Habitat Enhancement Effectiveness - Biological Monitoring & Evaluation V

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) biomonitoring plan was created to evaluate the effectiveness of CTUIR habitat restoration projects on spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) populations across the five subbasins of the Columbia River- Umatilla, Walla Walla, Grande Ronde, John Day and Tucannon. The scope of this biomonitoring project includes the direct measurement of physical habitat improvements and monitoring of juvenile and adult fish populations. The results will provide accountability for restoration effectiveness and also serve to guide future management decisions.

The large extent of the Umatilla Tribes habitat restoration projects past and future on Meacham Creek in the Umatilla Basin, OR watershed requires a larger scale monitoring approach than is currently funded under BPA in order to measure a biological response. Three sample sites have been selected for monitoring to represent two large restoration efforts in Meacham Creek; a control site, a post-treatment site representative of the 2012 Phase II River Mile 6.0-8.5 Floodplain project, and a pre-treatment site for the proposed 2016-2017 Bonifer Reach Floodplain project. Appendices A and B document all of CTUIR’s monitored restoration projects and their associated monitoring site locations.

The Umatilla Tribes strategy uses regionally standardized habitat protocols (Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program, CHaMP) to sample project reaches pre and post habitat restoration in contrast to unmodified control reaches. Habitat surveys consist of a simultaneous topographical and auxiliary data survey. CHaMP methods provide standardized metrics that can be used to measure response variables in salmonid habitat. CTUIR is congruently monitoring juvenile fish abundance and species composition at each site using a combination of snorkel methods at most sites and mark-recapture electrofishing where time and water conditions allow. Drift and benthic macroinvertebrate samples are collected yearly at each location as well as adult redd enumerations and carcass counts for focal species.

This 2016 phase (fifth year) of the ongoing biomonitoring project provided a cost share for BPA funding in order to meet the objectives of the CTUIR biomonitoring study. Increased monitoring efforts for Meacham Creek included extensive surveying of juvenile salmonid abundance during the summer and fall, increased PIT tagging of juveniles throughout the system to monitor outmigration and survival, and continuation of a long term macroinvertebrate study along with continued habitat monitoring. The ability to detect biological changes in response to habitat restoration is critical for determining habitat quantity and quality, and to understand what particular restoration action or suite of actions yield the greatest fish response.

The PCSRF project funded continued habitat monitoring occurred at three sample locations within Meacham Creek (permanent technician time funded by BPA). PCSRF also covered the cost of a rental of topographical survey equipment (Real Time Kinetic (RTK) GPS) that increased the efficiency of these surveys at large monitoring sites. The ability to detect biological changes in response to habitat restoration is critical for determining habitat quantity and quality, and to understand what particular restoration action or suite of actions yield the greatest fish response. The project funded juvenile salmonid abundance surveys at each sample site during summer and fall seasons (permanent technicians funded by BPA, temporary technicians funded by PCSRF). Redd abundance surveys for spring Chinook and summer steelhead were conducted throughout the tributary from March through September. These funds were also used for the continuation of the Meacham macroinvertebrate study through an OSU subcontract. Project metrics reflect combined (

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) is implementing a habitat restoration program with emphasis on reducing the effects of primary limiting factors (i.e. water temperature and habitat complexity) and restoring natural ecological processes. Biomonitoring sample sites have been selected for evaluating a biological response to habitat restoration; and the expected benefit is to improve habitat quality for adult holding and spawning, and juvenile rearing of fish species of interest. Monitoring habitat in parallel with fish surveys can provide valuable information regarding fish/habitat relationships . Specifically, we’ll study the response of juvenile fish density, growth, migration timing, and survival to habitat restoration at three sites located in Meacham Creek.