Contributors (in alphabetical order)

Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Activities

 Coordinating, implementing, and monitoring conservation practices for the reduction of sediment from the uplands of Garfield County and enhancing habitat in the riparian zones of streams to improve water quality for steelhead and chinook salmon.

Needed Future Actions

Fish

Reservoirs

 Determine the presence of, and use by, bull trout in the mainstem Snake River, and implement monitoring and studies to provide critical information on bull trout distribution, timing, and usage of the lower Snake River dams and reservoir system. If the information from these studies warrants consideration of additional modifications to facilities or operations, then implementation of these modifications should occur, as appropriate, to minimize adverse effects to bull trout.

 The monitoring of TDG levels should continue, and investments in facility improvements to keep TDG levels at or below 110% (or other applicable state water quality standards) should be initiated.

 Determine the relation between flow and water temperature in the lower Snake River reservoirs and passage survival of juvenile anadromous salmonid smolts. These investigations should address the effects of flow augmentation and spill.

 Determine the presence of anadromous salmonid juveniles during winter in the lower Snake River reservoirs, and implement monitoring and studies to provide critical information on passage timing of these juveniles at the lower Snake River dams. If the information from these studies warrants consideration of additional modifications to facilities or operations, then implementation of these modifications should occur, as appropriate, to minimize adverse effects to juvenile anadromous salmonids.

 Determine the smolt-to-adult return rates for wild fall chinook salmon that are collected at the lower Snake River dams and then trucked to the Columbia River estuary. Implement monitoring and studies to provide critical information on the effectiveness of transportation passage timing of these juveniles at the lower Snake River dams. If the information from these studies warrants consideration of additional modifications to transportation operations, then implementation of these modifications should occur, as appropriate, to minimize adverse effects to wild fall chinook salmon smolts.

 Increase understanding of habitat use of adult and juvenile Pacific lamprey in the tailwater of mainstem Snake River dams.

 Increase understanding of riverine ecosystem processes in large rivers, as applied to the Lower Snake River.

 Develop a greater understanding of the riverine habitat potential in the tailraces of mainstem dams under various hydrosystem operational scenarios.

 Apply the concepts and empirical relationships developed under the Hanford Reach fall chinook conceptual spawning habitat model to reaches in the Lower Snake River, in order to improve estimates of production potential and identify reaches with greatest restoration potential.

 Develop a greater understanding of steelhead production (spawning and rearing) and habitat requirements in the Lower Snake River.

 Assess American shad – salmonid interactions. Specifically, there is a need to evaluate the effects to migrating anadromous adults from shad “clogging” adult ladders at mainstem dams. There is also a need to determine if American shad create deleterious conditions to juvenile salmonids through predation and competition in the rearing environment.

 Increase understanding of white sturgeon adult and juvenile habitat use in the section from Lower Granite Dam upstream to the head of the reservoir.

 Develop energy budget for white sturgeon in the section from Lower Granite Dam upstream to the head of the reservoir.

Tributaries

Alpowa Creek, Deadman Creek, and other perennial tributaries of the Lower Snake River

 Collect hydrologic data to thoroughly characterize the area.

 Evaluate the regional groundwater dynamics and recharge areas.

 Identify the history and extent of human alteration to the hydrologic regime.

 Identify the location of channel and riparian vegetation alteration and the amount of water removed from the stream.

 Quantify the impacts of land and water use on the hydrology.

 Restore riparian habitat along perennial and ephemeral streams.

 Reduce sedimentation entering perennial streams.

 Soil conservation measures should be integrated into upland cultivation practices to reduce sedimentation of the stream channel.

 Re-establishment of a healthy riparian vegetative community would also help stabilize streambanks presently eroding or prone to future erosion.

 Restore riparian habitat along critical area of Deadman Creek

 Reduce sedimentation entering Deadman Creek

Wildlife

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  Monitor ferruginous hawk nesting populations and productivity on a more frequent basis.
  
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  Inventory potential sharptail grouse habitat.
  
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  Re-introduce and establish a viable population of sharptail grouse in the subbasin.
  
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  Inventory Washington ground squirrel populations and habitat.
  
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  Re-introduce Washington ground squirrels into the subbasin if surveys determine populations are insufficient to re-establish viable colonies.
  
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  Increase pre & post-season deer surveys.
  
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  Control the spread of noxious weeds within the subbasin.
  
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  Improve and diversify the vegetative composition of CRP so they are more beneficial to existing wildlife populations.
  
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  Survey prairie falcon eyries.
  
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  Survey for peregrine falcons.
  
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  Survey for osprey.
  

 Current aerial photography of SE Washington overall land ownerships used to establish a current cover map.

Table 1. Lower Snake River Subbasin Summary FY 2002 - 2004 BPA Funding Proposal Matrix

25033 – Evaluate Restoration Potential of Mainstem Habitatfor Anadromous Salmonids in the Columbia and Snake Rivers

25053 – Evaluate Bull Trout Movements in the Tucannon and Lower Snake Rivers

25064 – Investigating passage of ESA-listed Juvenile Fall Chinook Salmon at Lower Granite Dam during Winter when the Fish Bypass System is Inoperable

25049 – Numerically Simulating the Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Environment for Migrating Salmon in the Lower Snake River

199102900 – Understanding the Effects of Summer Flow Augmentation on the Migratory Behavior and Survival of Fall Chinook Salmon Migrating through Lower Granite Reservoir

199401807 – Garfield County Sediment Reduction and Riparian Improvement Program

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