Mission

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes will pursue, promote, and where necessary, initiate efforts to rehabilitate the Snake River Basin and affected unoccupied lands to a more natural condition.  This includes the rehabilitation of component resources to conditions that closely represent the ecological integrity of natural riverine ecosystems.  As such, the SRBNE project will pursue an ecosystem-based restoration approach to increase aquatic habitat complexity and aquatic habitat productivity through the addition of marine-derived subsidies (e.g., live Chinook salmon, Chinook salmon carcasses, and/or salmon carcass analogs) and habitat forming, natural in-stream materials (e.g., large wood or LW) in impaired habitats.  By merging physical habitat actions with marine-derived subsidies, the SRBNE project will address identified limiting factors and support the ecological integrity (chemical, physical, and biological) of tributary habitats in the Upper Salmon River Basin.  In addition, the SRBNE project and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes will work to ensure the protection, preservation, and where appropriate, the enhancement of Rights reserved by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes under the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 and any inherent aboriginal rights.

Background

Pacific salmon, steelhead trout, and Pacific lamprey are essential cultural, economic, and ecological resources throughout the Pacific Northwest (PNW).  Historically, returns of anadromous fishes conditioned physical habitats (Moore 2006) and provided pulsed allochthonous subsidies (i.e., nutrients and organic materials) to inland aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (Wipfli and Baxter 2010).  Currently, declining returns of anadromous fishes are associated with reduced marine-derived nutrient (MDN) subsidies and diminished ecosystem productivities that may constrain contemporary habitat carrying capacities (Alldredge et al. 2015).  Due to factors such as habitat degradation and loss, commercial harvest, hatchery production, and hydro-system development, historically abundant anadromous fish returns have been eliminated or have declined dramatically across large spatial scales (Lichatowich 1999).  It is now estimated that spawning Pacific salmon and steelhead trout contribute just 6%-7% of the MDN historically delivered to PNW streams and rivers (Gresh et al. 2000).

The Salmon River Basin Nutrient Enhancement (SRBNE) project collects chemical, physical, and biological data to evaluate the efficacy of marine-derived nutrient additions (e.g., live Chinook salmon, Chinook salmon carcasses, or salmon carcass analogs) and plans to implement associated habitat actions (e.g., large wood additions) designed to increase freshwater productivity and the growth and survival of stream-dwelling salmonids in the upper Salmon River Basin.  Specific project objectives include the quantification and assessment of: streamwater nutrient concentrations; nutrient limitation; biofilm standing stock; macroinvertebrate (benthic and drift) density, biomass, and community composition; the bioenergetics of salmonid fishes; river metabolism measures; stable isotope measures (biofilm, macroinvertebrate, and fish); and aquatic food web connections in streams receiving nutrient additions vs. control streams that do not contain the desired nutrients and that do not receive nutrient additions.

Goals and Objectives

Proposed projects from 2021-2022 will address habitat metrics identified in the 2020 Biological Opinion for the Continued Operation and Maintenance of the Columbia River System (NOAA Fisheries 2020) through focus on limiting factors in tributaries of the Yankee Fork Salmon River watershed (Middle and Upper Yankee Fork Subwatersheds) and habitat actions designed to restore the physical, hydraulic, and ecological integrity of freshwater spawning and rearing habitats for ESA listed resident (Salvelinus confluentus) and anadromous (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha; Oncorynchus mykiss) fishes.  The specific, short-term goal of this work is to implement effective and innovative approaches to salmon habitat restoration that directly address limiting factors and increase freshwater productivity and habitat carrying capacity.  The long-term goal of this work is to: foster collaboration with State and Federal natural resource managers; generate sound, scientific information relevant to the protection and restoration of aquatic and linked riparian ecosystems; and assess the efficacy of implemented habitat actions at improving habitat conditions and fish production in the Yankee Fork Salmon River watershed.  

Specific objectives include: 1) address and empirically measure limiting factors and ecological concerns identified in: a) the Yankee Fork Tributary Assessment Upper Salmon Subbasin (Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) 2012); b) the Yankee Fork Fluvial Habitat Rehabilitation Plan (BOR 2013); c) the Salmon Subbasin Management Plan (Ecovista 2004); and d) the 2020 Biological Opinion for the Continued Operation and Maintenance of the Columbia River System (NOAA Fisheries 2020); 2) Identify and assess impaired habitats using comparisons to reference conditions within watersheds or from other regionally appropriate areas; 3) use comparisons between impaired habitat and least disturbed reference conditions to implement appropriate habitat actions and to develop empirical (i.e., measurable) goals and objectives for specific habitat action plans.  

Habitat actions will attempt to directly address identified limiting factors and will be planned in association with rigorous action effectiveness monitoring to empirically demonstrate the change in habitat quantity and quality as a result of habitat actions.  Habitat action monitoring and evaluations will include sampling before, during, and after each habitat action project.  Habitat action monitoring will include physical, chemical, and biological measures, as well as functional measures (e.g., stream metabolism), to inform managers whether actions increased habitat quality and quantity or not. Project data will be shared with the Yankee Fork ID team and will be integrated into the Yankee Fork Atlas planning and prioritization process to help identify and sequence implementation of habitat actions in various reaches of the Yankee Fork basin.

