Tools for Aquatic Habitat Conservation on Working Lands

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Tools for Aquatic Habitat Conservation on
Working Lands
Kathryn Boyer West National Technology Support
Center
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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New Tools in progress
Bull Trout
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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New Tools in progress
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Chapter 1. Ecological and Physical
Considerations for Stream
ProjectsChapter 2. Design ProcedureChapter
3. Goals, Objectives and RiskChapter 4.
Site Assessment and InvestigationChapter 5.
Stream HydrologyChapter 6. Stream
HydraulicsChapter 7. Channel DesignChapter
8. Sediment Impact AssessmentsChapter 9.
Treatment TechniquesChapter 10. Project
ImplementationChapter 11. Maintenance and
MonitoringChapter 12. Permitting Overview
Chapter 13. Example Projects
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Technical NoteConservation Practice Standard
forFish Passage - Code 396
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
Figure 25. Sheetpile pool-and-weir fishway.
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Fish Passage - Code 396
Ecological Barriers
Physical Barriers
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
Figure 25. Sheetpile pool-and-weir fishway.
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FishXing 3.0 Modeling Fish Capabilities and
Culvert Hydraulics for the Assessment and Design
of Stream Crossings
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Fish passage thru culverts

• FishXing is free and available for download _at_
• http//www.stream.fs.fed.us/fishxing

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Fish Passage thru Diversions
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Requires a screen and a type of ladder or weir
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Fish Screen Tech Note - NEEDED!

• Facility to protect fish from entrainment
• Leaves fish in (or returns fish to) familiar,
  safe habitat
• Criteria for acceptable features, based on
  swimming capabilities and behavior of target fish
  

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Multi-State Aquatic Resource Inventory System
(MARIS)
What is it? Cooperative pilot project to make
accessible, via a common, internet-based
application, selected fish population and habitat
survey data. Lake Data is linked stream fish
population data and habitat information is being
developed. Cooperating States Illinois, Iowa,
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming. Each state will maintain authority and
responsibility for its own database, but will
support internet access through a defined set of
summary queries and reports.
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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New Insights for Aquatic Conservation on Working
Lands
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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5 Projects with a common theme Sustaining or
restoring ecological processes or functions
important to aquatic species
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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The riverscape integrates multi-dimensional
processes

• Consider ecological processes and the functions
  they affect

Water
Wood
sediment
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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1. Farming with aquatic species
Summer grass field
Seasonal flood pulses
Winter habitat
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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2001-2002
2002-2003

• Vertebrates
• 322 fish 900 fish
• 10 fish species 12 fish species
• 298 amphibians 83 amphibians
• 3 amphibian species 3 amphibian species
• 1 turtle

2 exotic species
All native species
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 1 Management Implications

• Fish abundance increases with proximity to
  perennial water keep drainages connected to
  mainstem streams and rivers.
• Fish abundance increases with channel/ditch
  complexity provide vegetated substrates,
  minimize channel straightening, maintain woody or
  herbaceous riparian zone.
• Native species utilize seasonal streams for
  refuge and reproduction

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 1 Management Implications

• Fish abundance increases with proximity to
  perennial water keep drainages connected to
  mainstem streams and rivers.

Ephemeral stream converted to drainage ditch
Mainstem river
Rye grass field
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 1 Management Implications
2. Fish abundance increases with channel/ditch
complexity
Provide diverse substrates, minimize channel
straightening, maintain woody or herbaceous
riparian zone.
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 1 Management Implications
3. Native species utilize seasonal streams for
refuge and reproduction
11 in mainstems
10 natives to 1 non-native
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 2. Restoring Wetlands as Winter Habitat
for Fish
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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2. Restoring Wetlands as Habitat for Fish

• Fish use floodplain wetlands as refuge and
  rearing areas. 98 of species were native sp.
• Restored wetlands had higher abundances of
  nongame native fishes than in oxbow habitats.
• Coho salmon was the dominant salmonid at all
  sites
• Enhanced wetlands had significantly more
  yearling coho salmon than unenhanced wetlands

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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2. Restoring Wetlands as Habitat for Fish

• Dissolved oxygen decreased in emergent
  wetlands throughout the season and approached
  lethal limits for juvenile salmon.
• Survival of fishes using emergent wetlands was
  dependent on movement to the river before water
  quality decreased and/or the wetland became
  isolated and stranding occurred.
• Emigration patterns demonstrated that coho
  salmon yearling and young-of-the-year emigrated
  as habitat conditions declined.

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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2. Restoring Wetlands as Habitat for Fish
implications
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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3. Dugouts as floodplain habitats sources or
sinks for Topeka shiners.
The Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) is a native
prairie species that inhabits headwater
tributaries of six central plains states Iowa,
Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and
Nebraska and South Dakota.
The Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) is a native
prairie species that inhabits headwater
tributaries of six central plains states Iowa,
Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South
Dakota
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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3. Dugouts as floodplain habitats sources or
sinks for Topeka shiners.
SOURCES Instream and frequently flooded,
connected dugouts had the highest probability of
fish inhabitance, while having the most complex
communities. The most abundant and temporally
consistent Topeka shiner populations were
associated with off-channel (i.e. disconnected),
frequently flooded dugouts. SINKS Potential
entrapment can occur dig them deep and maintain
water levels for fish to survive until next
flood.
The Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) is a native
prairie species that inhabits headwater
tributaries of six central plains states Iowa,
Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South
Dakota
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Project 4 How does grazing management influence
riparian resource subsidies important to fish?
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Riparian vegetation, input of terrestrial
invertebrates and emergent adult aquatic insects
to streams, invertebrates in trout diets, and
trout abundance, were all significantly greater
in sites managed under high-intensity/short-durati
on grazing than those managed for
season-long grazing. Moreover, these differences
were generally large, often 50-200 greater in
HISD than SLG sites.
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA
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National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA
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And what about streambank stabilization?
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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Stream barbs are increasingly prescribed as a
tool to improve stream habitat for fish and USDA
Farm Bill programs such as WHIP, EQIP, and CREP
are used to meet fish and riparian habitat
objectives of private landowners. While stream
barbs have demonstrated their effectiveness at
arresting streambank erosion, their effect on
stream and riparian habitats and the fauna that
inhabit them have not been evaluated
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA
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National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA
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Project 5 Effects if Stream Barbs 0n Fish and
their Habitats.

• 1. How do stream barbs influence sediment
  deposition in meandering streams and rivers,
  point-bar structure, and riparian plant
  recruitment?
• 2. How do stream barbs influence complexity of
  instream habitats, recruitment of organic matter,
  food web processes, and abundance/distribution of
  important aquatic species in streams?
• 3. How do stream barbs of mainstem streams/rivers
  affect tributary junctions upstream and
  downstream of their placement, and the ability of
  fish to seasonally migrate from mainstems to
  tributary refuges?

National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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5 Projects with a common theme Sustaining or
restoring ecological processes or functions
important to aquatic species
National Fish and Wildlife Workshop Sacramento,
CA 6/16/2005
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New Insights , testable hypotheses, living
laboratories on working lands Whats next?
Develop design guidance for NRCS field staff to
insure aquatic and riparian habitat values are
protected or enhanced during and after wetland
enhancement, drainage ditch management, grazing
management, dugout construction, and stream barb
construction.
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