OWEB Grant #211-2046-8951: Wolf Creek In-stream EM, Final Project Completion Report

Identification Information

Citation

Originator: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers

Publish Date: 03-29-13

Online Link: None

BPA Project #:

Contact Information

Agency: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Name: Holly Huchko

Job Position: Assistant District Fish Biologist

Telephone: 541-440-3353

E-Mail Address: Holly.A.Huchko@odfw.oregon.gov

Description

Abstract: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Umpqua Watershed District joined with the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers (PUR) and Roseburg Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an effort to continue ongoing fish population monitoring within the Umpqua Basin. Since little is empirically known about stream specific limiting factors and fish production response to various habitat restoration treatments such as log or boulder placement, these long term data sets will help to understand fish response related to or resulting from habitat restoration projects. The goals of this partnership are to: 1) gather additional information regarding the anadromous salmonid response to various land management practices; 2) monitor coho salmon trends in response to habitat enhancement work. To accomplish this, ODFW, BLM, PUR and Oregon State University (OSU) have been conducting surveys that observe life history traits which include: summer parr densities, habitat surveys, and adult spawning salmonid surveys in various Umpqua River tributaries. Monitoring work was conducted throughout the Wolf Creek basin to gather biological data. The installation of in-stream structures is made with the assumption that if physical habitat is improved, the result will be increased salmonid densities as long as enough of the correct type of habitat is modified. Wolf Creek basin was targeted for habitat enhancement projects, habitat surveys, summer seeding surveys, stream temperature data logging at log structures and adult spawning salmon surveys. An additional graduate student study by Rosalinda Gonzales and Steven Clark at Oregon State University (OSU) is being conducted to quantify post restoration attributes. Their work is designed to describe the link between coho redd locations and substrate changes within reaches of Little Wolf Creek and also look at larval lamprey and juvenile coho rearing. Results from Steve Clark’s graduate research project are expected to be available in April 2013 and results from Rosalinda Gonzales’ work are expected in December 2013 and will be available at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu. In-stream habitat restoration projects in the Little Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek Basins have been taking place off and on since 1992, with a recent surge of projects from 2008 to 2012 (Figure 1). Both log and boulder structures have been placed by ODFW, PUR and BLM in the mainstem and tributaries of Little Wolf and Wolf Creek. Habitat enhancement projects (boulder and log structures) have been implemented within the Little Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek basins in 2008 and 2009 (Figure 2). Helicopter log placement in upper Wolf Creek basin took place in 2011. In 2012, partners went in and finished restoring a few additional Wolf Creek reaches. In total, partners on this project have restored 13.0 miles of stream habitat which includes 185 in-stream restoration sites, 1450 logs, 6500 boulders, and three culvert replacements. In order to gain more insight as to whether or not restoration efforts improve fish populations and address limiting factors in this basin, baseline and post treatment surveys are needed. These recent restoration projects provided a unique opportunity to examine stream and fish responses to log-only and boulder-only in-stream placements. However, limited pre-treatment data exists on these streams for smolt outmigration, summer habitat, spawning adults, summer seeding, channel cross-sections and temperature.

Purpose: OWEB final completion report

Time Period of Content: 2007-2013

Geographic Extent: Wolf Creek basin, Tyee, Umpqua, Oregon

Status: Final

Use Constraints: data is public

Format: pdf

Data Quality Information

Lineage-Source: raw data is recorded in the field in notebooks, entered in to excel, QA/QC'd

Data Information

No data information was supplied.

Entity and Attribute Information

Attributes Description: Field attribute information is available in the database table field descriptions.

Is a physical copy maintained for reference at Headquarters? Unknown