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Coastal Fish Habitat Partnerships
Fall 2016 Newsletter
Pacific Lamprey Fish Habitat Partnership

The Pacific Lamprey Fish Habitat Partnership (PLFHP) was recognized as a full partnership by the NFHP Board on June 29, 2016.  The PLFHP is a collaboration of Native American tribes, federal, state, municipal and local agencies working to conserve Pacific Lamprey throughout its range in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.  Once widespread along the West Coast of North America, Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) abundance is well below historical levels and distribution has contracted within the U.S. range. The goal of the partnership is to achieve long-term persistence of Pacific Lamprey and their habitats, and support traditional tribal cultural use of Pacific Lamprey throughout their historic range in the United States. The partnership is working collaboratively to achieve this goal by maintaining viable populations and their habitats in areas where they exist currently, restoring populations and their habitats where they are extirpated or at risk of extirpation, and doing so in a manner that addresses the importance of lamprey to tribal peoples. Because of lampreys' unique life history and ecological role the effort should broaden the natural diversity and improve habitats for other aquatic species as well. The partnership envisions a future where threats to Pacific Lamprey and their habitats are reduced, and the historic geographic range and ecological role of Pacific Lamprey are restored to the greatest extent possible. Recent restoration efforts include lamprey passage structures on mainstem hydroelectric facilities and tributary barriers; improving screening to prevent entrainment of juveniles; translocation of lamprey to extirpated areas; and implementation of Best Management Practices for minimizing impacts to lamprey during stream disturbing activities.

Article2All-Alaska Fish Habitat Partnerships ESRI Story Map    
Five national Fish Habitat Partnerships working in Alaska, Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Partnership, Mat-Su Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership, Kenai Peninsula Fish Habitat Partnership, Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership and the Western Native Trout Initiative, with assistance from our partners from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and a very talented Directorate Fellow, recently produced a beautiful story map highlighting our work in Alaska. Click on the photo below to check it out!   The full website dedicated to the Alaska based fish habitat partnerships can be viewed here.
anchor7PMEP to Inform Tidal Wetland Restoration and Conservation Efforts on the West Coast

Laura Brophy, Director of the Estuary Technical Group (ETG) at the Institute for Applied Ecology, will lead a team effort to develop a comprehensive, rapid estimate of tidal wetland loss for the entire U.S. West Coast. Joining Brophy on the team will be staff of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC). The team's spatial analysis will compare two data sources: 1) the National Wetland Inventory (NWI); and 2) an elevation-based map of West Coast current and historical tidal wetlands, completed in 2016 through a collaboration between PMEP, ETG, PSMFC and NOAA. NWI areas attributed as tidal will be considered to represent intact tidal wetland habitat. Areas attributed as non-tidal in the NWI (or not mapped as wetlands in the NWI), but within the 2016 mapped extent of current and historical tidal wetlands, will represent areas of tidal wetland loss. Products will include maps of tidal wetland areas lost; tables summarizing losses by state, ecoregion, estuary, and estuary type; and a report summarizing methods, limitations of the analysis, and appropriate uses of the products. 
  
The maps and data summaries from this rapid, West Coast-wide analysis will constitute a new and important resource for regional and coastwide estuarine resource management. No previous efforts have used comprehensive, elevation-based mapping of historical tidal wetland extent as a basis for calculating tidal wetland losses across a broad geographic scale. 
  
"These new maps and summaries will resolve a critical data gap facing tidal wetland restoration and conservation efforts across the West Coast," said Brophy. "These products will not only help inform restoration and conservation project development, but will also be a useful data source for studies seeking to quantify the impact of wetland loss on ecosystem services, such as juvenile fish habitat and carbon sequestration."
Preliminary example of the type of map that will be produced. Tidal wetlands have been lost as a result of diking or other causes (red in figure), while green areas represent intact tidal wetlands and waters.
2016 WNTI Small Grant Recipients
 
The Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI) awarded $31,965 to 12 project proposals in July, matched by $468,575 in other public and private funding, for a total projects' value of $500,540.   

WNTI gratefully thanks our partners at Bass Pro Shops, Orvis, Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers, Blue Valley Ranch, and all our individual donors for supporting our 2016 Small Grants Program!

Arizona
Arizona's Apache Trout - Get to Know Your Native
Grant Applicant: Arizona Council, Trout Unlimited

California
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout recovery interpretive panel
Grant Applicant: Southwest Council of the International Federation of Fly Fishers

Colorado
Restoration of Colorado's State Fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout
Grant Applicant: Colorado Trout Unlimited

Trout on Tejon
Grant Applicant:Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Bear Creek Watershed/Jones Park Restoration: Directional and Interpretive Signage
Grant Applicant:El Paso County, Colorado

Montana
Sucker Creek Westslope Cutthroat Trout Passage Project
Grant Applicant: Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Dry Cottonwood Cross-boundary Trout Conservation
Grant Applicant: Clark Fork Coalition

Temperature and Sediment Reduction to Improve Stream Health and Fish Habitat
Grant Applicant: Bitter Root Water Forum

Nevada
Exploration Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT) Camp
Grant Applicant: Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum

Oregon
Bum Creek Instream Restoration
Grant Applicant: Smith River Watershed Council

Sprague River Restoration 2016
Grant Applicant: Klamath Lake Land Trust

Washington
Redband Trout Thermal Habitat Assessment
Grant Applicant: Spokane Riverkeeper/Center for Justice

For more information about each project, click here.  
California Fish Passage Forum Initiates Case Studies on Fish Passage Barrier Removal Effectiveness Monitoring

To share lessons learned, best management practices, and outcomes associated with monitoring fish passage barrier removal projects, the California Fish Passage Forum has produced the first in a series of case studies - the Glennbrook Gulch Dam Removal Project.

The collaborative project, located on a tributary to the Albion River in Mendocino County, California, helped to restore fish passage by removing an earthen dam and allowing unimpeded passage for all life stages of salmonids. The project was monitored to evaluate the response by both fisheries and the stream channel to dam removal. 

Both biological and physical monitoring conducted during a six-year period revealed that the dam removal project achieved its intended purpose:
  • Juvenile steelhead, coastal rainbow trout, and adult and juvenile coho salmon recolonized the open habitat;
  • Spawning and rearing habitat throughout Glennbrook Gulch has improved;
  • The distance of salmonid distribution upstream of the dam removal project has increased every year since dam removal;
  • Glennbrook Gulch as well as the newly opened habitat upstream of the dam removal site is serving as important non-natal rearing habitat for coho salmon; and
  • Natural redistribution of stored sediment upstream of the dam, coupled with installation of habitat structures downstream, are providing a more diverse substrate size and configuration, and improved spawning and rearing conditions for coho salmon and steelhead.
Stay tuned for the next project - Salt River Ecosystem Restoration Project - in a series of projects that will demonstrate the results of effectiveness monitoring for different types of fish passage barrier removal projects that span the coast of California.