Stream Habitat Management 2010

Urban Stream Discussion Part 1

2010-12-12T18:51:00.001-05:00

I focused on the first set of questions that were directly related to the reading from the discussion led by Ben and myself on urban streams.

As indicated in the reading, why may have previous studies demonstrated that effective impervious area (EIA) is a “better” predictor of stream biological and chemical response than total impervious area (TIA)?

-Effective impervious cover area is impervious cover which is directly connected to a stream. For example, a parking lot that is directly adjacent to a stream. Where as total impervious area includeds all the impervious surfaces such as sidewalks. Therefore, EIA is a stronger indicator for the effects of impervious cover on a stream

2. What is the importance of understanding the historic land cover of an area for predicting current fish assemblages of a stream?

- Understanding the historic land cover of an area is important for predicting the current fish assemblages of a stream because the historic land use could have already degraded the habitat and affect the fish assemblages, such as impoundments could have lead to the populations not being able to be restored to historic population numbers and the introduction of new fish species.

3. Why might historic land use predict abundance of one fish species but be a poor predictor of another?

-Because the fish that was used in the study, E. scotti, did not show a change in abundance with urban areas as compared to the forested areas.

4. Why might hydrogeomorphic models be a poorer predictor compared to the impervious cover area models for the species used in this study?

- Its not that they are necessarily poor indicators. Often the effective impervious cover influences these indicators as well.

5. Why do you think the species chosen for this study were used as indicator species?

-They are limited in range and are not found abundantly over all. Also, they are fairly sensitive to changes in the geomorphologic processes,

6. What are some indicators of historic land use and how can these be applied to understanding the historic land use?

- Impoundments and reservoirs are fairly good indicators of historic land use.

Developing Sediment Criteria for Water Quality Discussion

2010-12-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

During the discussion, I wasn't sure everyone was quite up to speed with the whole SABS framework...so I'm putting up these figures and tables from the paper to try and walk you through the most important points.

We definitely talked about the first figure above. It is the basic framework and main points to follow in the process of developing water quality criteria for suspended and bedded sediments. The framework is not necessarily limited to sediment criteria...it could be used for any non traditional pollutant that researchers have not been able to test in a laboratory toxicity test setting.

In tables 1 and 2, Cormier et al. go through a hypothetical example to show you how the process might work. You can see in Table 1 which statistical tests they used and what they intended to learn from the tests. The response indicator they chose was EPT richness.

In table 2, you can see the results of the statistical analysis. The bottom line (which I circled) is the criteria they chose as their benchmarks for management. They decided on these numbers for a hypothetical manager trying to protect EPT richness in a mid-Atlantic stream.

Here are some of the questions we went over and how everyone answered:

What are some ways the authors suggest sediment can affect the biological integrity of waterways?

Low water clarity impairs visibility affecting many animal behaviors such as prey capture, predator avoidance, recognition of reproductive cues, and other behaviors that alter survival.

At very high levels, suspended sediments can cause physical abrasion and clogging of filtration and respiratory organs.

Suspended particles decrease light penetration required for photosynthesis

What are the sources of deposited and bedded sediments? How do human activities increase the rate at which the sediment gets into streams?

Topsoil erosion from land in the watershed

- Deforestation

- Agricultural runoff

- Construction without proper silt fences

Suspended sediment removed from stream banks and from the bed of an upstream channel

- Channelization

- Removal of riparian zones

Direct discharge from municipal, industrial and agricultural sources

What is the U.S. EPA’s SABS Framework? How does it assist in the development of water quality criteria and restoration targets?

The SABS framework uses a risk assessment approach to estimate effect thresholds for unacceptable levels of SABS in water bodies.

It uses several statistical procedures to compare the estimated effects levels derived from field and laboratory data.

Protective water quality criteria levels are created with scientific evidence to back them up.

What were the two levels of protection the team developed for criterion values? Why did they need both? What values did they choose? Were they justified?

ALU: Aquatic Life Uses and MALU: Minimally acceptable aquatic life uses

ALU beneficial in intact ecosystems

MALU beneficial in developed areas which need to set achievable restoration targets.

No more than 7% fines for ALU and no more than 14% fines for MALU

Yes, 7% is justified in that it was deemed protective of the resource and held under the Species Sensitivity Distribution method (most protective precedent). 14% is justified in that it was the mean effect threshold of all methods for MALU.

Urban Stream Discussion Synopsis

2010-12-10T17:39:00.002-05:00

My synopsis is the 2nd half of the Urban Streams discussion from Wed, Dec 8th. We broadened our discussion to talk about urban stream restoration in general.

-Someone pointed out that urban stream restoration is a big business and is a good way of employing people. good job security! (assuming, of course, funding sources are reliable)

- We discussed the neccesity of accepting the fact that urban streams are and most likely will always be far from natural, and we can't return to reference conditions

- We talked about the great need to engage urban citizens in the restoration process, and using education of the public to obtain support for restoration activities

- We decided restoration activities should focus on addressing the "urban stream syndrome" before concentrating on in-stream issues: we are not at a place as a society where we can focus on small-scale processes before addressing large issues like flow regime and impervious surface

- We also decided that local ordinances (and possibly fed/state regs) are needed to kick-start folks into using Low Impact Development. The technology is there, we know pervious pavement, rain gardens, green roofs, and rain barrels reduce runoff and increase infiltration, but it is more expensive and there is little incentive for widespread use.

We concluded that for more effective urban restoration, we need an appropriate and reasonable guiding image, and increased knowledge of appropriate techniques and better monitoring.

Ben's Principle

2010-12-09T17:01:00.002-05:00

Within stream restorations are only appropriate when the major causes of poor stream quality are identified as in-stream factors. If the flow regime is drastically altered by urbanization, agriculture, or some other changing land use, the driving force behind reduced habitat complexity is likely the change in flow characteristics. Attempting in-stream habitat manipulation will not be a successful strategy in such situations, because it does not fix the problem, and the restoration activities will fail as a result. Most structural changes to in-stream habitat can only be maintained successfully through proper stormwater management (Walsh et al. 2005a), because the degradation to these habitats is a direct result of changing flow regimes. Therefore, in-stream habitat manipulation is a poor use of resources if there are overarching issues with flow regime.

Corey Dunn's Principle

2010-12-08T15:29:00.005-05:00

This is an example of ignoring principle 3, which states flow is the primary driver of stream channel physical habitat. While researching interbasin transfers, I came across an example of the drastic economic and potential ecological (if it had been studied) consequences of an interbasin transfer of 88 percent of the flow of the Santee River to the Cooper River for hydropower. The increase in flow in the Cooper River increased the river’s capacity to carry sediment downstream, which was ultimately deposited in the Charleston Harbor. The increased sediment in the harbor had to be constantly dredged to protect shipping lanes inflicting an unforeseen economic cost. To fix this, engineers went full circle and rediverted flow back into the Santee River from downstream sections of the Cooper River (Meador 1994).

Principle and Consequences

2010-12-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

Stream habitat is a dynamic system therefore your planning process should be a dynamic process as well (Best Practice)

-Consequences: I chose this as one of my key principles because as a manager it should be your responsibility to view the stream ecosystem as a dynamic system, and if this is not followed using a dynamic planning process then all the efforts that are put into a project could potentially be rendered useless. For example. if a manager were to look at a stream at a certain point in time and were to base all his plans off of this static point in time this could have dramatic outcomes. This point in time could be a low flow or a peak flow, or the use or growing urban area around a stream could be ever changing. If a manager were to place in-stream structures that would be allowable for the low flow, but could not handle the peak flows, they could fail and leave the whole project useless and time wasted.

Stream Restoration: What works? What doesn't?

2010-12-08T14:47:00.012-05:00

This is a discussion of the article Roni et al. (2008) "Global review of physical and biological effectiveness of stream habitat rehabilitation techniques".

Note: you can click on any images to enlarge them.

Above are the categories of restoration practices that were documented, the specific techniques involved, the goals of the restoration, and the relative success or factors limiting success. Overall there is the overwhelming need for better monitoring strategy and long term monitoring. It would be very advantegeous to develop monitoring standards so that results from one restoration can be compared to another easily.

SCENARIOS: WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF………
1) Excessive peak flows, as well as normal flows continually undercut steep channel banks, causing large volumes of bank material to enter the stream and lake system.
a. Local Fixes: Reconstruct channel geometry
i. Re-establish floodplain connection
b. Watershed fixes?
i. LID retrofitting
2) Most perennial and intermittent channels have poor streambank integrity and you notice the unusual absence of vegetation.
a. Riparian Vegetation
b. Hydraulic structures
c. Increased floodplain connection
3) Local erosion from concentrated runoff by a large number of paved roads, which are frequently traveled by vehicles.
a. This is a real problem, not sure if you can do anything at all if the roads are commonly used.
4) In a highly urbanized watershed, a stream running through a subdivision frequently floods, risks damage to housing, and has a high sediment load to the lake which it feeds. The stream is severely eroded and houses are situated close to the stream.
a. Instream structures to dissipate energy (reduce sediment load)
b. Watershed fixes
5) Trails caused by livestock, particularly cattle, concentrate runoff into small streams and erodible areas;
a. Fence off livestock
b. Riparian enhancement (slow water velocities)
6) Several watersheds suffer from livestock overuse and improper grazing management systems;
a. Fence off livestock
b. Riparian enhancement
c. Re-structure management systems
7) A stream in an agricultural watershed has exceedingly high nutrient loads. Eutrophication is occuring and is severely impacting biodiversity and aquatic life. You do not know the source of the nutrient pollution.
a. Change farming management strategy?
i. Less use of fertilizer, more controlled management. Offer incentives to farmers to abide by rules.
8) Consider an active meander bend, where the outside of the borders important infrastructure. The river provides habitat to a numerous species of salmon(e.g. Chinook) and trout (e.g. rainbow).

Note: click to enlarge

Principle and Consequences Tim

2010-12-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

Monitoring successes and failures need to be shared among agencies and researchers to aid others in nation-wide and world-wide stream rehabilitation efforts.

If practitioners fail to heed this principle, it could be detrimental to the entire field of stream habitat management. Without researchers having access to past successes and failures they are forced into conducting their own research on the project (which might not be practical) or using a technique involving trial and error. Having sound evidence to base practices and techniques on, give the manager(s) peace of mind moving forward with the project.They can also justify their management decisions with stakeholders.

Principle and Consequences

2010-12-08T14:03:00.004-05:00

Principle
Streams progress toward a state of dynamic equilibrium, where they balance discharge, sediment transport, and slope. BAS: Lane’s Balance.

Ignoring this principle will surely result in problems when designing channels. For example, in an urban stream with higher velocities, just because we rebuild the channel doesn’t mean we can ignore the discharges frequent to the channel. Designing a bed with a sediment size that is too small will cause the channel to erode and for fines to be washed downstream. Broadly defined, ignoring Lane’s balance can 1) make the channel unstable and 2) decrease water quality (increased sediment load). These two factors can make the stream unhabitable to ecology.

Key Principles example and consequences

2010-12-08T11:32:00.001-05:00

Research is a critical element of the process, pre-restoration data helps show change, and data collection continued on reinforces if the project worked properly and could help future projects.

Consequences:

There is no way to tell if the restoration worked or not unless there is research. Pre-restoration gives a baseline for the condition of the stream in question and any change from there is theoretically from the restoration itself. If a management project is implemented and there is no post data, there is no way to tell if anything happened at all. This is bad for the project itself and confidence in stakeholders as well as for future projects that could benefit from knowing what failed and what was successful.

New River expedition on NPR

2010-12-08T10:29:00.004-05:00

Thought some folks might enjoy to hear about the New River and a local advocacy group dedicated to the New.

http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/ee.php

Management Implications of spatial and ecosystem thinking

2010-12-06T12:40:00.002-05:00

Topic: Management implications of spatial and ecosystem thinking

Readings: Wiplfi and Baxter 2010

Fausch et al. 2002

Summary of readings

Fausch et al. 2002

-This paper addresses the importance of viewing streams as continuous, hierarchical, heterogeneous, and linear. It emphasizes that streams contain a mosaic of different types of habitat that are utilized by different species and lifestages through time.

-Historically research was conducted at the reach scale; however, advances in technology and a better understanding of fish movement requires us to look at habitat at larger spatial scales. For example, the presence of an adult trout in one reach might have more to do with its ability to find suitable habitat in other areas of the stream or ocean (rearing habitat) as it ages and moves (corridors) rather than the physical characteristics of that reach.

-The suggested new approach for research and conservation

1. Research must be conducted at appropriate scales for the questions of interest.

2. The importance of different physical and ecological processes will be revealed at

different spatiotemporal scales, and processes will interact.

(The availability of habitat is driven by processes at different spatial scales, which all

must meet the requirements for a species to persist)

3. Rare or unique features in a riverscape, either in space or time, can have overriding

effects on stream fishes.