In 2021 through 2022, the Salmon River Basin Nutrient Enhancement (SRBNE) project will coordinate with other SBT projects to plan and eventually implement habitat actions that address limiting factors in tributary habitats of the Yankee Fork Salmon River (YFSR) and will continue to concurrently evaluate the importance of marine-derived nutrients, primary productivity, and secondary and tertiary production to the quantity and quality of habitats supporting native resident and Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed fishes in the upper Salmon River Basin.  Potential habitat actions include the addition of marine-derived nutrient subsidies such as live Chinook salmon, Chinook salmon carcasses, and salmon carcass analogs.  Physical habitat actions include the addition of habitat forming natural-material in-stream structures such as large wood.  Large wood, or natural-material in-stream structure additions, will combine with stream flows and salmon subsides (i.e., marine-derived nutrients) to create the processes that: increase coarse sediment storage, retain and sort gravel and cobble substrates for spawning habitat, improve flow heterogeneity, provide diverse stream velocities, increase stream depth complexity, increase habitat complexity, increase fish cover, provide refugia for fish during high flows, provide long-term nutrient storage and substrate for aquatic macroinvertebrates, increase retention of leaf litter, and retain fine and coarse organic matter (energy and nutrients).  The combination of these actions will promote the ecological integrity of YFSR tributary habitats and increase primary, secondary, and tertiary production.  In concert, these physical and functional habitat outcomes will increase freshwater productivity and the growth and survival of resident and anadromous ESA listed species.  These actions are intended to support viable salmonid populations parameters and will hopefully increase Tribal harvest opportunities.

Specific Timelines and Approaches for Habitat Action Implementation (2021-2022)

The 2021-2022 contracts will focus on habitat action planning, design, implementation, and monitoring efforts in Eightmile Creek (EMC), a tributary stream in the YFSR watershed.  Past land management activities removed much of the large and mature conifers along the riparian corridor and adjacent uplands of EMC.  Consequently, large and mature trees are no longer available: 1) to stabilize streambanks and provide channel boundary roughness, and 2) for recruitment by the channel to create instream habitat complexity (BOR 2013).  The habitat impairments on EMC (i.e., moderate geomorphic condition, low habitat complexity, low large wood levels within the stream channel, reduced recruitment potential from the adjacent riparian forest) stem from historical land use practices within the watershed.  The lower portions of Eightmile Creek are located in a laterally unconfined valley and are characterized by wandering gravel bed channel.  The stream channel and floodplain characteristics (e.g., substrate and gradient) are ideal for Chinook salmon spawning and rearing habitat.  Moreover, EMC is located in a known core spawning and rearing area occupied by Chinook salmon and Bull trout and offers a large potential to contribute to increases in anadromous and resident fish production if habitat quantity and quality are improved.  Eightmile Creek has the highest tributary production potential for ESA-listed Chinook salmon spawning and rearing habitat within the upper YFSR watershed due to a combination of stream habitat features such as channel size, flow, temperature, gradient, and substrate characteristics.  To wit, adult Chinook salmon outplants in EMC (from the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery) during the summer/fall of 2014 produced large numbers of juvenile parr in 2015; however, SBT biologists found strong evidence of density dependent growth conditions that suggest carrying capacity in EMC is limited.  Habitat evaluations provide additional support for this line of evidence and document a lack of structural in-stream materials (i.e., large wood) and associated habitat complexity.  2019 was largely a planning year, while 2020 was utilized for habitat action implementation.  The 2021-2022 season will be utilized for adaptive management and post-treatment monitoring of habitat actions implemented in EMC.  

Specific project objectives for the 2021-2023 contract periods include: 1) the identification and empirical measurement of limiting factors and ecological concerns in the YFSR watershed; 2) the comparison of select habitat metrics from least disturbed reference conditions in the Yankee Fork Salmon River, the West Fork Yankee Fork Salmon River, and other regionally appropriate habitats to impacted conditions in the EMC project area; and 3) the identification of appropriate habitat actions to address limiting factors in EMC; and 4) outyear planning for 2023 and subsequent contract cycles.  

All habitat assessments, habitat action planning, and habitat action implementation will be done in collaboration and coordination with the Yankee Fork Salmon River ID Team (YFSR IDT).  All habitat actions will follow BPA HIP guidelines and conservation measures.

Action Effectiveness Monitoring in Eightmile Creek, YFSR.

1) Physical Habitat Measures (2021 - 2023 Channel Topographic and Rapid Assessment Habitat Surveys):  Topographic surveys will be conducted within a few selected reaches using Total Station equipment.  Topographic surveys will be used to quantify sediment flux (i.e., deposition and erosion) and document the distribution of geomorphic channel units (i.e., pools, beaver ponds, bars).  Rapid assessment surveys will be conducted in the entire project area pre- and post-restoration to quantify differences in fish cover habitat and habitat complexity.

