Warm Springs Reservation Habitat Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring III

As part of the greater effort to mitigate deleterious effects and reverse the damage to local salmonid populations, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWSRO) Fisheries Habitat Program has been tasked with developing and implementing a comprehensive watershed restoration strategy (John Day River Watershed Restoration Strategy, 2015) for both the reservation lands and ceded lands of the John Day Basin. These strategies are centered around completing in-stream and riparian habitat improvement projects (specific projects identified in subsequent sections) to restore ecosystem function and create key environmental conditions and features (e.g., reduced sediment loads, spawning gravels, thermal and hydraulic refugia, stream channel complexity) necessary to support both anadromous and resident salmonids through all of their freshwater life history stages. Habitat restoration effectiveness monitoring is a vital component of the watershed restoration strategy. Such monitoring will answer key questions regarding projects and inform future restoration decisions.

This project will monitor the effectiveness of habitat restoration in two locations and harvest at one location on the WS Reservation.

Worksite #1 Sherars Falls Harvest Monitoring Proposed Work:
This monitoring effort will enumerate the number of spring chinook, fall chinook, coho salmon and summer steelhead that are harvested by tribal fishermen at Sherars Falls during the spring (April – June) and fall (August – October) fisheries using hook & line and scaffold gear.

Worksite #2 Fox Creek Watershed Proposed Work:
The Fox Creek Watershed Restoration, located on a tributary to the North Fork John Day River, is a large-scale habitat restoration effort consisting of several restoration objectives. This project will complete post-project monitoring data collection in this watershed consisting of:
• Mark-recapture electrofishing surveys of steelhead populations in four project (treated) and four control (untreated) reaches
• Produce high-resolution orthoimagery via unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at two restoration reaches for monitoring vegetation and floodplain connection. Vegetation monitoring conducted via UAV will consist of constructing digital elevation models using aerial imagery and structure-from-motion analysis. These models will be used in conjunction with LiDAR data to quantify vegetation maturity via metrics such as percent canopy coverage over a threshold height and overall vegetative volume. These efforts compliment other non-PCSRF funded vegetation monitoring efforts which seek to describe vegetation species composition and basal coverage.

Worksite #3 Middle Fork John Day River, MFFCA Habitat Proposed Work:
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs acquired the 785-acre Forest Conservation Area (MFFCA) in 2002, which lies at the historic core of juvenile Chinook and steelhead rearing habitat, as well as Chinook spawning habitat. CTWS performed its first large-scale restoration project (Vincent to Caribou Phase I) within the MFFCA consisting of the placement of dozens of large wood structures, incorporated four Beaver Dam Analogs, thousands of riparian plantings, and an assortment of other habitat enhancement features. The CTWS plans to continue these restoration efforts in 2020 and 2022 with two restoration efforts: Vincent to Caribou Phase II and Vincent to Vinegar, respectively.
This project will perform the completion of pre and post-project monitoring data collection in this conservation area, consisting of:
• Mark-recapture surveys of salmonid populations in five reaches to gather baseline information on seasonal salmonid movement, reach use, migration, and survival in treatment and control reaches
• Periodic (3x/year) mobile PIT-tag detection to assess seasonal and reach scale movements of salmonids
• Produce high-resolution orthoimagery via UAV at two restoration reaches

The CTWSRO Fisheries Habitat Program’s comprehensive watershed management strategy will benefit target salmonid species (Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout) by: 1) directly generating vital spawning and rearing habitat; 2) directly mitigating deleterious environmental effects (e.g. reduce thermal loading through riparian enhancement, increase and sustain flow through floodplain and groundwater reconnection, etc) ; and 3) resorting ecosystem processes and function. (For specific expected benefits of individual projects, see section directly above.) Habitat restoration effectiveness monitoring will be key in assessing the performance of restoration efforts and in guiding the implementation of future projects. This will maximize realized benefits to targeted salmonids and ensure that restoration resources and efforts are executed as efficiently as possible and maximize positive results.

The Warm Springs tribal creel surveys will benefit target salmonid species (chinook salmon, coho salmon and summer steelhead) by enumerating the number of fish removed from the natural and hatchery spawning population due to tribal harvest.