Warm Springs Reservation Habitat Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS) Fisheries Habitat Program is developing a comprehensive watershed restoration plan for the Warm Springs Reservation. A component of this comprehensive plan is to establish an approach for determining habitat restoration effectiveness at the reach scale, and using those results, along with other aquatic monitoring surveys, to evaluate the biological success of the plan. The goal this effort is to implement watershed-scale assessments, identify and prioritize restoration projects, monitor effectiveness of implemented projects, and begin pre-project biological and geo-fluvial data collection for future stream-restoration monitoring. Monitoring elements that were proposed for this project were intended to support development of the plan for Warm Springs Reservation, which will focus on response of local fish populations and habitat characteristics at the reach scale.



Unfortunately, this project was significantly delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequently by staffing shortages which prevented any measurable amount of field work to occur. Funds used to date were allocated towards equipment purchases in late 2019 in preparation for the 2020 field season (which did not occur), and for a software purchase in 2021. The project was terminated in 2024 with most funds unspent.



No measureable metrics were achieved at worksites #1, #2, nor #3.

Developing a more coordinated approach to monitoring habitat restoration projects that includes a provision for assessing fish populations and habitat conditions at the watershed scale and having a mechanism for restoration prioritization will benefit target species of salmonids, including spring Chinook, summer steelhead and bull trout. The three projects used to work through development of the monitoring program represent habitats important for spawning, rearing, and passage. Spring Chinook and fluvial bull trout populations have been declining in Warm Springs River since early 2000s, perhaps due to similar life-history characteristics of holding in the spawning tributary during summer where water temperatures are warmer than the Deschutes River. Declining numbers of target species, particularly in Warm Springs River (WSR), have become alarming. This has prompted CTWS Fisheries Habitat and Research to work more closely to determine what factors are limiting survival of holding adults, eggs, and juveniles. During the last two years of working together to prioritize and design research to determine biological and habitat-related reasons for the decline, the two programs have developed hypotheses that lack of deep pools for holding in areas in the upper WSR where stream temperatures remain cool and high levels of fine sediment in spawning gravels may be limiting spring Chinook and bull trout. Another line of inquiry is the disease, Ceratonova shasta, which is present in the Deschutes River. Fish may become infected in the Deschutes River, enter WSR and hold in warm water in the canyon during summer before migrating to spawning grounds in upper WSR. While holding in the canyon in warmer water, the disease becomes virulent and causes pre-spawn mortality. An unexpected water-quality issue was discovered in lower WSR at the village of KahNeeTa during spring 2018 in which chlorine from the pool was being discharged. This may have been occurring since 2004, according to a KahNeeTa board member. Since the discovery by CTWS Fisheries Research staff, the de-chlorination process had been re-established but this may have deterred, delayed or caused stress that related to direct or delayed mortality. In addition, under-treated sewage from the plant in lower Shitike Creek during the same period may have had deleterious effects on salmonids. This problem has also been addressed and water-quality monitoring protocols have been put in place. The CTWS Fisheries staff is working with watershed scale issues while monitoring site- or reach-specific restoration actions with no unifying concept that puts individual project results into larger-scale context. Moreover, there are data collected in the past that could be useful in understanding current conditions that are unavailable because of its decentralized or unknown location. The current effort to centralized data into a data management system will be used to more fully understand past conditions, provide pre-project data for further statistical power in discerning differences, and make information available to managers and other biologist. In summary, development of the CTWS Habitat Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring Plan will benefit target salmonids because it will promote greater collaboration between programs, bring monitoring efforts under a unifying concept that puts site- or reach-level data into a watershed/fish population scale, a restoration prioritization scheme will be a component of the plan, and use of a centralized data management system will ensure information is preserved and accessible for retrospective, before-after, or predictive analyses.