BPA Fish and Wildlife FY 1997 Proposal

Section 1. Administrative
Section 2. Narrative
Section 3. Budget

see CBFWA and BPA funding recommendations

Section 1. Administrative

Title of project
Habitat Improvement - Lake Roosevelt

BPA project number   9001800

Business name of agency, institution or organization requesting funding
Colville Confederated Tribes

Sponsor type   WA-Tribe

Proposal contact person or principal investigator

BPA technical contact   Marcella Lafayette, EWP 503/230-3781

Biological opinion ID   None

NWPPC Program number   10.8B.6

Short description
Facilitate passage of residential fish in Lake Roosevelt tributaries and improve rearing habitat.

Project start year   1990    End year   2001

Start of operation and/or maintenance   1996

Project development phase   O & M

Section 2. Narrative

Related projects

Project history
1990-Lk Roosevelt RBT/Pass Improvements (LRHI) project was initiated with Phase I (habitat/pass inventory of selected streams & development of habitat/passage plan. Will serve as baseline for comparison after habitat improvements have been implemented. Phase I extended and finished 1992. 1992-Phase II implemented and continued through fall 1993. Phase II - Implementation of selected projects from the plan. Phase II almost completed. Expected completion by 1995. Operation and maintenance will begin with 1995-1996 budget year.

Biological results achieved
A substantial inventory of habitat condition. Achieved and increased spawning and rearing verified through fry and spawn counts. .

Annual reports and technical papers
Monthly reports are received on the continuing progress of the project.
Developed Scope of Work for 1996-1997 Budget.

Management implications
Stream restoration - addressed poor habitat conditions such as stream braiding, shallow flows, lack of diverse rearing habitat, and poor quality riparian. These conditions were corrected by implementing the following; increased sinuosity (meanders), introduced rocks & log weirs, added root-wads, planted vegetation, and fenced off the area. This resulted in a natural characteristic of the stream and provided more cover (habitat) and pool area for fish to utilize. Also provided bank stabilization, reduced water temperature, and the plants roots system will help maintain a perennial flow.

Specific measureable objectives
Phase III of this project a post monitoring and evaluation plan will be implemented to determine and measure the progress of fish population status, effectiveness of passage improvements, in-stream habitat improvement on channel morphology and riparian habitat improvements.

Testable hypothesis
Increased habitat quality/quantity will result in increased production of adfluvial rainbow trout. Increase sinuosity and riparian vegetation will allow for perennial flows through low flow periods. Removed culvert barriers increased passage will result in increased rearing and spawning areas and increase production of parr age adfluvial rainbow trout.

Underlying assumptions or critical constraints
Normal snow pack - yet to reach carrying capacity of rearing and spawning areas. Spawning substrate available is conducive to successful spawning, incubation and hatching of rainbow trout. Reservoir survival of parr-adult will remain similar throughout the study period. Parr age rainbow trout migrate out of the San Poil tributaries during the Spring freshet. Adult trapping will account for all adult spawners returning to a given study stream (i.e. 100% trapping efficiency).

Methods
Conduct adfluvial rainbow trout (juvenile and adult) enumeration study using weirs, out-migrant traps, screw trap, backpack electro-shocker, and foot surveys (redd counts). Conduct spawning ground surveys above the culverts and measure stream flow at the discharge end of the culvert (flow meter) for passage improvements. Conduct channel morphology surveys using the TFW Ambient Monitoring Methodology (AMM). Yearly photographs will be taken of rocks & log weirs structure to see if the structure are working. Conduct transects at each meander sites for measuring bank-full width and depth, methodology TFW AMM. Conduct randomly selected 100 meters segments to determine riparian survivability of species and soil types. See scope of work for Phase III 1996-1997 for more details.

Brief schedule of activities
Jan. 1997, the five year post monitoring and evaluation of the five selected streams will be on going. The major project tasks are fish population status, determine effectiveness of; passage improvements, instream habitat improvement on channel morphology, and riparian habitat improvements. Develop a comparative analysis of stream morphology, passage sites, fish habitat and habitat utilization pre & post habitat passage improvement implementation. Operation and Maintenance of in-stream structures.

Biological need
This project was initiated in 1990 as partial mitigation for salmon losses above Grand Coulee Dam. Documented studies have shown that the lack of high quality spawning and rearing habitat was a limiting factor in adfluvial rainbow trout production in Lake Roosevelt. The biological need is to increase both the quality and quantity of spawning and rearing habitat with an emphasis on increasing the survival of wild and natural stocks and to provide passage into blocked areas.

Critical uncertainties
Water shed - land practices remains similar or improve reservoir rearing conditions for adfluvial rainbow trout. Mortality on adfluvial rainbow trout from parr to adult. The draw down of the reservoir levels will have an impact on the biological conditions.

Summary of expected outcome
The selected tributaries streams of Phase III will provide perennial flows which will result in increased quality and quantity of adfluvial rainbow trout spawning and rearing habitat. The survival of natural and wild stocks will be greatly increased. In addition, a subsistance and recreational fishery will provide an economic benefit to all. Increase production of adfluvial rainbow trout out of selected streams and subsequent improvement to Lake Roosevelt.

Dependencies/opportunities for cooperation
Phase III field work starts March 1, 1996, but the Budget for Phase III starts May 1, 1996. An inconvience for field supplies and equipment.

Risks
None known.

Monitoring activity
Monitoring and Evaluation activity will begin in Phase III, as stated in the contract objectives.

Section 3. Budget

* For most projects, Authorized is the amount recommended by CBFWA and the Council. Planned is amount currently allocated. Contracted is the amount obligated to date of printout.

Funding recommendations

CBFWA funding review group   Resident Fish

Recommendation    Tier 1 - fund

Recommended funding level   $198,848

BPA 1997 authorized budget (approved start-of-year budget)   $198,850