Warm Springs Reservation Habitat Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring IV

As part of the greater effort to mitigate deleterious effects and reverse the damage to local salmonid populations, the CTWSRO Fisheries Habitat Program has been tasked with developing and implementing a comprehensive watershed restoration strategy for both the reservation lands and ceded lands of the John Day Basin. This strategy is centered around completing in-stream and riparian habitat improvement projects to restore ecosystem function and create key environmental conditions and features necessary to support both anadromous and resident salmonids through all of their freshwater life history stages. This PCSRF project will monitor the effectiveness of habitat restoration actions performed under this strategy.



WS #1: Shearer Falls Proposed Work:



Tribal staff will creel Warm Springs tribal fishermen from April to June and August to October 2021.



WS #2: Fox Creek Watershed Restoration Proposed Work:



The Fox Creek Watershed Restoration Project, located on a tributary to the NF John Day River, is a large-scale habitat restoration effort consisting of several restoration objectives. To achieve the goal of improving and restoring hydrological and ecological functions of Fox Creek, biologists, project managers and engineers addressed localized limiting factors through restoration efforts in Fox Creek.



PCSRF effectiveness monitoring funding will go towards the completion of post-project monitoring data collection 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.



WA #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. In 2017, 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 2022 with Vincent to Vinegar Fish Habitat Restoration Project. The overall objectives for this project are to 1) provide complex instream rearing and spawning habitat through increased sinuosity and instream habitat structure placement, 2) reconnect the MFJD with its long-disconnected floodplain through reactivating the historic channel and removing railroad grade, and 3) maximize the ecological function of the riparian area through extensive plantings and protection.



PCSRF effectiveness monitoring funding will go towards supplementing the completion of pre and post-project monitoring data collection 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 tw

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.