(ex. a beaver pond may provide habitat (source) for different species that migrate to

other parts of the stream (sink) or a fire that occurs rarely may deposit wood in the

stream that affects the overall stream community).

4. unintended consequences of habitat degradation will occur in all directions, including

upstream. (fish move upstream and downstream and are affected by disturbance

throughout the habitat they encounter)

5. Fisheries ecologists who study stream fishes must strive to make observations and test

predictions at the scale at which managers effect change.

Overall research and management must address problems at the appropriate scale, which is often larger than a stream reach.

Wipfli and Baxter 2010

-This paper also underscores the importance of maintaining connectivity among the entire stream but focuses on energy requirements rather than the physical characteristics of the stream.

-Depending on where you are in the river continuum the fauna receive food (energy and nutrients) from somewhere else in the stream.

-examples-Local primary and secondary production may be subsidized by…..

-Tributaries– even food from small fishless streams is washed downstream.

-Terrestrial– riparian inputs such as leaves and terrestrial insects

-Marine – Migrating fishes from the sea

-These imputs vary by season and often life histories are synchronized with the availability of said inputs.

-Overall it is easy to focus on the physical habitat within a stream, but the amount of energy in a system may also limit the presence and abundance of stream fish. These imputs come from areas other than the focal area, which highlights the importance of both terrestrial and stream connectivity to a system.

Most relevant discussion questions

1. At what spatial and temporal scales do most habitat studies occur and at what scales do most natural processes and human effects occur?

2. What is meant by the intermediate habitat scale and what makes it so tough to study at this scale?

3. Is the intermediate habitat scale the same for all species?

4. How might downstream events affect upstream community assemblages?

5. What restoration challenges occur at larger spatial scales?

Thinking about habitat patchiness and connectivity at multiple spatial scales can get confusing, but overall the class seemed to comprehend the material.

Streamflow Alteration In Class Discussion (Dec. 1st)

2010-12-05T21:04:00.004-05:00

(Image reference)

Link to journal article of the week (must be sign into VT library)
http://www.esajournals.org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu:8080/doi/pdf/10.1890/100053

“Alteration of streamflow magnitudes and potential ecological consequences: a multiregional assessment.” (Carlisle et al. 2010)

1. What were the ecological consequences of altered streamflow magnitudes, as quantified in this article?

a. (Physical alteration) streamflow magnitudes à altered versus nonaltered. Minimum and Maximum flows inflated or diminished.

b. (Ecological consequences) Fish and Macroinvertebrate communities. Impaired versus non-impaired. Ratio of observed taxa to expected taxa (reference) within region.

2. What happens to biological communities within the altered streams in comparison to reference streams?

a. Nest-guarders replacing simple nesters (can provide oxygen/flow to eggs)

b. Active swimmers replacing benthic and streamlined forms

c. Increased macroinvertebrate taxa with the ability to exit stream

d. Pool-loving taxa, fine-grain substrate loving-taxa

e. Invasion

f. PROBLEM with this article….where are the numbers for abundance data of organisms?

3. What are a few of the physical responses, to alterations in streamflow magnitude, which lead to these ecological consequences?

a. Floods of varying size and timing are needed to maintain a diversity of riparian plant species and aquatic habitat.

b. Reduced magnitude and frequencyà

i. Deposition of fines into gravel (no high flows to remove and transport fine sediments that fill interstitial spaces in productive gravel habitats)

ii. Channel stabilization and narrowing

iii. No import of, habitat providing, woody debris

iv. Floodplain disconnection (floodplains can be important for some species reproductive success-nursery grounds, no high flows to bring in organic matter from floodplain, high flows onto floodplain required for some riparian vegetation success)

v. Vegetation encroachment

c. Increased magnitude and frequencyà

i. Bank erosion and channel widening, bed scouring

ii. Streams that dry temporally, generally in arid regions, have aquatic and riparian species with special behavior or physiological adaptations that suit them to harsh conditions of drought.

d. Flow stabilization

i. Invasion or establishment of exotic species leading to local extinctions, threat to native commercial species and altering biological communities

4. What about the floodplain biological communities? What would diminished flow magnitudes do?

a. Inuadation of floodplain required for some riparian vegetation success

b. Vegetative encroachment into channel

c. Modification of riparian communities by causing plant mortality, reduced growth, competitive exclusion, ineffective seed dispersal or establishment.

5. So what if magnitude is not altered? What about the other four flow components? Are they important and if so, how?

a. IN ADDITION: What about changing magnitude WITHOUT a Dam?

i. This can occur in urban areas. Low flows become elevated in urban areas because waste water enters and increases/elevates baseflows and increases nutrients in water.

ii. ORà from agriculture withdrawls and groundwater pumping

b. Frequency

i. Extreme daily variations below peaking power hydroelectric dams = harsh environment, frequent disturbance. Mortality of aquatic populations suffering from physiological stress,

c. Timing

i. Some species use seasonal flow conditions as CUE to reproduce (Life history traits)

ii. Riparian plant species with specific germination timing (cottonwoods, needs flow peaks to occur before germination period)

d. Duration

i. Change in floodplain inundation, independent of changes in annual volume of flow, can alter the abundance of plant cover types

ii. Loss of riffle habitat with prolonged inundation

e. Rate of change

i. Washout and stranding of aquatic species

6. How could we conduct a study to include the other four components? Would inclusion of these dimensions increase or decrease the severity and likelihood of stream impairment?

a. Use annual hydrographs (timing, duration, rate of change, frequency)

b. Increase

7. What are the issues between arid and wet climate areas?

a. Differences in water management in watersheds

b. Aridà use for agriculture/irrigation/drinking wateràyou get DIMINISHED max and min flows

c. Wetà dams for flood control (you get more elevated MINIMUM flows and unaltered MAX flows)

d. Western US water issues, water rights out west, who owns what issue?

e. Conserving differences between the West and East

f. Desalination of ocean water is too cost and energy expensive

8. How do you balance human needs with ecological requirements?

a. Public educationà current public opinion is concerned with QUALITY and not QUANTITY

b. Policy changes

c. Improved water resource management, instream flow water management, better science

d. Water is a FINITE resource

e. People don’t understand what is going on, need to educate the publicà they drive policy maker decisions.

f. Need a basic government commitment to promise to provide water to the people for basic needs, government protection of aquatic ecosystems

g. Technological improvements! Improve consumption of water, distribution of in-home water plumbing, water reuse

What Went Wrong at Cochiti Dam

2010-12-04T10:07:00.008-05:00

Numerous studies have been conducted on the Cochiti Dam in New Mexico in order to quantify the changes in stream geomorphology following dam construction in 1973. The dam, one of the largest in the United States, was constructed primarily for sediment and flood control of the Rio Grande River and is a good example of what happens when Lane's diagram (one of my key principles) is not followed.

Following construction, there was little effort to restore natural flows and sediment was trapped upstream of the dam. Consequently, the once braided stream channel transformed into a single channel system with an increasing depth, decreasing width, and islands eroded away. Average sediment size has increased from fine sands to gravels.

The above graph (Richard and Julien 2003) shows peak flows (purple bars), sediment flowing into the study reach (dotted line), and sediment flowing out of the study reach (solid line) following dam construction.

Cross-sectional profiles from 1971-1998 as taken by Richard and Julien (2003).

Aerial photos depicting changes in stream channel morphology after dam construction (Richard et al. 2005)

Ecologically, these changes have been problematic for the Rio Grande silvery minnow because habitat has been heavily degraded. In addition, because the river is no longer connected to the floodplain, lack of regular inundation has decreased the population of cottonwood while increasing the invasion of nonnative species such as saltcedar and Russian olive.

Richard, G. A., and P. Y. Julien. 2003. Dam impacts and restoration of an alluvial river- Rio Grande, New Mexico. International Journal of Sediment Research 18: 89-96.
Richard, G. A., P. Y. Julien, and D. C. Baird. 2005. Case study: modeling the later mobility of the Rio Grande beow Cochiti Dam, New Mexico. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 131: 931-941.

Discussion: Next Steps for Wright's Branch

2010-11-08T23:29:00.005-05:00

On November 3rd, we discussed the future of Wright's Branch, a headwater stream that has experienced significant problems due to unrestricted cattle access to the stream, westlands, and springs. The uppermost portion of the stream is deforested to allow for cattle grazing, whereas the lowermost portion is completed forested. From looking at pictures (availabe on the Scholar site), it is evident that the stream has unstable banks, is very turbid, and has a very small average sediment size. Trout Unlimited recently accepted an Embrace a Stream Grant for the deforested section of Wright's Branch, but construction has yet to begin. Thus, the focus of this discussion was to evaluate the current conditions of Wright's Branch, dsicuss future activities, and to evaluate the goals and objectives of the grant.

-Current conditions

- What we know

-Headwater stream that flows into the Roanoke River

- Located on private land and thus recieves no fishing pressure

- Anecdotal evidence of historical brook trout populations

- Cows have unrestricted access to the stream, westlands, and springs

- High turbidity

- Bank instability/erosion

- No riparian vegetation

- High percentage of fine substrate

-What we need to know

- Current channel geometry

- Hydrographic regime

- Daily and seasonal changes in stream temperature

- Water quality

- Which springs contribute the most to normal base flows

- Amount of current and potential brook trout habitat

- Stream carrying capacity

- Food availability

- How compliant the landowner is willing to be

-Evaluation of the Embrace a Stream Grant

- Grant goals include the introduction of brook trout, restoration of the riparian zone, and resotration of the watershed

- Is brook trout restoration feasible?

- Evidence of some brown and rainbow trout populations downstream

- Doubts that sediment size will increase fast enough to support natural reproduction in a short temporal scale

- Stocking source is Trout in the Classroom (TC), but they usually use brown or rainbow trout. It has not yet been determined how viable TC brook trout will be.

- Literature indicates that hatchery brook trout may not successfully spawn in natural conditions, at least not for several years.

- Can the riparian zone and watershed be restored?

- Unlikely that the land owner will support complete fencing of of cattle from all springs and wetlands

- Doubts that the riparian plantings will be successfull

- May require longterm maintenance, but there is no provided monetary of physical support in the grant.

- If cattle are not completly restricted from wetlands and springs, it is possible that poor instream water quality due to high nutrieds will persist. The idea of a 50-ft buffer was introduced as it has been shown to reduce nutrient loads in other streams.

- Are the goals of the grant appropraite?

- One major goal of the grant is to establish naturally reproducing brook trout populations. All indications are that that goal will not be realized.

- Calls for stocking trout 6 months after beginning restoration. It is unlikely that the current stream conditions will have changed enough to support trout populations and rushing to stock trout will likely cause failure.

- Because the stream is not fished, it could be used for introduction of nongame endangered species of natural recolonization. However, because TU is funding it, it's primary motivation has to be around trout restoration. It is likley another funding source could have been found to promote restoration for other species.

- Longterm outlook

- Grant calls for monitoring for three years. That length of time seems to short, especially to determine if the trout poplations are naturally reproducing. There should be a much longer monitoring effort and plans to report results in an efort to aid in future stream resotration activities.

- At the conclusion of monitoring, it is likley that the project will be considered a failure because appropriate goals were not set from the beginning.

- Overal Conclusions Determined by the Class

- The stream is currently unstable due to unrestricted cattle access

- There are numerous uncertainties about the current stream condition that should be assessed before continuing with restoration.

- The Embrace a Stream Grant calls for restoration of brook trout, but the goal seems unattainable given the short time frame and complexity of the situation.

- It is likely that this restoration project will be considered a failure even if it does result in a more stable stream channel and overall better water quality.

- Better pre-project goal assessment would hav increased the likelihood of success

Urban Stream Restoration

2010-10-27T08:34:00.009-04:00

As you may remember, I spent a lot of time in my undergrad studies working to restore an urban stream near Richmond, VA. The construction date got pushed back three or four times, but I was recently in town and stopped by my alma mater and was informed that, not only had construction begun, but it was almost done! Amazing how quick it progresses.

I'll post a few pictures, but it's hard to really get an idea of the magnitude of change without having first visited the site. To give a hint though, this is a headwater stream and the banks were easily 7-8ft tall in places. If anyone is ever in Richmond, stop by an I'll give you a tour!

And then some pictures of the newly-restored sections!!

From highly degraded to nearly pristine-Levisa Fork and Smith River

2010-10-25T10:24:00.015-04:00

I helped out some labmates Thursday through Sunday last week and had the opportunity to work in drastically different systems that both contain state Endangered species. The Levisa fork is located in Buchanan County Virginia. The river is impacted by coal mining and sewage and has channelized to reduce flooding and to accommodate a railroad and 460 that parallel it on opposite sides. I've attached a picture of the state Endangered variegate darter (Etheostoma variatum), a fish that Jane Argentina studies and coal processing plant right on the river.

Saturday and Sunday I had the opportunity to help Jamie Roberts survey the Smith River above Philpott dam in search of the Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), a state and Federal Endangered species. We only found four but it was great to work in such a nice stream. The river itself is in the Blue ridge physiographic province, and has medium gradient with a mixture of bedrock, cobble, and sand substrate.

