Willamette FIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program Phase 4: Data Collection 2020-2021 and Reporting

This proposal requests funding for the fourth phase of Effectiveness Monitoring Program for the Willamette Anchor Habitats Working Group (AHWG) Focused Investment Partnership (termed ‘WFIP’). This monitoring program evaluates the effectiveness of WFIP restoration strategies at meeting site-scale and program-scale goals for improvements in native fish habitats and places findings within the broader context of other floodplain processes and conditions influencing floodplain habitats. Phases 1 through 3 of the Monitoring Program supported a Monitoring Framework, hydrogeomorphic and vegetation data collection in 2019-2020, and coupled water-quality, aquatic plant, and fisheries data collection in 2020-2021 (Tables 1-3). Phase 4 (this proposal) will fund fisheries data collection at former gravel pits, limited hydrogeomorphic and vegetation data collection in 2020-2021, and a presentation to summarize initial results across all four phases of the monitoring program.

The data collection activities outlined here take place in WFIP restoration sites, within Anchor Habitats in the Upper and Middle Willamette River (Figure 2). Phase 4 has five tasks (Table 4) guided by the forthcoming WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Framework and General Monitoring Plan (Table 3). Task 1 will develop a data collection plan, Task 2 will finalize hydrogeomorphic and vegetation monitoring in 2020-2021;Task 3 will sample fish at restored gravel pits; Task 4 will conduct preliminary analysis; Task 5 will summarize preliminary findings.

Deliverables include USGS datasets of temperature, canopy cover, inundation, and fish sampling and a presentation. Data, presentations and Annual Monitoring Plans will be shared with WFIP community. The monitoring effort is co-led by BEF and USGS with Project Management and Administration provided by Benton SWCD. The monitoring program leverages research by PSU, ODFW, USFS as well as many Willamette River scientists, AHWG Partners and contractors.

Monitoring will benefit salmon, steelhead, native fish, and other aquatic and riparian-dependent species in the mainstem Willamette River by 1) helping to identify the most effective restoration actions and management alternatives that expand and enhance key habitats, 2) identifying existing challenges and shortcomings to habitat improvement in current restoration efforts in Anchor Habitats, and 3) providing a narrative to describe the effectiveness of site-level restoration activities to improve habitat for salmon, steelhead, native fishes, and other native fauna and flora relative to other societal and floodplain processes along the Willamette River. WFIP stakeholders and scientists realize that drawing strict cause-and-effect linkages between site-level projects, fish assemblages, and population-scale responses for salmon and steelhead is difficult, if not impossible, even with considerable resources and timescales that far exceed those for the WFIP program. Nonetheless, the fishes of the Willamette River are iconic, and an important part of communicating restoration success to the public and funders. Therefore, as part of the WFIP Effectiveness Monitoring Program, the monitoring team will outline the fish-specific questions that can be successfully answered using resources available to the monitoring program and in the WFIP implementation period.

This monitoring program is needed because major habitat losses in the past century due to alterations in flood, sediment, and wood regimes have contributed to substantial declines in Upper Willamette River spring Chinook salmon and winter steelhead populations (NOAA Fisheries, 2008). Because the processes for habitat formation have been disrupted, the floodplain will likely see future declines in habitat quality and availability in coming decades (Wallick and others, 2013). Restoration projects can potentially offset some habitat losses, at least at the site scale, but these projects are expensive and may need long-term maintenance because of limited channel dynamism. On a large river like the Willamette, restoration activities only touch a small portion of the floodplain. Ecologically relevant outcomes are most likely achieved by targeting key limiting factors of the floodplain. To date, a monitoring program that informs effectiveness of site-scale restoration in the broader context of Willamette River processes does not exist.

The proposed monitoring program is designed to provide linkages among:

1) Specific goals for physical habitat improvements at site-level restoration projects.

2) Specific species, life stage and life history strategy, flow conditions, stream temperatures, and seasonal habitat limitation that each project is designed to affect.

3) The importance of each project relative to habitat conditions at reach scale or Anchor Habitat extents (e.g., at extent of Anchor Habitat, how much additional habitat that targets specific species/life stages/seasons will this project create?).

4) Effect of river-scale processes on the short-term and long-term success of the restoration project (e.g., flooding allows for inundation and fish access, but may also cause fill side channels with fine sediment).

5) Effect of restoration activity on native fish community over short (1-2 years) or longer-term (>3 years) time frames.