An experimental habitat enhancement effort for a sandy river: San Rafael River restoration project Samuel Lyster Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University
Brian G. Laub Department of Watershed Sciences, The Ecology Center, Utah State University
Justin Jimenez Bureau of Land Management
Phaedra Budy US Geological Survey, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University Outline
The Project
The River
The Experiments
The Results and lessons learned Guiding vision The San Rafael River is a dynamic riverine ecosystem and is functioning to provide necessary and sufficient habitat to ensure persistence of native aquatic and riparian species.
1. Recover self-sustaining populations of the three species and other native fish in the San Rafael River (Two tiers) a. Maintain and enhance connectivity between the upper and lower San Rafael River and the Green River b. Increase populations of the three species and other native fishes throughout the San Rafael River
2. Ensure persistence of native riparian vegetation, including willow stands and cottonwood stands with several age classes
3. Provide necessary and sufficient habitat to ensure persistence of native fish and vegetation
4. Conduct sufficient monitoring of restoration impacts to quantitatively assess whether the restoration actions are accomplishing the restoration objectives and to determine the causes of success or failure The Project
Biosphere Fish Fish Riparian Fish Veg response
Hydrosphere Geomorphic Habitat Geosphere history response San Rafael Restoration and Planning Monitoring Plan Tamarisk removal, Beaver Implementation dam analogs, Gravel Bars The River • Public land • Private dams – Highly regulated • Many stakeholders: – Agriculture Green – Industry (2 coal fired power River plants) – Recreation (Little Grand Canyon, river running, off-roading – Highly endemic and threatened fish
5 Biosphere The ‘Three Species’ Endemic and threatened San Rafael Swell Desert Reach: Lower population of native fish
Confluence with Green River
6 Biosphere - competition and predation from non-native fish - dewatering during dry periods - increased water temperatures and Desert Reach: Lower - lack of complex habitat (riffles, population of native pools, and backwaters (Bottcher fish 2009, Budy et al. 2009, Walsworth 2011, Keller 2012).
- native fish observed in the lower San Rafael River where complex habitat is available (Bottcher 2009). 7 Hydrology
Reduced snowmelt
flows
Summer/Fall monsoons
Mean Annual Precipitation 1981-2010 (mm) 150 - 200 200 - 250 250 - 300 300 - 400 400 - 500 500 - 1,000 8 1000 - 2000 Articles, Reports and Theses Half a century of sediment delivery with no1917 spring runoff
~1911
1994
2011 10 The Experiment The challenge: restoring a river without any water
Pilot project: - Experiment with 3 restoration interventions and evaluate their success: 1) Tamarisk removal 2) Beaver dam analogs 3) Artificial gravel bars Location of pilot project
11 Tamarisk removal Treatment • 63 acres
12 Tamarisk Removal
• Objectives
– Encourage lateral channel migration Pre-Flood – Increase wood inputs to river
– Promote native vegetation establishment
• Limited access to floodplain • Poor timing Post-Flood Beaver Beaver Dam Analogs • 8 complexes; 34 structures
15 Beaver Dam Analogs Outcomes Bank scour • 31 of 34 structures breached • most structures provided local increases in topographic complexity
16 Mixed sand and Beaver Dam Analogs gravel bar deposit
BDA
15 m
17 Artificial Gravel Bars • 2 bars • ~60 tons each
18 kg/m2 Artificial Gravel Bars
• Increased amount of exposed gravels in the bed downstream of the bar
• Tracer study provided insight on the sources and sinks of native gravel
Exposed gravel
Gravel bar
19 20 Lessons learned
1. Baby steps 2. Monitor 3. Adapt
21 Acknowledgements
Funding People People • Bureau of Reclamation • Researchers • Beaver Analogs • Bureau of Land Management – Jared Bottcher, Tim Walsworth, Steve Fortney – Ben Stout, Kelsey • National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Ballard, Alex • Utah Division of Wildlife Resources • San Rafael Team Walker, Others: • US Geological Survey – Utah – Paul Birdsey, Jeff Brower, Dave Dean, Dan Angela, David, Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Eddington, Ian Gowing, Carl Ivory, Jeremy Jayla, Jordan, Jarnecke, Dan Keller, Wally Macfarlane, Michaela, Mike, Research Unit Peter MacKinnon, Milada Majerova, Chris Nicole, Sean, TJ • Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative McGinty, Cassie Mellon, Justin Miner, Elijah Portugal, Jared Reese, Jack Schmidt, Mike Scott, Dave Speas, Gary Thiede, Dana Truman, Peter Wilcock, Krissy Wilson, et al. • Plan Reviewers – Paul Badame, Melissa Dickard, Julie Knudson, Thomas Mendenhall, Christine Rasmussen, Michael Roberts, Janice Staats Questions
23 Articles, Reports and Theses Bottcher, J. L. (2009). “Maintaining Population Persistence in the Face of an Extremely Altered Hydrograph : Implications for Three Sensitive Fishes in a Tributary of the Green River , Utah.” 73. Bottcher, J. L., Walsworth, T. E., Thiede, G. P., Budy, P., and Speas, D. W. (2013). “Frequent Usage of Tributaries by the Endangered Fishes of the Upper Colorado River Basin: Observations from the San Rafael River, Utah.” North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 33(3), 585–594. Budy, P., Bottcher, J., and Thiede, G. P. (2009). Habitat needs , movement patterns , and vital rates of endemic Utah fishes in a tributary to the Green River , Utah. Fortney, S. (2013a). “Thesis Chapter 3: Channel Change on the lower San Rafael River, UT.” Utah State University. Fortney, S. (2013b). “Thesis Chapter 2 : Geomorphic Organization of the lower 90 kilometers of the San Rafael River.” Utah State University. Fortney, S. T., Schmidt, J. C., and Dean, D. J. (2011). Final Report Establishing the geomorphic context for wetland and riverine restoration of the San Rafael River. Logan, UT. Laub, B. (2013). Restoration and Monitoring Plan for Native Fish and Riparian Vegetation on the San Rafael River , Utah. Logan. Laub, B. G., and Budy, P. (2015). “Assessing the likely effectiveness of multispecies management for imperiled desert fishes with niche overlap analysis.” Conservation Biology, 00(11). Macfarlane, W. W., and McGinty, C. M. (2012). Fine Scale Riparian Vegetation Mapping Lower San Rafael River Report to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM. (2014). Ch.1-2, Environmental Assessment, Lower San Rafael River Restoration Project, DOI-BLM-UT-G022-2013-0060-EA. Price, UT. Walsworth, T. (2011). “Analysis of food web effects of non-native fishes and evaluation of stream restoration potential for the San Rafael River, Utah.” 1–123. Walsworth, T. E., Budy, P., and Thiede, G. P. (2013). “Longer food chains and crowded niche space: effects of multiple invaders on desert stream food web structure.” Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 22(3), 439–452.