Fishes of the New River - Striped Bass and Madtom

2010-10-04T16:11:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the delay!

Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) can be found where the New River has been dammed near Radford(Claytor Lake). Claytor Lake is periodically stocked with striped bass, which tend to travel upstream. Striped bass live in schools and prefer large freshwater resevoirs and lakes, and as a result, have been stocked in nearly all of Virginia's resevoirs.

Margined Madtom (Noturus insignis) is native to the New River Drainage Area, but has also been introduced to the various other rivers in Virginia including the Potomac, James, and York. It looks like a small catfish, with a long body and large eye. It prefers mild to moderate sloping creeks and larger rivers.

From:www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/

-Garrett

The Kanawha darter and Kanawha minnow: Fishes of the New River

2010-09-29T15:06:00.005-04:00

The Kanawha darter (Etheostoma kanawhae) is a New River drainage native species (and endemic to the New River Basin) and is currently listed as lower risk and near threatened under the IUCN Red List (picture above). It is a warm water species and prefers fast currents of riffles and runs in clear, small to medium rivers and streams.

Another endemic and native species to the New River drainage is the Kanawha minnow (Phenacobius teretulus)(Second photo). It too is a warm water species that prefers fast riffles and runs in clear, small to medium rivers and streams. The Kanawha minor prefers habitats consisting of gravel and rubble rather than those of sand, silt or larger substrates. It tends to occur (in the water column) on or near the river bottom of these faster currents. It is currently listed as vulnerable under the IUCN red list.

Images from arkive.org (Noel Burkhead, USGS and Angela Burns)

Fishes of the New R. - muskellunge and largemouth bass

2010-09-29T11:05:00.005-04:00

Although perhaps a boring pick (at least if you're into non-game species) I wanted to post the largemouth bass, because it isn't typically found in many areas of a river like the New. Also, muskies are just awesome and I like this picture a lot!

Largemouth bass are habitat generalists, but usually do not tolerate current. They are most often found in lakes and slow moving sections of river, especially near aquatic vegetation. Even though swift current existed at our sampling site, the large amounts of submergent aquatic vegetation (elodea?) favors largemouth. The sampling site is less than 1/2 mile upstream from a large slow section, which is probably home to the source population for the bass shocked in our sampling site.

Muskies in the New River generally are found in stretches with a variety of depths, and large complexity of habitat patches such as vegetation, susbstrate type, and flow velocity (Brenden 2005). In general, muskies locations are positively correlated with submergent aquatic vegetation, though these relationships are usually in lakes. The New River may have sufficient habitat suitable to ambush-predation that association with vegetation is unnecessary (Brenden 2005). Water temperature and flow velocity may play a part in seasonal habitat selection, though with the present low flow and ideal water temperatures that may not have any bearing on depth selection on the day we sampled. As ambush feeders muskies will often select habitat near their preferred prey (castomids and large, soft-rayed fishes in general) once they reach >30 inches in length. As such they are often found in deeper sections of river, especially during low flows, warm weather, and during the day. As apex predators, however, they pretty much go where they please when they are on the prowl for food.

Fishes of the New: Northern Hogsucker and Roanoke Darter

2010-09-29T07:22:00.000-04:00

This is a Northern Hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans). It is a habitat generalist, but is very intolerant of pollution and siltation. It uses a specialized snout to stir up the bottom to feed on invertebrates, mollusks, and algae. Its spawning habitat is over gravel in pools and riffles.

This is a Roanoke Darter (Percina roanoka)...not the best specimen (they can be very pretty). It is introduced into the New River. It is a native of the Roanoke river drainage. Although, not native it thrives in the New. It prefers clear streams with gravel, cobble, and boulder riffles and runs. It feeds on insect larvae in these areas.

2010-09-28T18:49:00.005-04:00

This is the Appalachian darter Percina gymnocephala (right), one of the three endemic darters of the New River drainage and the only endemic Percina. They were only recently described by Beckham 1980 and relatively little is known about these guys. I've collected them in the Blue Ridge province usually in riffles and have never collected them in the Ridge and Valley or Appalachian Plateau. Underwater they can be seen perching on the bottom with intermittent bouts of swimming in the water column especially if I stir up sediments containing their food, macroinvertebrates. Like all Percina, they probably spawn by depositing their eggs into the substrate. This one was collected about a year ago in Chestnut Creek near Galax, Virginia.

This is a picture taken of the rainbow darter Etheostoma caeruleum using a v-shaped contraption for viewing fish. There are some questions as to if this fish is native to the New or not. It was suspected as native but has undergone a population explosion in recent years particularly in the northern parts of the drainage; however, I've collected it as far south as Dismal Creek, a tributary of Walker creek, a system in the middle of the NRD. Like a lot of darters, it is a riffle dwelling, benthic invertevore, that can be found over rock substrate and deposits eggs into the substrate.

Fish of the New River: Black Crappie and Green Sunfish

2010-09-28T14:51:00.007-04:00

Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus)

The black crappie has been introduced into the New River drainage. They can be found in lakes, ponds, and rivers. In rivers they prefer the lower velocity flows that can be indicated by pools. Their habitat also includes submerged vegetation along with other submerged structures that allow for adequate cover from predation.

(photo: thebirdsnest.org)

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)

If I remember correctly, the Green Sunfish is the only native species to the New River drainage from the Centrachidae family. Like the Black Crappie, Green Sunfish prefer slower current that is characterized by pools. During their spawning season they prefer gravel/sand covered bed of the river. They have also been widely introduced in many lakes/resevoirs and ponds due to their ability to tolerate a fairly wide range of environmental conditions.

(photo:utexas.edu)

Fishes of the New River: Smallmouth and Flatheads

2010-09-28T13:31:00.004-04:00

Small Mouth Bass: Micropterus dolomieu

Smallmouth bass can inhabit and rivers and lakes. They usually go for gravel or rock substrate with submerged structure such as logs, but in the case of lakes and reservoirs, they can utilize sandy and soft substrates. They do best in cooler water then some other Micropterus.

Flathead Catfish: Pylodictis olivaris

Adult flatheads live in warm, deep slow moving water and can be found in lakes, rivers, canals, reservoirs often with high turbidity. Juveniles can be found in riffles of warm water rivers.

Photo taken from VT aquarium
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/flathead.html

Fishes of the New River: Walleye and Muskie

2010-09-28T12:20:00.004-04:00

Walleye: Sander vitreus

Preferes cool, turbid water and usually found in areas with firm bottom such as rock and compacted sand/silt. Not usually associated with vegetation, but will use weeds, rocks, and woody debris for cover from the sun. Can be in still or flowing water.

Muskellunge: Esox masquinongy

Usually in slower moving waters in river or in lakes/reservoirs. Usually in clear waters and around rock outcrops and weeds.

Fishes of Whitethorne-Sept 23

2010-09-26T20:29:00.002-04:00

On Thursday I went out with VDGIF to Whitetorne to help in their depletion survey. Unfortunately, I was on one of the runner boats that handled large fish from the shocking boats and then returned the fish to the stream, so I wasn't on at processing long enough to capture any pictures of the fish. However, I am sure Ben will post some later when he add to my list below:

-Largemouth bass: Habitat generalist, but prefers clear quiet water with logs, rocks, and vegetation for cover. They are capable of suriving a wide range of temperatures.

-Smallmouth bass: Usually in clearer water than largemouths and prefers cooler water temperatures. Smallmouths generally inhabit lotic and lentic habitats and also prefer structure.

-Black jumprock: Prefer fast current in moderate gradient streams with large substrate such as boulders and cobble.

- Madtom: In riffles and runs of moderate gradient streams.

-Muskie: Clear, slow waters and particularly in areas of vegetation or rocky outcrops to provide cover.

The Silver Shiner Notropis photogenis

2010-09-24T13:45:00.000-04:00

This specimen was captured by boat electrofishing on the New River at Eggleston Virginia September 21 2010. It is a Silver Shiner Notropis photogenis It was large, ~ 6 inches. You can see the bright silver coloration on the ventral part of this specimen. This species occurs in the Lake Erie drainage, Ohio, Tennessee and New River drainages. As you can see it is very streamlined and can be found in fast currents in the mid and upper parts of the water column where it feeds on drifting aquatic and terrestrial insects. In the bright sunlight and turbulent waters it is well camouflaged and this habitat keeps predation by fishes relatively low.

Weekend Freshwater Mussel Trip in TN- Day 1

2010-09-18T22:58:00.005-04:00

Today we started our weekend trip by conducting a freshwater mussel survey at Horton Ford in Hancock County, TN. We did a quantitative survey of the reach using quadrats and a systematic sampling method. This is part of Hua Dan’s PhD graduate research project. We are taking data to look at the population dynamics of this site, evaluate the success of introducing lab-propagated juveniles (mark-recapture), and to compare Horton Ford’s data to two other sites in which lab juveniles were released (Fugate Ford and Davis Property). In addition to the quantitative survey, we took several habitat measurements. We measured the flow across the left ascending channel, collected water samples (for later analysis in the lab, organic matter, chlorophyll, etc) and water quality data (pH, temperature, D.O., conductivity).

This site is part of the Clinch River. Upstream of the survey reach is a bridge and the road follows along both sides of the river. The river is separated into two channels by an island (containing various vegetation, trees, debris, substrate, shells etc). Our study reach runs along the left ascending channel. The first picture here is of us snorkeling for freshwater mussels. The vegetation in the background you see is the island that separates the two channels. Much of the bank along both channels is degraded by the presence of cows that are allowed to roam free through the area…as you can see in the background of the second picture-one deciding to cross right through our study site…

Even though the cattle may be destructing the banks, and occasionally trampling a mussel or two, this is a great site for freshwater mussels (not saying that it wouldn't be without the cattle too). Some of the more common species we found today include the pheasantshell, Cumberland moccasianshell, and the rainbow mussel. Some of the less common to rare ones include the Cumberland combshell, the shiny pigtoe and the cracking pearlymussel. The first mussel pictured here is a pocketbook (Lampsilis ovata) that was lab-propagated and released into a cage at this site in order to determine growth. The last picture is of a young Appalachian elktoe, which is endangered and not a common find.

Now off to the hotel and round 2 tomorrow at Fugate Ford--the Powell River....

2010-09-15T16:27:00.006-04:00

This is a Sharpnose darter (Percina oxyrhynchus) caught in the New River over the summer. Often people think of darters as colorful, riffle dwelling, species but as you can see, it's pretty drab. It occupies runs, pools, and sometimes riffles. Runs and pools are hard to sample for benthic dwelling fish, which has resulted in a lack of information about this fish. This also influences management decisions. The Sharpnose darter was almost listed in the 70's because it is rare (or not very detectable) and was originally thought to have a very small distributional range (originally described as a New River endemic). However, with increased effort it was found to occupy many of the Ohio River drainages. It is interesting in that it very well could be rare all over its range, which theoretically means it may occupy a specific resource niche or perhaps there just isn't a great way to study them. Could that specialized "sharp" mouth be an indicator of specialized feeding behavior? Just food for thought.

Garrett Menichino - CEE - Preferential Flow Paths Field Experiment

2010-09-08T17:04:00.007-04:00

Above are construction images of a study site at an un-named tributary to Tom's Creek in Heritage Park. I am inducing a head gradient(via dam construction) to encourage hyporheic flow through a meander bend of the stream. We will be mapping the flow of groundwater through the meander in hopes of being able to develop a 3D image of preferential flow paths. Knowledge of the frequency and location of these preferential flow paths will provide insite to the hydrologic and ecological structure and function of meander bends.

Stream Experience - Powell River, VA

2010-09-08T16:13:00.000-04:00

I work in a number of beautiful streams in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee as part of my job with FMCC. This is one of those streams, the Powell River. The Powell flows southwest from the mountains of Virginia to Norris Lake in Tennessee. It is a third to fourth order stream. Where we work, substrate mostly consists of loose sands and gravel and some cobble. It is very remote and has mountains all around. It once was a major tributary of the Clinch River until the dam flooded their confluence in the mid 1930's.

Humans have not only dammed the Powell, but also used it as transportation for coal they mined out of the mountains. Being so remote, coal miners had no access roads to certain mines along the river. So, in order to transport their treasure they would pour it into the water and collect it at shallow fords downstream. You can imagine what this did to local aquatic wildlife populations (especially those that were benthic). The river to this day is still known to run completely black with coal fines during high flow events. Fortunately, a large number of fish and mussels populations have been able to persist. It is still unknown what kinds of chronic problems this is causing to wildlife populations in the river. This is one of our mussel holding pens and you can see how coal particles have covered other substrates in just a matter of weeks.

As part of the upper Tennessee river system, the Powell likely was once home to as many 45 mussels species. Now it is home to about half that, and many are endangered species. Some species were extirpated due to the fact that their specific host fish (the paddlefish) could no longer migrate upstream to them due to the dam. This is an Appalachain Monkeyface found at a site on the Powell. This river is home to the only remaining population of this species left on earth and it is estimated that their numbers are in the hundreds.

