Snake Salt River Basin
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Snake/Salt River Basin Hoback River Table of Contents Watershed Description ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Aquatic Wildlife ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Identification of Conservation Areas ..................................................................................................................... 5 Threats......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Conservation Initiatives ........................................................................................................................................... .8 Recommended Conservation Actions .................................................................................................................. 11 Monitoring ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Literature Cited ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 Wyoming State Wildlife Action Plan – 2017 Page III – 16 - 1 Aquatic Basins Wyoming Game and Fish Department Snake/Salt River Basin Watershed Description Wyoming’s Lincoln, Teton, Sublette, and Park counties. Land ownership is predominantly Six major basins were identified for public with only 8% privately held. These conservation planning purposes under this State private lands, however, tend to be vital for Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) using aquatic wildlife along the riparian corridors. hydrographic boundaries and fisheries Public land is primarily managed by the U.S. assemblage and management considerations. Forest Service (69%) and National Park Service The basins each include one to four sub-regions (Grand Teton National Park, 21%). (4-digit hydrologic unit code [HUC] There are approximately 4,900 miles of streams watersheds). This approach allows the nesting on the USGS National Hydrography Dataset in of multiple spatial and temporal scales for the Snake/Salt River basin. Major drainages in planning and prioritizing conservation actions. the basin include the Salt, Hoback, Gros Ventre, The Snake/Salt River basin corresponds with Buffalo Fork and Snake rivers. the Upper Snake sub-region. It includes two 6- Additional information about the basins digit HUCs: Snake Headwaters and Upper drainages, geography, geology, land forms, Snake River (Figure 9), eight sub-basins (8-digit climate, dams, reservoirs and diversions, HUCs) and twenty-nine watersheds (10-digit hydrology, habitat types, land use and HUCs). These watersheds span an area of classifications are detailed in the 2010 SWAP. about 5,100 square miles in northwestern Wyoming State Wildlife Action Plan – 2017 Page III – 16- 2 Aquatic Basins Wyoming Game and Fish Department Snake/Salt River Basin Figure 9. Snake/Salt River Basin. Wyoming State Wildlife Action Plan – 2017 Page III – 16- 3 Aquatic Basins Wyoming Game and Fish Department Snake/Salt River Basin Aquatic Wildlife The native gamefish community is composed only of Snake River and Yellowstone Cutthroat Fish Trout and Mountain Whitefish. The nonnative Twenty-three fish species are found in the basin. gamefish community consists of seven species Cutthroat trout are represented by Yellowstone of introduced salmonids and chars. The Cutthroat Trout O. clarkii bouvieri and an nongame fish community consists of 10 native unnamed presumed subspecies, the fine-spotted species and the introduced Fathead Minnow or Snake River Cutthroat Trout O. clarkii ssp. and White Sucker. Additionally, various tropical Thirteen species or subspecies are native to the fish species have been illegally introduced into basin, and ten are introduced. The WGFD Kelly Warm Springs. recognizes and manages fine-spotted Snake Simon (1951) surveyed 10 sites in the River Cutthroat Trout separately from other Snake/Salt River basin and documented the cutthroats. This distinction has been made presence of all known native species, as well as within the WGFD management program since Arctic Grayling. The Snake River Cutthroat 1955. Trout has been considered a distinct, undefined, fine-spotted variety of cutthroat trout (Behnke 1992). Table 9. Fishes present in the Snake/Salt River basin. Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) are followed by an asterisk (*). Native game Native nongame Nonnative game Nonnative nongame Mountain Whitefish Bluehead Sucker* Bear River Cutthroat Fathead Minnow Snake River Cutthroat Longnose Dace Trout White Sucker Trout* Mottled Sculpin Brook Trout Yellowstone Cutthroat Mountain Sucker Brown Trout Trout* Northern Leatherside Golden Trout Chub* Grayling Paiute Sculpin Kokanee Salmon Redside Shiner Lake Trout Speckled Dace Rainbow Trout Utah Chub Utah Sucker Four fishes, including both subspecies of introduced in the basin although the timing and cutthroat trout, are considered Species of location is unknown. While White Sucker Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). The two remain rare, White Sucker x Utah Sucker cutthroat subspecies have long been the focus hybrids were common in samples recently of fisheries management efforts in the basin. analyzed (Mandeville et al. 2015). Bluehead Sucker and Northern Leatherside Chub are also SGCN. Aquatic Reptiles No turtles are native to the Snake/Salt River No known native species have been extirpated basin and none have been introduced. from the watershed, but two introduced nongame species have been documented in the Freshwater Mollusks and Crayfishes past decade. Fathead Minnow was first Wyoming is still in the discovery phase in terms documented in the Snake River below Jackson of its freshwater mussels and gastropods. Lake Dam in 2002 and in the Lower Salt basin Although fingernail and pill clams and aquatic in 2003. White Sucker have also been gastropods are often encountered during Wyoming State Wildlife Action Plan – 2017 Page III – 16- 4 Aquatic Basins Wyoming Game and Fish Department Snake/Salt River Basin invertebrate sampling, few published accounts Table 10. Species of Greatest Conservation exist (Beetle 1989, Henderson 1924, Hoke 1979, Need present in the Snake/Salt River Basin Hovingh 2004). Many native mussels, clams, and gastropods are considered SGCN by the Fish Bluehead Sucker WGFD due to a lack of information regarding Northern Leatherside Chub status. Snake River Cutthroat Trout Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout A single species of mussel, the Western Pearlshell, is known to inhabit the Snake/Salt Crustaceans River basin. Western Pearlshell are widespread Pilose Crayfish and are not considered a SGCN (Mathias 2014). Little is known about species present and Mollusks Jackson Lake Springsnail distributions of gastropods in the basin. One native species, the Jackson Lake Springsnail, has been documented in the watershed. The nonnative New Zealand Mudsnail has been introduced to the basin above Jackson Lake. All of the native gastropods in the basin are considered SGCN. Identification of Conservation Areas The only crayfish species that has been Most of the Snake/Salt basin is of high documented in the Snake/Salt River basin is the conservation value for SGCN. Priority areas for Pilose Crayfish. This is a native species found conservation activities during the term of this during both recent surveys (Hubert 1988, plan are shown in Figure 10. Hubert 2010). There is no evidence of the presence of non-indigenous crayfishes in the Aquatic conservation priorities in the watershed Snake River drainage. include, but are not limited to, the mainstem Snake and Salt River corridors, spring streams tributary to these rivers, the lower reaches of Pacific Creek, and Snake and Salt River tributaries that sustain wild cutthroat populations and Bluehead Suckers. Additionally the Gros Ventre River drainage is a priority for both cutthroat trout and Northern Leatherside Chub. Wyoming State Wildlife Action Plan – 2017 Page III – 16- 5 Aquatic Basins Wyoming Game and Fish Department Snake/Salt River Basin Figure 10. Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Areas in the Snake/Salt River Basin. Threats drainage severely fragment the watershed and limit fish movement, mainly through stream dewatering. Lateral and longitudinal hydrologic Water development/altered flow regimes – connectivity is reduced and fish populations are Moderate physically restricted from habitats necessary to Natural flow regimes in stream segments complete their life history in many parts of the around the state have been altered by human drainage. activities, including irrigation diversions and water developments for enhanced water supply, The combined effects of Jackson Lake Dam and hydropower, and flood control. These altered the levee system have altered flow regimes, flow regimes are also a consequence of broad- instream habitat, and riparian function. Levees scale changes in land use and management were initially used in the 1950s to protect associated with agriculture, grazing, timber private property and now constrain the Snake harvest, and housing development (see River from Grand Teton National Park to south Wyoming Leading Wildlife Conservation of Jackson. Jackson Lake Dam has altered flow Challenges – Disruption of Historic regimes and blocked