad.

Before Slater Mill, "Ameri-ca's hardest-working river,"as the Blackstone has beencalled, fed the people ofRhode Island and Massachu-setts with protein. Once thedam was built, the river fedindustry with power, and be-cause there was no longer anyprotein to worry about, itdoubled as a waste-removalsystem. Throughout the 19thcentury, buildings were con-structed with their backs tothe Blackstone so valley resi-

dents needn't gaze on it—andso they could more easilypush their refuse into it.When they-complained thattheir river was giving themasthma and tuberculosis, theframers of our manufacturingheritage attempted to over-power the dangerous vaporsby burning coal tar. So foulwas the Blackstone that tex-tile mills had to find othersources of water for washingtheir wool.

The Clean Water Act,passed by Congress over aNixon veto in 1972, changedall that. When I settled besidethe Blackstone River in April1970, a dog belonging to myinsurance agent had recentlydied as a result of frolickingin it. Not altogether in jest hehad publicly proposed thatthe Blackstone be piped un-derground to NarragansettBay. Today my dog, who en-joys rolling in compost, actu-ally cleanses himself in theBlackstone.

When I first walked besidethe river 25 years ago, nobodyI knew felt anything for it.Now even the industries thatused to pollute it are proud ofit. The Clean Water Act hastransformed a river that wasan ecological desert into anecological magnet that ispulling new life into new

The Blackstone River (right),flowing by a dam in South Graf-ton, Massachusetts, in August.Top: Industrial waste pouringinto the Blackstone in 1970.

habitat. You don't have to cutnature much slack; althoughthe river is still very sick in itsupper reaches, it now sup-ports thriving populations ofwaterfowl, muskrat, otters,turtles, frogs, yellow perch,white perch, largemouth andsmallmouth bass, blackcrappies, bullheads, pickerel,sunfish, and hatchery-bredtrout. Now I live beside aBlackstone that two yearsago called in an adult At-lantic salmon from its oceanwanderings, and in whichblueback herring that weretransplanted to test the feasi-bility of anadromous-fishrestoration have successfullyspawned.

"The process of restoring thewaters of a stream to theiroriginal purity is not alwaysgood judgement or sound

A U D U B O N

26 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1995