More info on Josh and Corey's weekend

2010-09-08T10:37:00.006-04:00

My work focuses on three very closely related species that occupy the New River. Two are native and the third was introduced and a potential big problem for the natives. As Josh alluded to, this weekend we ventured to two very different parts of the New River drainage. The first stream (Lick Creek) contains the introduced species, the variegate darter. As Josh mentioned its flow regime varies seasonally. Here is a picture of what it looked like in June.

Josh also posted a picture of Sandstone Falls, which is in the New River Gorge. These falls as well as others within the gorge have historically isolated the New River from all other Ohio River drainages. Isolation is one of the main ingredients to speciation, which is represented by the New's eight endemic fish species. However, people like to move and tend to take species with them, which has resulted in the New's high percentage of introduced species (over 50%). More to come later in the semester.

Weekend Stream Experience

2010-09-07T13:51:00.011-04:00

Over the summer, I had the chance to experience many streams while helping Cory with his field work as a technician. This past weekend we ventured out to some Blue Ridge streams. To the right is pictured a New River endemic, the Kanawha Darter (Etheostoma kanawhae). They are identifiable by the 6 dark saddles located across their back. They prefer small cobble to gravel substrate and are found in riffles. Adults range in size from 50-65 mm standard length. This picture was taken in Big Wilson Creek while snorkeling on Sunday.

To the right is Lick Creek near Sandstone, West Virginia. This creek is a prime example of how variable flow rates can be in a stream. Earlier this summer in June, this creek had higher discharge rates that it currently does now. This is evident from the picture. This creek is also part of the New River drainage. It is comprised of mostly cobble and small boulders with low embeddedness during normal discharge and the stream is fairly high gradient. This creek is home to Variegate Darters (E. variatum), telescope shiners (Notropis telescopus), greenside darters (E. blennioides), and rainbow darters (E. caeruleum) jsut to name a few species.

The next picture is of Little River in North Carolina another stream that is home to Kanawha Darters. This is a prime example of a Blue Ridge Stream. It has small substrate, with high embeddedness, and has turbidity levels of 2-3 Ntu's. These Blue RIdge streams are also fairly low in gradient. Also, when snorkeling on Sunday the water temperature was around 18 degrees celcius. Downstream of this site, most of the banks had been deforested, with slump banks lining much of the stream.

The last picture I decided to include in my blog is a picture that I took of Sandstone Falls in Sandstone, WV. These falls are located on the New River just downstream of the Bluestone Dam in Hinton, WV. I just thought it would be a good picture to share with the rest of the class even though I do not know much about it. However, the best part of these falls is that on one of the signs near the viewing platform for the falls states that "the dam upstream actually helps the ecosystem". It doesn't say that directly, but that is what we decided they were trying to say and thought it was quite funny.

Stream Experience - St. Croix River, MN

2010-09-06T18:57:00.009-04:00

My stream experience comes to you courtesy of the Saint Croix River in the Upper Midwest. The river is a National Wild and Scenic Riverway, bordering Minnesota and Wisconsin before flowing into the Mississippi River. The river is managed by the National Park Service, Minnesota and Wisconsin DNR, and the USFWS. The river is a 5/6th order stream, and averages 100 to 150 meters wide, with coarse gravel and cobble in swifter areas and shifting sand in slower reaches. A hydroelectric dam operates within the Scenic Riverway, and is required to maintain minimum flows, though enforcement and compliance have been spotty.

The stream supports 40 species of freshwater mussels, including two federally endangered species (L. higginsii and Q. fragosa), and more than 65 fish species, 10 of which are listed under species of special concern in the state of Minnesota. The river is heavily used for boating recreation (canoes and kayaks in the upper river, motorized boats in the lower), and fishing is excellent. Increasing urbanization and pressure to build large homes on river bluffs threaten the riverway and its watershed. Recently the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency listed the river as impaired by phosphorus.

I spent 3 full summers and part of another researching freshwater mussels on the St. Croix. The work involved excavating quadrats to assess long-term population changes in mussels, implementing a new sampling design to effectively estimate populations of rare and patchy species, and attempting to quantify microhabitat factors for endangered mussel species (sediment coarseness, shear stress, river velocity, organic sediment matter, etc). We also did some research with mussel host fish, and video documentation of nighttime mussel displays. I spent approximately 20 hours a week underwater, using SCUBA to accomplish our goals.

I learned a great deal about the river during my research, from seeing many fish and mussel species firsthand while diving, to learning about cooperative management strategies and difficulties.

Post a story of stream, stream habitat, or fish or other aquatic life here

2010-09-06T10:15:00.000-04:00

For this week I would like to learn more about your river and stream experiences. Use the "Post a Comment" below to post a description of one stream you are very familiar with and the characteristic habitats or aquatic life .

Two projects

2010-09-03T12:28:00.007-04:00

Though I took a few classes as an undergrad and jammed a few words and terms in my head, but my experience with stream habitat management really revolves around two projects.

1) I attended a small private college and my Environmental Studies program was based largely on problem based learning. As a freshman, I was enrolled in a class where the problem was to create a stream restoration plan for about one mile of Mechumps Creek, a small stream that flows through the small town of Ashland, VA. As you can see from the picture, the stream was heavily eroded due to poor stormwater management and it also has problems with fecal coliform bacteria. The channel is deeply incised, consists mostly of shallow riffle habitat, and thus few deep pools for fish habitat. About a month ago I shocked the stream and found about five different species, redbreasted sunfish, creek chubs, creek chubsuckers, mudminnows, and rosyside dace, so it has pretty low diversity given that just outside of the town diversity nearly triples with the additioanl of numerous chain pickerel, bowfin, and pirate perch.

Throughout the year we surveyed stakeholders, measured aspects of geomorphology, quantified the macroinvertebrate community, and worked closely with an environmental engineering firm to create a stream restoration plan which called for movement of the stream channel and installation of numerous instream structures. Of course, those things arn't cheap, and so I subsequently wrote a US Fish and Wildlife grant for $100,000 which was approved in 2008. It has been 4 years since the beginning of the project, and construction will be starting within the month. There is no real glory in this stream restoration project. Threatened and/or endangered fish do no inhabit it, there is no chance to stock it with sport fish, and it is largely hidden in the woods behind fast food chains. However, it is a good example of how stakeholders can be educated on the topic and then push for it through completion.

2) My undergrad experience also included a lot of summer research, including a trip to Colorado during the summer before my senior year to study the longterm effects of habitat manipulations in Colorado streams. The streams I worked in were remotely located, first0rder, and largely composed of brook trout, but some streams had brown, rainbow, and cutthroat. As part of my advisor's Ph.D. work in the late 1980's, he installed log drops in 6 streams and then monitored the changes in habitat and trout abundance. The idea behind installing log drops was that historically all of the riparian vegeation surrounding the streams was removed during logging, and so there was little woody debris in the streams and woody debris is a major component in salmonnid habitat. The addition of logs would, in theory, create a dam pool upstream, a scour pool downstream, and provide overhead cover.

The short story is that the logs increased both habitat and abundance by over 100%, and it was the first study to conclusively determine the effects of log drops. However, since the 1990's there has been a lot of controversy and conflicting literature as to the efficacy of these features. So, we went back out 20 years after log installation to see if the effects still persisted. I'm working on getting that paper published, but the results show that log drops were still effective at increasing trout abundance and habitat. The other side of that story is that it is clear that the effectiveness is really site specific, so as part of that research I did a in-depth review as to why the streams I studied saw an effect but other streams don't. A lof ot it comes down to fish behavior as well as the physical attributes of the streams.

Climate Change Reducing Stream Habitat in Mountain Streams

2010-08-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

Global climate change is one pervasive challenge that must be dealt with by scientists, policy makers, and engaged citizens.    Ectotherms, such as fishes, are directly influenced by temperature change.    Though most work on climate change and streams and rivers has postulated potential effects of long-term climate change, recent work on stream-dwelling bull trout, provide quantitative determination of habitat change that has already occurred.   This article written by Dan Isaak and others in 2009 documented recent increases in stream water temperature of 0.27 C per decade; they further project a 50% decline in bull trout habitat in the next 50 years.

Stream habitat management involve making decisions locally -- decisions that should have benefits far in the future.    Margaret Palmer and colleagues reviewed some protection and adaptation options that could be implemented now in "Climate Change and River Ecosystems" published in Environmental Management last year.

Today's agencies (Fish and Wildlife Service) are developing strategies for reducing the future impacts of climate change on climate-sensitive ecosystems.    You can expect increasing challenges in applying our knowledge of streams under future uncertain climate conditions. One specific federal initiative is the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. This federal legislation has provided a National perspective and the development of coalitions of government and non-profit organizations to support local efforts in stream habitat management. Take a look at the projects underway throughout the US.

Scientist in the Public Policy Arena

2008-12-23T14:56:00.002-05:00

One of the interesting and controversial issues that we did not discuss very much during the past semester was the appropriate role of the scientist in advocating public policy positions. This is a complex issue because the decision is deeply personal; however, there are a range of alternative approaches that you may decide work best for you. At the very least the scientist is obligated to provide scientific information on policy relevant issues when information is requested. For some scientists this is as far as they are willing to go. At another extreme a scientist may evaluate the full range of policy options in light of scientific information and scientific uncertainty -- this is the full time job end of the spectrum. And it is nice if your employer is paying you to do it, but it may be double duty.

The highlighted article was published recently in BioScience. It reflects the reality of advocacy and discusses the roles that professional societies have played. I encourage you to read it as time permits and consider working with and through professional organizations who are often positions to assist in this role.

The position of a 10,000 - person organization will usually take on a more impressive weight than the position of one person.

Happy Holidays.

Portfolio Evaluations

2008-12-15T15:09:00.002-05:00

And now the real learning begins. I think 6 people are doing portfolio on a blog, 1 used ePortfolio, and 1 submitted portfolio on a CD.

I will be evaluating the portfolio elements tomorrow starting at 7am. So if you choose to make any changes or check your site to make sure all links are working, you have til morning to finalize. I will contact you if I find any glaring omissions that you must have overlooked or technical difficulties that you can fix before grades are due Saturday.

I will try to keep you informed about Clayter Dam relicensing study reports and public meetings as well as findings related to the Shenandoah River Fish Kills.

However, very soon after the Holiday break I will immerse myself into the blog on Ichthyology

Best wishes and remember to appreciate the wonders of flowing waters.

Happy Holidays!

Further directions for the ePortfolio set-up

2008-12-04T16:20:00.002-05:00

Here is a portion of the email I got from the ePortfolio help desk. They were fairly fast and quite helpful, if you have more questions. This is what I needed to get started, so I thought many of you might appreciate the same information.

Bush Clears the Path for More Mountaintop Removal

2008-12-04T14:50:00.002-05:00

In this administrative ruling clears the way for where to put the mountain tops after they are removed. This clearly violates the intent of the Clean Water Act and is certain to be challenged.

As shown in this photo from Pickering Knob West Virginia, mountaintop removal systematically blasts apart and dismantles entire mountaintops to access multiple seams of coal (top left). The remaining rock is dumped into valleys below (bottom right), burying over 1,000 miles of streams to date. The highly automated process employs far fewer people than traditional underground coal mining.

The effects on surface waters is irreversible. For more information see America's Most Endangered Mountains. Romantics.... gotta love them and their lawyers.

WESTERN STATES WATER

2008-12-04T14:46:00.002-05:00

These news items are from the November 14 2008 newsletter of the Wester States Water Council. Highlights the litigation over that important question of "who owns the water"

LITIGATION/WATER RIGHTS
Tarrant Regional Water District v. Sevenoaks, et al.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Tarrant Regional Water District’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s embargo on out-of-state water sales can continue. Tarrant, a Texas water agency with an application before the Oklahoma Water Resource Board (OWRB), is suing OWRB because it believes that the embargo violates the Commerce and Supremacy Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. In response, OWRB filed a motion to dismiss, claiming that a case in controversy did not exist, that it enjoyed immunity under the 11th Amendment, and that the district court should have abstained from hearing the case. The district court denied the motion and the 10th Circuit confirmed, ruling in Tarrant’s favor on all points.

The Circuit Court found that a case in controversy does exist because the embargo precludes OWRB from granting Tarrant’s application. Similarly, it rejected the OWRB’s claim that it enjoys 11th Amendment immunity because Tarrant’s request to overturn the embargo was a request for prospective relief that would only place Tarrant on the same footing as instate applicants. It also ruled that the denial of the OWRB’s abstention claim was not appealable on an interlocutory basis because the district court’s decision not to abstain “is capable of effective review upon entry of a final judgment in the case.” The 10th Circuit’s decision did not address the merits of the case, which can now resume in the lower federal court.

