Watershed Versus Species Restoration

A Tale of Two Species By Mike Montagne USFWS Fish and Wildlife Service Strategic Habitat Conservation Southwest Region Emphasis Areas • East Texas/Oklahoma Big Cypress Bayou Watershed • Rio Grande Big Bend Reach The Species Rio Grande/Silvery Minnow Big Cypress Bayou/Paddlefish Rio Grande Silvery Minnow American Paddlefish (Hybognathus amarus) (Polyodon Spathula) • Status: Federal Endangered • Status: Texas Threatened • Extirpated From Texas • Extirpated from BC Bayou • Recovery Efforts Underway • Recovery Efforts Underway • Ongoing Reintroduction Efforts • Ongoing Reintroduction Efforts • Production/Augmentation • Production/Augmentation • Wild and Scenic River • Ramsar Site Designation Designation • Long Lived • Short Lived The Different Approaches Rio Grande Silvery Minnow American Paddlefish (Hybognathus amarus) (Polyodon Spathula) • Species Restoration • Watershed Restoration • No Environmental Flows • Experimental Environmental • Limited Restoration Flows in Place • Large Scale Reintroductions • Habitat Restoration • Beginning Larger Scale Reintroductions Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Texas Reintroduction Effort 2008-2017 Treaty/BBEST/Texas Clean Rivers Near Johnson Ranch, Big Bend NP Eddy 1945 • Channel spans entire width of bedrock walls Sand Bars • Alternating sand bars • Active eddy 2008 • Floodplain surface inset within bedrock walls • Steep, high banks completely colonized by exotic plants • Eddy has filled with sediment and is colonized by exotic plants • “floodplain” disconnected from active channel From Dean and Schmidt 2011 Stocking RGSM Monitoring Stocking/Recapture History Number Year Stocking Location RGSM Source # Recaptured Comments Stocked Grassy Banks Santa Elena 2008 431,000 SNARRC Rio Grande Village Adam’s Ranch 2009 509,988 See above SNARRC 7 Searched where they were stocked 2010 500,000 See above SNARRC 139 80 in February, 36 in May, 8 in August at Terlingua/Santa Elena, captured some at RGV 2011 304,648 See above SNARRC 109 37 in February, 13 in June, 8 in August, 3 in October, captured some at Boquillas, RGV, Contrabando, and Adams Ranch 2012 120,000 See above SNARRC 42 21 at Adams Ranch, 7 at Contrabando, 5 at Sant Elena/Terlingua in February, 4 at La Linda in April 2013 72,000 Shaffer’s Crossing SNARRC 0 2014 70,000 Shaffer’s Crossing SNARRC 2 2015 312,618 Shaffer’s Crossing SNARRC/UNFH 3 2016 La Linda SNARRC 410,931 Dryden SNARRC Fosters UNFH 41 100's more seen at fosters Spring, no attempt to recapture. Total 2,731,185 343 Total to date recaptured Future Recommendations • Suspend reintroduction effort until environmental flows can be implemented • Implement environmental flows • Use RGSM reintroduction, and other declining fish species, as a measure of effectiveness of future environmental flow regimes and habitat improvements Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake Environmental Flows Project Ecological Monitoring and Research • American paddlefish reintroduction • Water quality • Sediment transport • Nutrient monitoring • Riparian forest and soil moisture response to environmental flows • Bluehead shiner life history and distribution • Giant Salvinia Control (chemical and biological) 3 water crossings replaced with a bridge and rerouted another on 7.1 miles of Prairie Creek in 2017. (Partners Program) Watershed/Upland Restoration (Prescribed fire)Within the Cypress Basin 5 projects, 2,747 acres ($106,000 spent by program and $154,000 by private landowners) National Wildlife Refuge System • Established Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 2000 • Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge contributes refuge water rights to help meet the recommended environmental flows out of Lake o’ the Pines Paddlefish Reintroduction • Initial funding provided by USACE, USFWS, and the Caddo Lake Institute • Fish provided by Tishomingo NFH, and hauled by TPWD in special tanks for paddlefish Paddlefish Decline • In 1959, Ferrell’s Bridge Dam was completed creating Lake O’ the Pines, and the paddlefish fishery began to decline, and was gone by 1980. • The population likely crashed due to loss of spawning shoals and increased sedimentation caused by the altered hydrological regime that reduced spring flood pulses and restricted channel connectivity to backwater areas. Previous Paddlefish Reintroduction • Between 1992 and 1998, as part of a larger paddlefish restoration project in 6 watersheds by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. • Over 73,438 fingerling paddlefish were stocked into Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bayou, averaging less than 250 mm in total length (TL). • No returns were documented in Caddo Lake or within the Big Cypress Bayou. The results of the larger paddlefish project were also not encouraging. • Recapture rates in other systems were extremely low, and no survival rates or population estimates were able to be calculated. • However, none of the recapture efforts were in the BCB or Caddo Lake. Phase 1 and 2 Phase 3 Long Term (10 year) Tracking Juveniles into Stocking Plan Adulthood Aquatic Habitat Restoration Spawning Shoal Mapping Restoring Nursery Habitat Outreach Collins Academy Watershed vs. Species Restoration Big Cypress Bayou Rio Grand Silvery Minnow • Many more partners • Not taking hold • Paddlefish staying in system • Other species declining • Recaptured many of them • No reliable water except spring influenced canyon • Good Health sections • Environmental flows through 2021 • No environmental flows in immediate future • Additional life history stages to be examined .

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