2) Stream Metabolism (2021 - 2022):  We propose to monitor stream metabolic regimes before and after salmon subsidy and large wood additions by collecting diel oxygen and temperature data (seasonally) to estimate gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem metabolism (ER).  Stream metabolism measures the rates of production and consumption of organic carbon in river ecosystems and thereby provides a direct estimate of the food base that determines carrying capacity for aquatic organisms.  As such, stream metabolism estimates are a useful, inexpensive, and appropriate way to monitor action effectiveness and to determine changes to the quality of habitats for ESA listed species like Chinook salmon.

3) Photopoints (2021 - 2023):  Large wood abundance and distribution were monitored in 2019, before the Eightmile Creek project implementation; in 2021-23, large wood will be monitored post-project implementation, and after high spring flows for at least 2 years.  This will be accomplished by establishing photo points within the project area.  Ten to twelve photo points, established before project implementation, serve as repeated points of reference. Photos will be taken at these points on the oblique and images will be compiled into an orthophoto.  Then, individual trees or groups of trees will be identified and marked on GIS.  These repeat photos will help visually show how the wood is distributed in the stream following implementation and high-water events, and will be useful for presentations and reports regarding the project.  Comparison between years will provide a low-cost method to track abundance and distribution of wood to assess whether wood added in this manner remains in the project reach.

4) Beaver Dam Surveys (2021 - 2022):  Surveys of beaver activity will be conducted post-restoration to document the location of beaver dams and active building within the EMC project area.

5) Fish Community Surveys (2021 and 2022):  Salmonid fish community information will be collected using electrofishing and Mark-Recapture techniques to develop community assemblage metrics and population estimates  to compare before-and-after conditions in EMC.

In 2021-2023, the SRBNE project will use a similar approach to identify limiting factors and habitat impairments in other tributary habitats in the upper Salmon River Basin.  Each project will have robust action effectiveness monitoring plans in place to help inform managers of specific project outcomes and to effectively utilize an adaptive management approach guided by lessons learned.

Project Peer-Reviewed Publications:

•    Stream food web response to a salmon carcass analogue addition in two central Idaho, U.S.A. streams

Andre E. Kohler*, Amanda Rugenski†, Doug Taki*
*Shoshone Bannock Tribes, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fort Hall, ID, U.S.A.
†Idaho State University, Stream Ecology Center, Pocatello, ID, U.S.A.
Freshwater Biology (2008) 53: 446–460; doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.2007.01909.x
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2266089/

•    Macroinvertebrate response to salmon carcass analogue treatments: exploring the relative influence of nutrient enrichment, stream foodweb, and environmental variables

Andre E. Kohler and Doug Taki
Shoshone Bannock Tribes, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fort Hall, Idaho 83203 USA
J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 2010, 29(2): 690–710; 2010 by The North American Benthological Society; DOI: 10.1899/09-091.1; Published online: 6 April 2010
http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1899/09-091.1

•    Nutrient Enrichment with Salmon Carcass Analogs in the Columbia River Basin, USA: A Stream Food Web Analysis

Andre E. Kohler, Todd N. Pearsons, Joseph S. Zendt, Matthew G. Mesa, Christopher L. Johnson, Patrick J. Connolly
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 141: 802–824, 2012
American Fisheries Society 2012
DOI: 10.1080/00028487.2012.676380
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00028487.2012.676380#.VS0klPBi_64

•    Salmon-mediated nutrient flux in selected streams of the Columbia River basin, USA

Andre E. Kohler, Paul C. Kusnierz, Timothy Copeland, David A. Venditti, Lytle Denny, Josh Gable, Bert A. Lewis, Ryan Kinzer, Bruce Barnett, Mark S. Wipfli
Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 70: 502–512 (2013) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0347
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0347#.VS0j8_Bi_64

•    Biofilm nutrient limitation, metabolism, and standing crop responses to experimental application of salmon carcass analog in Idaho streams

Jonathan D. Ebel, Amy M. Marcarelli, Andre E. Kohler
Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 71: 1-9 (2014) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2014-0266
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfas-2014-0266 - .VS0it_Bi_65

•    Bioenergetic calculations evaluate changes to habitat quality for salmonid fishes in streams treated with salmon carcass analog

Ernest R Keeley, Steven O Campbell, Andre E. Kohler
Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 73: 1–13 (2016) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0265
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0265

•    The fate of marine-derived nutrients: tracing d13C and d15N through oligotrophic freshwater and linked riparian ecosystems following salmon carcass analog additions

David P. Richardson, Andre E. Kohler, Million Hailemichael, and Bruce P. Finney
Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 73: 1–15 (2016) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2015-050
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0500#.WFLofpJzYzk

•    Salmon-mediated nutrient flux in Snake River sockeye salmon nursery lakes: the influence of depressed population size and hatchery supplementation

Melissa L. Evans, Andre E. Kohler, Robert G. Griswold, Kurt A. Tardy, Kendra R. Eaton, and Jonathan D. Ebel
Lake and Reservoir Management (2019).
http://doi.org/10.1080/10402391.2019.1654571