City of Hugo v. Nichols

In another case, the City of Hugo, Oklahoma, has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, claiming that Oklahoma’s embargo on out-of-state water sales infringes on the city’s rights under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to sell water interstate. The complaint seeks injunctive relief prohibiting OWRB from enforcing the embargo. Hugo and Irving, Texas entered into a contract in which Hugo agreed to provide Irving with 25,000 acre-feet of water/year for 60 years. In exchange, Irving has contributed $500,000 to help Hugo in its legal challenge, and has agreed to pay Hugo $3.8M while a pipeline from Texas to Oklahoma is designed and built. If the pipeline becomes operational, Irving would pay Hugo $1.7M per year, not including the money it would pay to buy the actual water. This agreement represents the principal difference between the Hugo and Tarrant cases, and is believed to be the first of its kind between an Oklahoma water authority and a Texas customer.

Key Principles

2008-12-04T13:19:00.002-05:00

Effective stream management extends beyond reach and mesohabitat scales. As humans, we want to fix what we can see. If banks are eroding, we slope them and plant trees. If the Smoky Mountain madtom is extirpated, we reintroduce it. If the dam blows out habitat, we install boulders. However, we must address the cause of the problem. Several papers (Fausch et al. 2002; Allan 2004) stress the importance of viewing stream ecosystems on a landscape scale. In this class, we learned that fixing one problem may not be enough to restore biotic communities. For example, fixing eroded banks in a stream reach downstream of a city, which reaches bankfull stage ten times more often that it should, may not restore the biotic community. As managers, we must make all efforts to restore every aspect of streams that we can. For example, on this stream that drains an urban landscape, bank stabilizaiton may help, but it does not address the cause of the problem.

Claytor Lake Hydro Re-Licensing

2008-12-04T10:35:00.003-05:00

PHOTO of Donald S. Eaton, Jr who caught this 8 pound 1 ounce state record smallmouth bass on March 12 2003. Pictured with John Copeland (DGIF) who certified the record. Note: the world record is 11 pounds 15 ounces.

Claytor Dam Hydroelectric project was first licensed to operate in 1943, the license expired and was re-licensed in 1981 for another 30 years through 2011. Appalachian Power filed its intent to relicense the project with FERC two years ago. Claytor Dam operates in a load following manner, releasing water through turbines when electric demands is highest, which results in daily flow pulses once or twice each day.

The relicensing process is one option for changing dam releases to balance environmental and power concerns. The process that was selected for the Claytor Hydro relicensing is referred to as Integrated Licensing Process, which allows for more public involvement.

You can quickly scan the official correspondence related to this relicensing project, which documents the level of collaboration and public input. The success of this process depends on every stakeholder having a voice at the table and voicing concerns about the type(s) of study plans to be done.

The Study Plan reports are due January 15, 2009. At that point interested stakeholder will have their "last" chance to comment on studies and have disputes resolved before the final licensing proposal.

The New River current supports one of the top Smallmouth Bass Fisheries in the region and has produced the current state record (see photo). In addition it supports a number of water-based recreation activities and a number of endemic fishes. The smallmouth bass is a dominant component of this river's piscine fauna and supported largely by very abundant crayfishes and productive aquatic insect fauna. To read more, see Roell and Orth (1993). Roell and Orth (1998), and/or Roell and Orth (1994). As you read about the history of the smallmouth bass fishery in the New River by John Copeland (DGIF District Fishery Biologist) and colleagues you will see that the issues affecting smallmouth bass are not always clear and straightforward.

Post your summaries of the Copeland et al article here:

Dump in the creek, or the other way round

2008-11-26T20:38:00.002-05:00

On our routine water quality sampling expeditions, we have come across several interesting natural features on the various creeks we work on. Added to this, other very 'unnatural' features have turned up. The list below includes some of the interesting items we found in, and very close to, Tom's Creek at Poverty (all within a 250m reach!) on Nov. 11, 2008.
1. 1 cooler with 6 (unopened!) cans of beer right on a riffle.
2. 3 deer carcass-skeletons at various stages of decomposition.
3. 1 large wooden hose reel.
4. 1 football helmet!
5. A 'sizable' amount of used cotton wool.
6. 1 standard-sized rubbish bin full and covered with black polythene (very foul-smelling).

Other items that we have come across elsewhere (in, or very close to, a creek) are: 1 garden chair and 1 huge blue crayfish claw!

Tailwater Management Issues

2008-11-26T08:41:00.004-05:00

Next week we will discuss the history of changes in the Smith River Philpott tailwater. The physical habitat changes that resulted from 50 years of a high-dam barrier effect, coldwater release, and daily hydropower peaking operations create a highly altered condition from the 'natural' river. Restoration to a reference condition is out of the question within my career time. However, some changes are possible.

Philpott Project has two large turbines rated at 6700 KW and a smaller unit rated at 600 KW. The USACE operates this project and has contract to deliver electric power to the grid and the electric power production is managed by the Southeastern Power Administration. In 2006 Congress authorized a Section 216 Study of operations of Philpott. This study is ongoing with state match of federal funds. For more information click here.

The history of this project and project completion reports are available at the Smith River Project website. In the 1970's the largest trout ever caught in Virginia waters were from the Smith River. The reading by Marcy Anderson and others (in Assigned Readings/Course Documents) describes changes in the wild brown trout population and my lesson will explore other aspects of the habitat. Another little known fact is that the tailwater supports a "small" population of the Federally Endangered Logperch, which would likely benefit from a change in dam operations.

Zebra Mussel Found in Susquehanna River

2008-11-24T17:15:00.005-05:00

This story just reported the confirmed presence of zebra mussel in the Susquehanna River above Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam in Maryland. It is the first time the zebra mussel Driessena polymorpha has been found in the lower Susquehanna River.

The zebra mussel poses widespread ecological and economic threats. Originally from the Balkans, Poland, and the former Soviet Union, by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the construction of extensive canal systems enabled the spread of zebra mussels to major river drainages of Europe.

In the United States, the first account of an established population came in 1988 from Lake St. Clair, located between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. By 1990, it was found in all the Great Lakes. View the spread of this species in the US

Let's give thanks for 20+ years of zebra mussel free rivers in Virginia.

2008-11-24T17:15:00.001-05:00

Role of Ice, beyond Ice Fishing

2008-11-14T10:15:00.003-05:00

As the temperatures cool this weekend, you may start thinking about other temperature-related influences on streams, stream processes, and fish mortality and habitats. Carl Hubbs and Milton Trautman first wrote about the need to study fish conditions in winter in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society in 1935. The issue at the time was concern about over-winter survival of stocked fish. Today's issues with ice are different. Managers and scientists are interested in determination of instream flows to maintain fisheries during winter low-water conditions. Unfortunately, little research has been done on fish winter movements, feeding needs and habits, cover needs, microhabitat occupation, or other aspects of life-history under ice-cover. Early work described ice formations which are as dynamic or or dynamic than stream channel form, and fish behavior. When it gets cold trout slow down and seek the cover of darkness. There are few studies locally so the paper "Living in the Ice Lane" comes from investigations of winter ecology of stream salmonids. Tom Wesche and colleagues worked in Wyoming in the early 80s on developing techniques for locating trout under ice cover and measuring instream habitat conditions under conditions of complete ice cover. In Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Robert Mueller and colleagues summarized video and acoustic techniques available today. These techniques are recent additions to fisheries investigators but open up new possibilities for exploring fish ecology under the ice.

Click on comment below and post your summaries of the papers that you read about ice.

Sample Exam Questions

2008-11-07T16:43:00.004-05:00

New River near Narrows, Virginia, October 13 2008. Photo by Valerie Turner.

Exam on Wednesday will start promptly at 6pm. Andy Dolloff will present his findings on the "History, habitat, chemistry, and catastrophe -- setting the stage for watershed restoration"

Here are some sample questions to remind you what we've been studying since early October.

What are the major principles of the natural flow paradigm? As a paradigm, how do you imagine this being applied to prescribing instream flows for various ecological flow components? Provide examples from San Pedro River, Arizona, Apalachicola River, Florida, Savannah River, Georgia-South Carolina, or other river.

In addressing the spatial connectivity of stream fishes, what are the common riverscape principles for effective research and management. Suggest how you might apply these principles to the study of American eel populations in the eastern USA.

Ecologists have identified the self-thinning rule, a reduction in density of a cohort of organisms due to intraspecific competition for a limiting resource as mean body size. In what type of stream fishes has this rule been demonstrated? How would you demonstrate the existing of a self-thinning rule in a stream minnow? How would you apply this rule to the management of stream habitats?

Recent evidence indicates that a Pacific Inter-decadal Climate Oscillation occurring at 20- to 30-year intervals in the North Pacific Ocean not only affects sea temperatures and drives salmon production but also changes climate over large areas of the North American continent and streamflow in major river basins from Alaska to California (Mantua et al. 1997 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 78: 1069–1079). Comment on how these finding relate to the ability of stream habitat managers to rehabilitate and restore stream habitats. How does this finding alter your standards and criteria for defining ecologically successful stream restoration?

What are habitat suitability criteria? How are they developed? How are they applied? What are the sources of uncertainty in habitat suitability criteria? How would you estimate the magnitude of uncertainty? Give one example of how you might use suitability criteria in directing stream rehabilitation and conservation activities.

A group of Ichthyology students sampled stream fishes at 200 locations in the western tributaries of the James River of Virginia using a variety of techniques and measuring habitat characteristics in each sampling reach. Would you expect the collections of fish assemblages to vary among locations? If so, what local habitat features might best explain the variation? Describe factors that may contribute to annual variation in the abundance and composition of these fish assemblages.

Two simple metrics are used to describe streamflow, Froude number and Reynolds number. Define these numbers, how they were derived and how they are measured. What is difference? Give an example of how these differ among visually defined habitat units or habitats selected by a particular stream animal.

Define shear force and how it is derived. What fluvial processes are influenced by shear force. How does shear force differ from critical shear force?
Instream flow and environmental flow – what do these terms mean? What are the basic approaches for prescribing these?

You are tasked with developing a new instream flow policy for the state of Nowhere, USA. Describe at least three key elements of your policy and how they would differ from current appropriate water doctrines.

Imagine a riverine segment with a meandering single channel pattern with extensive point bar development and heavily vegetated riparian corridor. Sketch the segment in planform (~25-30 channel widths) and identify areas of migrating point bars, even-aged riparian vegetation, locations of pools and riffles, and sorted gravel deposits. Sketch hypothetical cross sections for specific pools, riffles, runs, and glides and expected longitudinal bottom profile and bankfull elevations.

To develop environmental flows Richter et al. (2006 River Research and Applications) propose a five-step process includes: (1) an orientation meeting; (2) a literature review and summary of existing knowledge about flow-dependent biota and ecological processes of concern; (3) a workshop to develop ecological objectives and initial flow recommendations, and identify key information gaps; (4) implementation of the flow recommendations on a trial basis to test hypotheses and reduce uncertainties; and (5) monitoring system response and conducting further research as warranted. A range of recommended flows are developed for the low flows in each month, high flow pulses throughout the year, and floods with targeted inter-annual frequencies. How do they proposed developing the recommended flows without site-specific environmental studies? What are the strengths, weaknesses, and sources of uncertainty in this approach?

Stream restoration projects often involve bank treatments and streambed treatments to re-establish a vigorous riparian zone. In addition to providing shade and inputs of leaf fall, what other benefits would this provide to stream ecosystems?

“Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well spoken words; This is good luck” Buddha

Minnesotans vote for clean water, and then pay the check!

2008-11-06T08:14:00.003-05:00

Check it out! Minnesotans voted to pay higher taxes for clean water and natural resources . . . and some art mumbo-jumbo. It is a sales tax, but that does not mean a bigger burden on lower income citizens in MN because MN does not tax food and clothing. Could this reflect changing values?

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Minnesota-Voters-2008-Approve-55/story.aspx?guid={E2C2E31E-AB4F-49ED-927C-AD82B74A7BE4}

Emerging Principles of Stream Habitat Management

2008-11-05T13:50:00.002-05:00

The term Leitbild was introduced in the first weeks of the term. Leitbild is a German word. Its most general meaning is: ”Leit-Bild – ein Bild, das leitet”: a guiding image. There are two components of leitbild, guidance or goal or orientation and the image or action or change. A leitbild creates a shared overall goal, offers orientation toward one long-term overall goal, and provides a basis for different professions and disciplines to work in the same direction. Leitbild refers not only to a common vision of actors. It relates also to the concept of autopoesis (from the Greek: self-organization) functioning as an interpersonal stabilizer. Developing the leitbild is a consensus-building process of is multidisciplinary and uses inputs from scientists, agency managers, and the community stakeholders. A desirable process would use historical information, such as aerial photographs, maps, interviews, dendochronology, hydrologic records, and biological surveys, as well as study of undisturbed reference rivers. Rogers (2006 River Research & Applications 22:269-280) labeled this activity as the “real river management challenge.”

