Responses of Benthic Fishes and Giant Salamanders to Placement of Large Woody Debris in Small Pacific Northwest Streams

Abstract The placement of large woody debris (LWD) to improve or restore habitat for fishes is a common practice in North American streams, and the responses of salmonids to this practice have frequently been examined. In contrast, little information exists on the effects of LWD placement on nonsalmonid fishes and amphibians. In this study, I examined the responses of giant salamanders Dicamptodon spp., juvenile lampreyss Entosphenus tridentatus and Lampetra spp., reticulate sculpins Cottus perplexus, and torrent sculpins C. rhotheus to artificially placed LWD by sampling 29 small streams with paired treatment and reference reaches. Densities and mean lengths of giant salamanders, reticulate sculpins, torrent sculpins, and lampreyss did not differ significantly between treatment and references reaches. I also examined whether the observed responses were correlated with differences in physical habitat between reference and treatment reaches. Lampreys densities (log10(treatment) − log10(reference)) and leng...

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