Coldwater Fish/Riparian Corridors
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A Spatially Explicit and Quantitative Vulnerability Assessment of Coldwater Fish Habitat and Riparian Corridors in the Intermountain West Prepared by D. Max Smith and Megan M. Friggens United States Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2017 Cover photos: Cottonwood Creek, UT (D. Max Smith), New Mexico jumping mouse (US Forest Service Region 3), Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Photo Craig D. Young) Max Smith is a Research Associate with the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Megan Friggens is a Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station This analysis was prepared in partial fulfillment of agreements between Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) and the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SRLCC: FWS #15-IA- 011221632-164 and BOR #15-IA-11221632-163). This is one in a series of four assessments produced for focal landscapes within the SRLCC. Data associated with this assessment can be found at the SRLCC Conservation Planning Atlas web portal: https://srlcc.databasin.org. Acknowledgements: We thank the participants of the 2016 and 2017 Adaptation Forum’s held in Durango, CO, and Albuquerque and Taos, NM. Logistical support was provided by David Hawksworth and the Institute for Natural Resources at Portland State University. For further questions or comments, contact: [email protected] 2 Contents Purpose .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Background ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Focal Resources and Landscapes: ................................................................................................. 5 Vulnerability Assessments: ........................................................................................................... 6 Co-producing Vulnerability Assessments for the SRLCC: Adaptation Forums .......................... 7 Part 1. Literature and Status Review of Focal Resources: Aquatic Resources ................................. 9 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 9 Native fish: Status and Habitat Requirements ............................................................................ 18 Threats to Native Fishes.............................................................................................................. 21 Riparian Corridors: Background and Status ............................................................................... 22 Climate Change Related Issues and Threats ............................................................................... 24 Part 2. Vulnerability Assessment for Fish and Riparian Focal Resources ..................................... 30 Methods....................................................................................................................................... 30 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 37 Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 79 References ....................................................................................................................................... 81 3 Purpose A major challenge of managing rapidly changing landscapes is translating broad concepts into specific, tangible actions. Vulnerability assessments are a key step toward identifying effective management strategies and prioritizing specific management actions to conserve and restore natural resources. As part of the effort to utilize landscape conservation planning and design for the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SRLCC), the RMRS developed a vulnerability assessment approach that: 1) covers a diverse set of focal resource targets; 2) incorporates input from science and working group members and other stakeholders; 3) compliments the overarching principles guiding science and management planning within the LCCs (Box 1). Our approach borrows from other successful assessments strategies and used adaptation forums to facilitate stakeholder input. As part of this work, RMRS has produced a series of state of knowledge syntheses and developed spatially explicit vulnerability assessment products including maps, datasets and training materials. It is the objective of this project that these products provide the SRLCC stakeholders with the capacity to identify shared conservation priorities and goals. All data and associated webinar and workshop information is available online to facilitate additional analyses and assessments identified by users. The following report contains the synthesis and analysis component of this project. In the first half of this report, you will find a review of background information and ongoing activities for streams, native fish and riparian ecosystems within two SRLCC focal areas: The Four Corners and Upper Rio Grande (see https://southernrockieslcc.org/geographical-areas for more information). The second half of this report presents the methods and results of our vulnerability assessment. Box 1. Coordinating with the LCC Strategic Plan The vulnerability assessment process and its products contribute to multiple objectives outlined within the LCC Network Strategic Plan. 1. Vulnerability Assessments identify the relative vulnerability of focal targets to climate change thereby providing mechanisms for prioritizing science and management needs. 2. When conducted for multiple time periods or climate scenarios, measures of vulnerability may also identify urgency. 3. Vulnerability Assessments identify how and why resources may be vulnerable to climate change thereby providing starting points for management planning, conservation, and monitoring. 4. Vulnerability Assessments consider measures of uncertainty and identify areas needing additional research. Background In 2016, the Rocky Mountain Research Station began to develop vulnerability assessment products for SRLCC focal resources. The objectives of the vulnerability assessment project were multiple: 4 1. Summarize current status, potential climate change impacts, and other issues facing SRLCC Focal Resources in the Upper Rio Grande and Four Corners Geographic Focus Areas. 2. Identify climate change impacts and other issues facing natural and cultural resources in the southern tier of SRLCC (includes the Upper Rio Grande and Four Corners Geographic Focus Areas). 3. Develop a Vulnerability Assessments approach to allow integration with other assessments and Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) efforts of BLM, FS, CNHP and other partners. 4. Apply Vulnerability Assessments approach to quantify vulnerability of SRLCC Focal Resources and Geographic Focus Area select targets. Focal Resources and Landscapes: Prior to the involvement of RMRS, SRLCC staff and steering committee members identified five focal resources, native fish, stream flow, elk and mule deer, sagebrush ecosystems, and cultural resources, and three focal landscapes, the Green River Basin, the Four Corners, and the Upper Rio Grande (https://southernrockieslcc.org/geographical-areas). The assessments conducted by RMRS regard focal resources in the Four Corners and Upper Rio Grande (Fig. 1). After receiving feedback from a series of Adaptation Forums in 2016 (see below), we refined the focal resources targets to include riparian areas and pinyon-juniper habitats. We also dropped cultural resources from the current effort (now addressed through another project: https: //southernrockieslcc.org/issue /cultural-resources). Figure 1. Southern Rockies Landscape Cooperative (SRLCC) boundaries and focal areas addressed this assessment. 5 Vulnerability Assessments: Vulnerability assessments are a critical component in adaptive management planning and risk analysis. An assessment of vulnerability can identify relative impacts from disturbance and the source of those impacts, thereby facilitating the identification and prioritization of management strategies. Vulnerability is a key concept for assessing climate impacts to natural resources and has been adopted by the Forest Service and other agencies as a primary mechanism for developing effective adaptation options to manage natural resources under climate change (e.g. USDA Forest Service 2011). Climate change and related vulnerability assessments (hereafter VA) are initiated during the planning phase of conservation projects to provide information on relative impacts and priority needs within a target system. VA are amendable to multiple data sources and incorporate a variety of analysis methods thereby providing a framework for creating diverse data products that might be useful for planning efforts. Thus, the utility of VA can extend beyond initial efforts to identify climate change impacts. We developed a vulnerability assessment framework based on the core principles common to many climate change vulnerability assessments (Box 2). Box 2. Primary Elements of a VA Exposure: The magnitude of climatic or ecological changes within target landscape Sensitivity: The response of targets to exposure Adaptive Capacity: The potential of target to cope with exposure As commonly applied to climate change issues, VA provide