So I offer the Leitbild as a critically important concept of Stream Habitat Management. As we build this activity we need to build on our knowledge structure and develop paradigms and principles. Boulton et al. (2008) in River Futures offer ten very broad tenets of successful integrative river science and management. Bunn and Arthington (2002) develop four principles related to altered flow. Firstly, flow is a major determinant of physical habitat in streams, which in turn is a major determinant of biotic composition; Secondly, aquatic species have evolved life history strategies primarily in direct response to the natural flow regimes; Thirdly, maintenance of natural patterns of longitudinal and lateral connectivity is essential to the viability of populations of many riverine species; Finally, the invasion and success of exotic and introduced species in rivers is facilitated by the alteration of flow regimes.

Concepts include such stalwarts as longitudinally ordered zones, river continuum, hydrogeomorphic patches, hydraulic habitat units, hydrologic stream types, hierarchical habitat templates, population regulation, trophic complexity, nutrient spiraling, floodplain connectivity, natural flow regimes, hydraulic geometry, microbial loop, fluvial channel evolution, and others. From these concepts the goal of stream science is to develop hypotheses, theories, postulates, and principles with the ultimate goal of setting up a system of laws of stream science. Principles may be borrowed from other disciplines, such as application of Bernouli’s principle for fluid flow. We have used this principle to approximate velocities and depths in river channels. The conservation of energy, which states that the for stead flow the sum of all forms of mechanical energy in a fluid along a streamline is the same at all points on that streamline. This requires that the sum of kinetic and potential energy remains constant.

But at this point in our course of study it is time to describe the principles that are specific to stream habitat management, a cross-disciplinary endeavor. Management requires technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills to function in planning, organizing, directing, and controlling activities. The best stream habitat managers will be those with great technical and human skills and the ability to adopt innovative concepts and ideas that are appropriate to the Leitbild.

Please post a comment here describing your top 1, 2, or 3 key principles of stream habitat management. Comment on suggestions of others and try to keep this effort up until we break for Thanksgiving.

Papers for next week--Ecolsystem Concepts

2008-11-01T10:24:00.003-04:00

There was some confusion about the discussion for next week. Valerie and Yaw signed up for papers that had been crossed off the list. Please pick one of the other six papers to read instead. If you are unable to find the papers you signed up for please email me (bostby@vt.edu) and I will send you the pdf. Here is list:

Kaushal, S. S. et al (2008)--Jeremy

Christian, A. D., B. G. Crump, and D. J. Berg. 2008. Nutrient release and ecological stoichiometry of freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Unionidae) in 2 small regionally distinct streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 27(2): 440-450.--Jane

Merz, J. E. and P. B. Moyle. 2006. Salmon, wildlife, and wine: marine-derived nutrients in human-dominated ecosystems of central California. Ecological Applications 16(3): 999-1009.--Matt

Wipfli, M. S., J. S. Richardson, and R. J. Naiman. 2007. Ecological linkages between headwatersand downstream ecosystems: transport of organic matter, invertebrates, and wood down headwater channels. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 43(1): 72-85.--Ryan

James, L. A. H., Xeonpoulos, J. F. Wilson, and P. C. Frost. 2007. Land use controls nutrient excretion by stream invertebrates along a gradient of agriculture. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 26(3): 523-531.--Lee

C. C. Vaughn, S. J. Nichols, and D. E. Spooner. 2008. Community and foodweb ecology of freshwater mussels. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 27(2): 409-423.--Brandon

Where Have all the Fish Gone?

2008-10-31T17:19:00.002-04:00

The joys and perils of working on stream and riverine fishes is that the causes for changes in fish assemblages or populations is seldom obvious at first glance. Take a look at this paper which summarizes a very large investigation of declines in fish in Swiss Rivers.

The photo here is of the the Lütschine River

It is a fast- flowing glacier fed river that is popular among tourists who must raft it. Not all Swiss rivers look this way but it is the way we think about foreign lands from travel brochures.

Now click on the link and see what seems to explain "where have all the fish gone" in Swiss Rivers. I was surprised. You may be also.

Post your precis here for articles you read about Ecosystems Issues for Wednesday's discussion.

Have a nice weekend

Following the New River Video

2008-10-29T08:22:00.004-04:00

A number of news article and this video on our local New River were produced by Tim Thornton Roanoke Times last year. Articles highlight the diverse pressures and benefits and land ownership in this large watershed. The video mentions the Hawksnest project which divert most of the New River (photo at right) through the Gauley mountain to produce hydropower. The Hawk's Nest tunnel is one of the country's worst disasters involving contraction of silicosis while constructing the hydro project. Silicosis was contracted through inhaling rock (silica) dust while blasting. The Hawk's Nest incident and the Hawks Nest tunnel is quietly hidden and forgotten by most, but see new book just published in 2008.

In these news articles there is a glaring omission of the relicensing process underway to re-consider operations of the Claytor Dam project (see hydrograph at right). Numerous studies are underway to address problems that exist with the hydro operations. You can see the study documents and schedules at the Claytor Lake Relicensing website. All studies are to be completed January 15 2009. After comments from stakeholders it is likely that a new license will be granted to AEP from FERC sometime in 2009. As you can tell the conceptual flow diagrams in papers by Richter et al. (2006) and Poff et al. (2003) have to fit into sometimes rigid FERC institutional processes where timeliness is key.

"Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science."
John F. Kennedy

Saving Water for Whom?

2008-10-24T13:40:00.002-04:00

This article came out last week -- and it's emblematic of what happens when we have a drought --- those who scream the loudest seem to get attention and those at the end of the river - those in the estuaries and bays will see less freshwater. Similarly we see major controversy over managing flows below a highly altered river systems in Virginia, Staunton River. Learn more about What's Behind the Water Wars. Here we average minimum of 650 cubic feet per second is required to be released from the dam unless there is a special variance related to drought conditions. Well won't we have a variance every time there is a drought??

“We'll never know the worth of water until the well goes dry.”– Scottish proverb.

This week we explore the many issues surrounding instream flows (in some places referred to as environmental flows) and read about the complexities of water resources management.

I will use the term "instream flow" because it is more common in the legal world though the term environmental flows is emerging throughout the world. The term "instream flow" is used to identify a specific stream flow (typically measured in cubic feet per second, or cfs) at a specific location for a defined time, and typically following seasonal variations. Instream flows are usually defined as the stream flows needed to protect and preserve instream resources and values, such as fish, wildlife and recreation. Instream flows are most often described and established in a formal legal document, typically an adopted state rule. I have personally witnessed the agonizing development of what is today referrred to as instream flow science as it is embedded in policy and law. As the cigarette commercial used to say "you've come a long way baby!"

Today, every state and Canadian province will understand the meaning of instream flow, even if their state statutes do not and some states have several specialists who do nothing but instream flow work. These specialists are organized as the Instream Flow Council which promotes awareness and sound science for protecting, maintaining and restoring aquatic ecosystems .

Sufficient water in streams is necessary to sustain both the natural environment and our community water supplies. We come to expect a continuous supply of freshwater and seldom think of it as an expensive commodity that we must pay for, such as electricity or oil. But that may change and droughts make us think about the finite nature of water -- and globally there are many severe problems outlined in the Report "Blue Gold" by Maude Barlow.

The instream flow council published a book of methods recently and has posted a 194 pages of references related to instream flows. I hope you find at least one interesting article on flow management to inform our discussion next Wednesday.

Click on comment and below and post your precis.

Population Ecology?

2008-10-22T01:04:00.002-04:00

I didn't see a posting for the next discussion, but I wanted to get these out of the way. Anyway, here are my summaries:

Dolinsek, I. J., J. W. A. Grant and P. M. Biron. 2007. The effect of habitat heterogeneity on the population density of juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. Journal of Fish Biology 70: 206-214.

Kalleberg, E. R. 1958. Observations in a stream tank of territoriality and compensation in juvenile salmon and trout (Salmo salar L. and S. trutta). Report of the Institute of Freshwater Research Drottingholm 39: 55-98.

In a manipulative field experiment, Dolinshek et al. (2007) tested the Kalleberg (1958) hypothesis that for juvenile Atlantic salmon visual isolation reduces territory size and subsequently increases density. Dolinshek et al. (2007) hypothesized that if visual isolation is the primary mechanism controlling density in salmon, and not habitat heterogeneity or habitat quality, changes to a habitat that affect visual isolation should have no effect on non-salmonid density because such fish do not defend territories, but should affect density of coincident salmonids. They manipulated streams by adding or removing boulders from test plots. Boulders were assumed to provide sufficient visual isolation. They found that adding boulders increased salmon density, but had little effect on non-salmonids, thus supporting Kalleberg’s hypothesis.

Elliott, J. M. and M. A. Hurley. 1998. Population regulation in adult, but not juvenile, resident trout (Salmo trutta) in a Lake District stream. Journal of Animal Ecology 67: 280-286.

In previous work, Elliott and Hurley (1998) found that one of two extensively documented trout populations studied in the English Lake District was clearly controlled by density-dependent factors in early life stages (competition among individuals that recently emerged from redds). In the second population, which had a lower overall density, this density-dependent relationship was not observed, so they tested whether density-dependence at a later life stage, reproductive females, controlled populations. Specifically, they studied the relationship between how many females laid eggs each year and the number of successfully spawning females that resulted from that year’s recruitment. When female density exceeded 4 per 300 m2 their offspring produced fewer females and eggs. Documentation of later life density-dependence in salmonids is rare and the specific mechanisms remain unknown, though Elliot and Hurley (1998) speculate on a few.

Orth, D.J., and T.J. Newcomb. 2002. Certainties and uncertainties of defining essential habitats of riverine smallmouth bass. Pages 251-264 in M. S. Ridgway and D. P. Phillipp, eds. Black Bass: Ecology, Conservation, and Management. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.

Sorry to diverge from the Precis approach, but I just could not do this article justice via that summary format. Orth and Newcomb (2002) present concepts germane both to our discussions of habitat ecology and population ecology in stream habitat management.

On Habitat Ecology:

Orth and Newcomb (2002) use the inconsistencies and consistencies of observed habitat associations in Virginia and West Virginia streams to draw conclusions about the physical and biological processes that create and maintain habitats for SMB. For example, physical habitat measures of nest sites (depth, velocity, proximity to banks, etc,) varied by river, but all relationships were related to refugia for both adults and offspring. Nests in deeper habitats with greater cover protected adults from avian prey. Nests were also more common in areas less likely to be affected by violent flows, thus providing flow refugia for eggs. The conceptual connections presented in this example are writ large in Orth and Newcomb (2002) as they look at habitat use for all important life stages of SMB (nesting, early development, juvenile, and adult) and also at habitat needed to sustain a SMB forage base.

On Population Ecology:

In the first portion of their paper, Orth and Newcomb (2002) briefly review some factors known more globally to affect recruitment to and structure of SMB populations. However, in discussion of habitat associations they more narrowly hypothesize links between habitat and population structure, demonstrating the importance of density-independent mechanisms on SMB populations. For example, they hypothesized that SMB population structure is the product of stochastic processes, such as rare and extreme flow events, and habitat quality, such as suitable nest sites. They also discuss the link between habitat for forage and success of populations. For example crayfish density can affect adult SMB density. Thus, habitat quality for crayfish can control SMB populations.

In summary, Orth and Newcomb (2002) expose the danger of the assumption that because an animal appears to be habitat generalist, that population dynamics are not affected by density-independent mechanisms indirectly or directly related to habitat quality.

FLOW: For the Love of Water

2008-10-21T15:56:00.004-04:00

This documentary, " Flow: For the Love of Water" will be playing through Thursday at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg. 7 and 9:15pm. It is an award winning documentary directed by Irena Salina " builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel."

It is a great intro to our Oct 29th review of instream flow legal and institutional mechanisms.

Click on the Title to read some of the reviews...

Photo: by D. J. Orth, South Fork Roanoke River October 2008 at very low flow

Spatial Scales for River Conservation

2008-10-10T14:49:00.003-04:00

Photo by Bruce Molnia USGS Meanders of Shenandoah River, Virginia

On Wednesday we will be reading papers on appropriate spatial scales for conserving riverine resources. My lecture on Wednesday will focus on Population Ecology of Stream Fishes and the emphasis will be on the temporal variation in habitat and the tendency of stream fish populations and assemblages to maintain some semblance of stability in a temporally variable environment (no assigned reading).

Our discussion will complicate this picture by taking a realistic view of the spatial connectivity of habitats. The paper by Kurt Fausch and others is a thorough literature review which proposes a number of principles based on a few example studies that study fish populations in a spatial context. The other papers that have been assigned will provide us additional examples from darters, smallmouth bass, mountain suckers and charr. These papers describe complex studies and numerous types of data and data analysis and are long -- so do not leave your reading to the last minute, hours or day .

Pay close attention to principles described in Table 1 and bring your examples of your personal insights and examples of these premises. Or think about these principles and their applications as you read specific articles about spatial patterns in stream fishes.

This just in: About the Trends in Nutrients in Shenandoah River of Virginia. Here is an example of the spatial complexity of addressing a basic question about the trends in water quality over time.

"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883

Clinch River Flood Frequency

2008-10-08T11:17:00.004-04:00

Thought I might share this. I just did the frequency analysis for the Clinch River at Cleveland Island. How does it compare to what you saw? This basin drains mostly forest and agriculture (pasture).

Exam Help

2008-10-03T16:19:00.004-04:00

Photo by Lee Walker.

Wednesday's Exam will consist of Five Questions. Click on Exam Help Above for added advice.

Here are a number of Exam Questions to assist in your studies. Do not assume that the exam questions will be worded exactly as these are.

As compared to other ecosystems, streams are unique in ways that make them both interesting and difficult to study, understand, and manage. What are the most important unique factors as you understand them? Compare and contrast a local stream ecosystem, such as Craig Creek, with the local Pandapas pond.

Describe the term “Leitbild” as it relates to the process of stream habitat restoration. How do we as stream habitat specialists translate that Leitbild into an operational plan?

What are hydraulic geometry relationships for stream channels? Geometry is one of the oldest components of mathematics concerned with questions of size, shape, and relative positions of shapes. How are these relationships derived for streams and how are they intended to be applied? And what are the major factors that lead to variability in relationships.

We use a lot of strange terms in stream rehabilitation, such as root wads, J hooks, cross vanes, weirs, revetments, W-rocks, K-dam, check dam, and others. Can you classify these terms based on their function as stream rehabilitation techniques and describe they are and what they are intended to do?

What is the significance of the concept of bankful stage or discharge? In the field, how does one approach identifying the bankful stage reliably? What are some procedures and indicators that you recommend be implemented?

Fluvial processes create and maintain stream channels that may or may not provide suitable habitat for fish of interest to the public. Describe the basis for the Montgomery-Buffington systems for classifying stream channels based on fluvial processes. For each channel type, explain the features of the channel that provides habitat for a specific life or ecosystem function.

Science is the search for fundamental principles to help us understand and explain phenomena. Based on your studies thus far, can you describe three to five fundamental physical process principles that help us understand and explain the form (dimension, pattern, profile) of stream channels.

Victor Shelford wrote that ‘the first essential is the locate the animal in the environment’ While this is the first step in understanding habitat use, please expand on the notion of microhabitat selection by describing how a stream ecologist would demonstrate habitat selection by a stream animal. In your elaboration on this idea, think about one cue (based on sensory perceptions) that a fish may use in habitat selection and explain the process of by which a fish displays selection.

The cause and effect diagram is used to explore all the potential or real causes (or inputs) that result in a single effect (or output). Causes are arranged according to their level of importance or detail, resulting in a depiction of relationships and hierarchy of events. Develop a cause and effect diagram that depicts the influence of four major factors that influence the shape (hydrologic response) of a stream hydrograph.

Develop an argument to support your belief of the most important standards and criteria to apply in determining ecologically successful stream restoration.

Phillip Roni and coauthors summarized the results of over 350 studies of stream rehabilitation and organized them into themes of roads, riparian, floodplain, instream structures, and nutrients. What was the central thesis of this paper? In this paper they propose an interim strategy for prioritizing future rehabilitation. Do you agree with their proposed highest priority actions? Why or why not?

Let’s assume your stream habitat management division is considering adopting the stream habitat classification system described by Hawkins et al (1993). What is your opinion about the use of this system? What cautions and concerns would your communicate to your supervisor?

What are the most common motives for river and stream restoration? How does motivation influence the need for criteria for defining success?

In order to fully describe ecologically relevant patterns of variation in stream flow, how would you quantify the stream flow regime for a local stream?

If you have questions or comments, post them here. I will monitor your posts but will be at the FLOW 2008 Conference.

Beyond Pools and Riffles

2008-09-26T13:19:00.002-04:00

Next week we will continue to address questions about the linkage between physical characteristics of streams and biological process, performance, or potential. Our discussion will focus on the classification systems used for naming channel units. I encourage you to visit a stream and attempt to "name" the units you see and sketch or photo-document your observations in your field books. If you care to examine an alternative paper the paper by Clifford (2006) "Physical habitat, eco-hydraulics and river design: a review
and re-evaluation of some popular concepts and methods" is available online.

I received a note from Justin Laughlin, Stream Restoration Biologist, today. He asks if students would want to assist with installation of cedar tree revetment on North Fork Roanoke near Blacksburg next Tuesday. If so give him a call and arrange a meeting time and place. Call 276 782 1627 (O), 276 780 0805 (Cell)

Where Are We?

2008-09-19T14:41:00.003-04:00

This is the first question to ask in any planning project. Not until we can describe in a convincing story line where our stream habitat is there is no hope for moving on to the next phase of Where do we want to go ? or How will we get there?

This semester our discussions thus far have addressed the fourth planning question "Did We Make It?" and you now have an interesting global or national perspective on the success of stream restoration.

This week our discussion will focus on smaller-scale case studies where you can really critique the "leitbild" and the study design, data collection methods and or assumptions.

I just finished reading an interesting story about restoring apache trout in Arizona -- in this case the invasive trouts are the number one limiting factor and instream barriers are being managed to prevent their encroaching. Sometimes the habitat is adequate but other constraints must be overcome.

I am very optimistic about the progress of stream rehabilitation and it comes from little stories that I hear about that indicate that we are better off than we were decades ago. In Ohio for instance they recently recognized that what people have been calling ditches during their lifetimes are really part of the flowing waters of the state and need to be monitoring and protected just as the 'rivers' are. Take a look at the article entitled: Ditch? Stream? Name matters

I will introduce the concept and methods of Habitat Assessment (aka habitat evaluation or biophysical condition assessment). There are many variations on the theme which range from the Rapid to the Gradual to the Glacial time frames. You can review the Rapid methods that Virgina volunteers currently use. Click here! Scan some paper on riffle stability index by kapesser and the see if you can use the Habitat Assessment Form on your 'favorite' creek.

Click on COMMENT below and post your rhetorical precis here.

Navigating turbulent waters

2008-09-15T15:13:00.001-04:00

Read about Jimmy Liao, whose research on trout swimming has added a new thought about the adage "goijng with the flow"

let us learn from the fishes...

Case Studies in Stream Habitat Rehabilitation

2008-09-12T09:41:00.004-04:00

We had an interesting discussion Wednesday night because you each read some background papers and were ready and willing to share your thoughts. Thanks for showing me why you are here. Let me offer you a "thank-you prayer fish" (a central stoneroller Campostoma anomalum) for your efforts.

“The idea that the majority of students attend a university for an education independent of the degree and grades is a hypocrisy everyone is happier not to expose. Occasionally some students do arrive for an education but rote and mechanical nature of the institution soon converts them to a less idealic attitude”
- Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintance

Next week we will discuss the results of studies that attempted to evaluate the success of stream rehabilitation techniques -- to learn what works and how "we" have operationalized standards and criteria for "success."

Everyone will prepare by reading the same paper by Phillip Roni et al. (2008) "Global review of physical and biological effectiveness of stream habitat rehabilitation techniques" and Ansaw Yaw e will lead the discussion. Everyone should read this one article and post a rhetorical precis; it is a long 24 pages not counting references but is quite comprehensive. This article brings together the very fragmented nature of the literatures on stream habitat rehabilitation. This paper is only available on Blackboard (and not on your CD).

There are many other readings available and we will split up the reading assignments later in anticipation of further discussions on September 24 (led by Brandon Peoples). So you should review the list of readings and decide about specific regions or rehabilitation techniques that you wish to investigate further.

In the first session I will lecture on microhabitat selection(theories and methods). I ask that you think about a stream you are familiar with and mentally bring one personally relevant example of the flora or fauna that exists there (or post a pic) so we can think about the issues of habitat selection in light of stream habitat management. Also, read the required reading on "Certainties and uncertainties in defining essential habitats for riverine smallmouth bass" and post a rhetorical precis on it. If you are morally opposed to (or just uninterested in) this species you may read about habitat selection in a stream salmonid or a mussel or a darter.

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” - Socrates

click on comment below to post your rhetorical precis or comment or photos on the subject.

Stream Habitat Management -

2008-09-11T10:10:00.002-04:00

Rhetorical Précis: #2
Valerie Turner
9/10/08

Scott Gillilan, K. Boyd, T. Hoitsma and M. Kauffman in “Challenges in Developing and Implementing Ecological Standards for Geomorphic River Restoration Projects: a Practitioner’s Response to Palmer et al” (2005) commend and also challenge the assumptions of Palmer et al in “Standards for Ecologically Successful Restoration”.(2005) The authors commend the clear articulation and inclusion of nuances in the establishment of ecological standards of river restoration practices and the need for there to be a true science for practitioner’s to follow while noting a need for synthesis, application of methods, along with more interaction with ecologists and the academic community so that more ecologically effective projects will be a result of meaningful pre- and post-monitoring of projects. In order for this to be achieved effectively, the authors contend that 4 ecological standards need to be addressed and implemented in order for the most ecologically worthy projects to be funded. Gillilan et al. propose this information be used by the academic community who will be involved in project design, etc., but more importantly, used by the project participants such as project sponsors, regulators and laypeople in the community.

Field Project Coordination

2008-09-11T09:41:00.003-04:00

After talking with Don, he indicated that we should collaborate efforts on Stoney Creek. By now you may be thinking about what sort of field project you would like to do. I wanted to make you aware of some of the work that we've been doing at Stoney Creek at Glen Alton. As you heard from Larry Mohn's talk the first week, the 700 m section of Stoney Creek that runs through the field recently had its banks graded and many instream structures (cross veins, rootwads, lunker structures) were added. Of course, this tends to change the bank structure and hydrology of the stream. Prior to the work, cross sections were made at permanent monuments, average riffle, run, and pool depths were made, measurements of LWD and undercut banks were made, and measurements of elevetation were taken at each monument. After a few high flow events, the instream structures may change some of the bed dynamics and riffle/run habitat within the stream. This could potentially be a good comparison with "pre-data."

If you decide to work up there, please let me know because 1) we can coordinate trips and 2) I can show you some of the monuments that would be appropriate to take measurements from. We have large orange caps placed at every 20 m along the stream. We are currently planning a camping trip one weekend where undergraduate students can help with measurements.

Here's some stuff that I will be doing eventually anyway, where it would be good to collaborate:

1) Measuring the meander of the channel
2) Temperature analysis (temp loggers have been placed in the upper, middle, and lower section) - they need to be recorded and analyzed
3) Pebble counts - relating to riffle stability and bedload transport
4) Possibly sedimentation rates (sediment transport?)
5) Measuring "Post-rehabilitation" cross sections (bankfull height, wetted width)
6) Measuring "Post-rehabilitation" habitat unit size (riffle,run, pool depth, width, length)
7) Measuring "Post-rehabilitation" structures (undercut banks, LWD, cover, etc)

After discussing ideas with Don, let me know what stuff you'd be interested in doing and we can collaborate.

Ryan

Rhetorical Precis Trush

2008-09-09T19:37:00.001-04:00

William J Trush, Scott M. McBain, and Luna B. Leopold’s article, “Attributes of an Alluvial River and Their Relation to Water Policy and Management” (8/15/2000), explains the 10 attributes of alluvial rivers and how these attributes should guide the examination of alluvial rivers so that the restoration of alluvial processes may successfully occur downstream from a dam, or preserve alluvial streams below proposed dam sites. Trush, McBain and Leopold identify the growing body of evidence, experiment and theory concerning the geomorphic processes that form and maintain alluvial river ecosystems which need to be taken into consideration when stream restoration of an existing area or stream management downriver of a dam is implemented. In order to help river managers identify desired processes by use of “a minimal checklist” of critical geomorphic and ecological processes derived from field observation and experimentation, allowing for use of charting and evaluation strategies for restoring and preserving alluvial ecosystems, and then help prescribe the necessary impetuses based on useful empirical relationships, the authors’ purpose is to point out ways in which to restore alluvial streams. Trush, McBain and Leopold created this document for use by scientists, biologists, ecologists, as well as policy makers for appreciating, interpreting and restoring the complexity of alluvial river ecosystems.

Recent status report on North American Fishes

2008-09-09T16:53:00.002-04:00

This recent news release updates an analysis of the status of fishes in trouble in North America. The number of taxa that are imperiled has increased to nearly 40%. the full report is available to review in the current issues of Fisheries.

Jelks, H.L., S.J. Walsh, N.M. Burkhead, S.Contreras-Balderas, E. Díaz-Pardo, D.A. Hendrickson, J. Lyons, N.E. Mandrak, F. McCormick, J.S. Nelson, S.P. Platania, B.A. Porter, C.B. Renaud, J. J. Schmitter-Soto, E.B. Taylor, and M.L. Warren, Jr. 2008. Conservation status of imperiled North American freshwater and diadromous fishes. Fisheries 33(8):372-407.

All the more reason to identify criteria for success and finding examples of 'conservation success stories'

and it will take money and commitment. as much as $3.5M! A Land conservation group Bush Heritage Australia has paid $3.5 million for a property in western Queensland to protect Australia's most endangered freshwater fish.

The small redfin blue-eye fish only lives in pools at Edgbaston Station near Longreach.

Brett's Precis for "The Myths of Restoration Ecology"

2008-09-08T08:07:00.002-04:00

In the review article “The Myths of Restoration Ecology”, Hilderbrand, Watts, and Randle identify and address five major myths (assumptions) of the restoration ecology responsible for current oversimplified approaches that often lead to failures. In turn, they discuss the theoretical underpinning and consequences of applying the assumptions that 1) restored ecosystem follow an innate trajectory toward a climax ecosystem (succession), 2) restoration of physical and chemical habitat is all that is needed to facilitate recovery of a biotic community, 3) restoration can be achieved in a compressed time frame, 4) universal recipes for restoration exist, and 5) managers can identify and manipulate dominant ecological drivers and that drivers are static. Though at times a digression into relativism and far from a ground breaking idea, Hilderbrand et al. effectively support their thesis that restoration needs to follow a context-dependent approach which acknowledges uncertainty and can adapt to changes. The intended purpose of this review was to encourage those engaged in restoration to acknowledge assumptions and embrace uncertainty in planning, practice, and evaluation of ecosystem restoration.

Ecologically Successful Stream Restoration

2008-09-05T11:06:00.002-04:00

Next week we will have our first in-class discussion on criteria and standards for judging the success of stream restoration. Please post your reading summaries as comments to this blog entry before Wednesday as that will help facilitate selecting questions for discussion.

Keep in mind as you read the recent literature that some of these activities have been going on for a very long time -- the first stream improvement projects in Michigan date back to 1927. And the ideas of monitoring and adaptive management are also not very new.

What is new is the increase in level of stream restoration activities, the diversity of organizations funding or overseeing activities, and the vast range of scales from to a few hundred meters to restorations of Colorado River (Grand Canyon), Trinity River (CA), and the Kissimmee River (FL). As of July 2004, 37,099 restoration projects were identified and logged in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis project database Bernhardt et al. 2005 Synthesizing US River Restoration Efforts, Science 308:636-637) and they estimated that least $14 to $15 billion has been spent on stream restoration costs in the continential US. from 1990-2004.

So, naturally the question emerges "How do we define success?" We'll talk about this Wednesday.

As an aside remember the problem solving model includes many steps before we get to the 'evaluation' step. Don't underestimate just how much work goes into the planning. developing partnerships, justifying priority activities, and securing project funding. Take a look at the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture as a good example of a comprehensive strategy to improve habitat.

One of the interesting personal stories in this arena is the emergence of a former US Forest Service Hydrologist as the "River Doctor" who pioneered an approach to 'natural channel design.' His story is highlighted in Science.

Let's hear about what you are reading... Please post for all to see and learn.

?Stream Management Tree?

2008-09-01T12:48:00.003-04:00

I'm having some difficulty controlling the growth of my tree. Mine looks like a bramble that has not be pruned for years. Everything I know is so intertwined that a tree may not be an appropriate structure. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

Stoney Creek Restoration

2008-08-27T18:38:00.002-04:00

Hey folks,
The Stoney Creek Restoration project will be taking place Sept 2-5 up at the Glen Alton Property. It would be great to coordinate who could help and when so I can organize drivers and folks that can meet to help out. Please send me days and time allotments that you have available to work. Basically, it takes 45 minutes one way to get to Big Stoney. So to make your trip worthwhile I would say that you need at least a 4 hour period of time that you can devote to going up there. More time would be great. So please send me the days and time allotments that you have and I can organize who folks can ride with. Also, please tell me if you are able to drive or would be willing to drive. Here's some transportation options for you:
Joe Williams, the local coldwater fisheries biologist for VDGIF, will be leaving from his office on South Main at 7:30 to 8am Teusday to Friday. He will be staying up there until the afternoon (4:30pm), getting back by 5:30 to 6pm.
I will be taking a caravan up to Stony Ck. Wednesday (Sept 3rd) at 2:30 pm and staying until the evening and I will also plan to take a van up there on Thursday (Sept 4) at 9:30 am. Let me know if one of these options work for you.
If not, I will attempt to organize a ride up there.
Once again, here are the directions:
Take 460 West from Blacksburg past Pembroke. Take a right on Big Stoney Creek Rd. (635). If you cross the New River you have gone too far. You will stay on 635 for at least 10-15 minutes. You will pass Cherokee Flats parking lot on your left and you will pass Glen Alton Rd on your left. Not far after you pass Glen Alton Rd., you will see open fields on your left. This is the field section where the work will be conducted. Drive up the road until you can see machinery working on the stream. Park in one of the pulloffs on the road.

What I hope to learn from Stream Habitat Management

2008-08-26T17:52:00.002-04:00

Dr. Orth,

I've recently become very interested in Streams, Fish and Aquatic life, in general. I teach science at the middle school level and wondered if the information in this class would be interesting to my students. Last school year, most of my students agreed to give me their email addresses so that I could keep them "up to date" on current science events over the school year and into the summer of 2008. When I got the idea to attend this class, I decided to take a poll among my students in the class of 2013. (Yes! That is their High School Graduation Year!) This "poll" addressed their knowledge of, and their interest in streams, fish and how to manage/reclaim and reconstruct riparian ecology. Their interest was much greater than I ever imagined.
I had thought that a few boys would be interested because of fishing, but to my great delight, those showing an interest were both male and female, with nearly equal numbers of each responding!!!
So, in the interest of "higher education" for middle school students, I am taking this class to give them, and myself a better understanding of what might be involved in stream habitat management. I plan to use this knowledge to construct a unit on Stream Habitat Management for the Middle School Level with a focus on careers involved.
My area of expertise is in Biology, not Ecology or Ichthyology. Therefore, I am surely at a disadvantage. However, I am looking forward to learning new information that I may use to enlighten my students, many who are interested in careers as wildlife biologists, ecological engineers, university professors or prize winning fishermen.

Bonneville Cutthroat making a comeback!

2008-08-22T10:10:00.003-04:00

There is such pressure on flowing water resources to meet the growing demands of our human economy that we sometimes think that the pressures are too much and the outlook is bleak. And working on raising awareness about native fishes is a greater challenge than birds that migrate and visit your feeders and capture your imagination about the mysteries of migration.

However, this recent news story about the Bonneville Cutthroat recovery is a great example of what it takes for restoration to be successful. Time is the number one factor and eternal vigilance and hope is another. We will be discussing the concept of time throughout this course and this news story about the Bonneville cutthroat covers about 34 years since Don Duff discovered a pure Bonneville cutthroat, thought to be extinct since the 1950s. 34 years is an example of 'career time' and for many tough managment problems "It takes a career"

A longer time frame is needed to understand the evolutionary history of the Bonneville cutthroat and its dynamic native habitats of the Bonneville basin. Explaining the patterns of freshwater fish distributions in North America requires an understanding of events of the Pleistocene, a period that began approximately 2-3 million years ago and lasted until approximately 10,000 years ago. Before this period an ancestral salmonid Eosalmo driftwoodensis was living and swimming the coastal regions of remnants of the supercontinent Laurasia. It is thought that about 2 million years ago a common trout ancestor separated into two evolutionary lines, one being the cutthroat and the other the rainbow trout and its related species. It wasn't until the emergence of the Rocky mountains and effects of glaciation during the Pleistocene ice ages that the streams and rivers were accessible and suitable for the anscestors of the Cutthroat trout to colonize. The erosion of these new mountains over thousands of years and stream captures or headwater transfers allowed the ancestral trouts to spread. The Cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki) persisted and evolved in a number of basins including the Lake Bonneville. Lake Bonneville diminished and its vestiges Great Salt Lake is devoid of fishes leaving the Bonneville cutthroat trout to perist in isolated drainages and Bear Lake. So the Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki utah) is evolutionarily significant as it diverged from other cutthroat trout for perhaps 1 million years. This unique sub species has adapted to range of climatic variability of this region as was present as stream channels evolved during the Pleistocene period. Without the re-discovery of the pure Bonneville cutthroat by Don Duff in 1974, the restoration would not be possible. It is also the state fish of Utah.

In his essay Round River, Aldo Leopold wrote " If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." Through the decades since the Endangered Species Act was past, many have argued over the designation of the Bonneville cutthroat as a protected sub species. Efforts to protect and restore have been successful and give us all reason to be optimistic.

How things change in Pennsylvania

2008-08-21T11:35:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I was feeling quite pleased with myself for having posted my schedule of lessons for Stream Habitat Management and completed my compilation of book references and journal articles for the semester. I thought I could return to the task of completing a review of a book manuscript on case studies in instream flow. Whenever you think you are caught up you will be surprised -- and perhaps 'surprise' is a great gift.

I received an email criticizing me for giving opinions unsubstantiated by scientific evidence, based on a recent quote in a newspaper. Then two items arrived in the mail... The June issue of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management contains a special section on Stream Restoration with 8 articles. The first article had located 345 studies on the effectiveness of stream rehabilitation, yet firm conclusions were difficult to make! We have a long way to go in the habitat management field. Then I opened the box from Amazon and reviewed "River Futures. An Integrative Scientific Approach to River Repair" which offers a comprehensive overview of our knowledge about river rehabiliation. This book contains more findings about this emergence of integrative river science but was not as comprehensive as I had hoped for -- so it is not a candidate for textbook adoption. It does contain a number of principles and common ground for productive collaborations among scientists and managers.

I have witnessed a welcome change in our society's focus on stream 'repair' since I first walked on a college campus decades ago. It is fitting to see the establishment of a Habitat Division in Pennsylvania as more and more agencies, non-profits, and for-profit enterprises advertise for and hire Stream Habitat Specialists. Rivers and streams remain some of our most altered ecosystems; yet progress is being made. Most importantly there is a surprising amount of crossdisciplinary agreement among geomorphologists, hydrologists, and ecologists in understanding how rivers function -- at least in general. When it comes to specifics there is more to disagree about, yet we recognize the absence of scientific knowledge, mismatches of time or spatial scales, or lack of specific data. And we are getting better at recognizing the solvable problems and avoiding the "train wrecks. "

Let me applaud you for enrolling and wanting to learn about successful management of stream habitats. It is a complex endeavor that requires "knowing and caring about the uses and values that people have in mind for the resource, such as angling, commercial fisheries, species protection, and aesthetics. It requires knowing when not to manage- to leave streams as they are. Increased abundance of fish, better fishing and ecosystem health are basic objectives. The modern trend is toward more professional management, toward more attention to the design and planning, and toward managing in ways that derive from and are increasingly attuned to natural processes in streams, the processes to which the fishes are adapted. This trend- in contrast to the artificiality and concern for tidiness that characterized some past work -- involves increased focus on the drainage basin; on riparian grazing and logging practices; on the roles of streambank vegetation, woody debris, and beaver; and on structural complexity within the channel."(Orth and White 1993 Stream Habitat Management, Chap. 9 Inland Fisheries Management in North America)

Welcome

2008-08-18T14:29:00.000-04:00

If you are viewing this blog then you are most likely a student newly enrolled in my class, Stream Habitat Management. This blog is a place for all students to come together and share their perspectives on stream habitat issues. Every day many news stories on the plight of our rivers and streams and the conflicts that arise as humans use the flowing water resources, often with little understanding of the complexity that surrounds these habitats.

Some days I may just post a photograph that is meaningful to the topics we are exploring. This photo depicts critical habitat for the federally endangered Roanoke Logperch Percina rex.

I will post questions and issues to you via the blog and expect that you will respond to these questions based on your reading the assignments and integrating this information in your existing frameworks for understanding the world. At other times I will point you to interesting stories about rivers and streams, such as this one on dam removal in Pennsylvania http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08230/904653-358.stm . We can learn from one another as we share our unique perspectives and entertain the notion that we just might be wrong once in a while.

On the blog you can Comment on any posting. Additionally you are each authors for the blog so you can also post your own topics. I believe that we learn best by way of telling stories and writing stories in a language that makes most sense to us. No one wants to learn by simply following a new recipe. Do you?

So the first step is to select a place to tell your story -- a stream or a river that is close enough to visit a few times this semester. What are you looking for? Not too big... not too small ...not too familiar... not too far away. This sketch was drawn in fall 1997 in preparation of some stream bank stabilization in the North Fork Roanoke River. My students did a habitat and biotic assessment in 1998 setting us up for the question of what are things like now??

If you are reading this blog then you must be interested in becoming a better steward of our lands and flowing waters, developing your expertise in some specialty of stream habitat management, and willing and able to work with other students to solve stream management problems collaboratively. It will help if we know each other better.

So take a few minute and comment in response to this blog posting. Tell us who you are and what you hope to learn in Stream Habitat Management.