Mission

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes will pursue, promote, and where necessary, initiate efforts to rehabilitate fish and wildlife habitat in 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 Salmon River Basin Nutrient Enhancement (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 addresses identified limiting factors and supports 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 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 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 in 2019-2022, implemented habitat actions (e.g., large wood additions and salmon subsidies) 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 and reference streams that do not receive nutrient additions.

Goals and Objectives

Actions proposed under this project address habitat metrics identified in the 2020 Biological Opinion for the Continued Operation and Maintenance of the Columbia River System (NOAA Fisheries 2020) and focus on limiting factors in tributaries of the Yankee Fork Salmon River watershed.  Habitat actions have been planned and 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 has been 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) identify, assess, measure, and model 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); d) the 2020 Biological Opinion for the Continued Operation and Maintenance of the Columbia River System (NOAA Fisheries 2020), e) the Yankee Fork Salmon River Interdisciplinary Team and Atlas Evidence Based Prioritization Framework; and f) the Aquatic Trophic Productivity and Life Cycle Modeling; 2) participate in a collaborative process via the Yankee Fork Salmon River Interdisciplinary Team and an Atlas Evidence Based Prioritization Framework to identify, rank, select, and implement habitat actions; 3) identify and assess impaired habitats using comparisons to reference conditions within watersheds or from other regionally appropriate areas; and 4) use comparisons between impaired habitat and least disturbed reference conditions to implement and monitor appropriate habitat actions and to develop goals and empirical (i.e., measurable) objectives for specific habitat action plans. Yankee Fork Salmon River ID Team members include, but are not limited to, the SBT, USFS, TU, WSI, BPA, NOAA, USFWS, and IDFG.

Habitat actions (e.g., Eightmile Creek instream complexity improvements implemented in the 2019-2020 contracts) are intended to directly address identified limiting factors and are planned in association with monitoring to empirically demonstrate the change in habitat quantity and quality as a result of habitat actions.  Habitat action monitoring and evaluations include sampling before, during, and after each habitat action project.  Habitat action monitoring includes 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 are shared with the Yankee Fork ID team and are 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 2023 the Salmon River Basin Nutrient Enhancement project will continue to coordinate with the YFSR IDT and Atlas group and associated SBT projects to assess, model, plan, and implement habitat actions that address limiting factors in tributary habitats of the Yankee Fork Salmon River (YFSR). Project staff 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.  

Habitat actions in 2023-2028 will include the addition of marine-derived nutrient subsidies such as live Chinook Salmon, Chinook Salmon carcasses, and Salmon Carcass Analogs.  Out-year planning includes the addition of habitat-forming natural material in-stream structures such as large wood, as well as other process-based restoration techniques.  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.

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) and the Yankee Fork Atlas planning and prioritization process.  All habitat actions will follow BPA HIP guidelines and conservation measures.  Through this collaborative process, the SRBNE project will work to identify limiting factors and habitat impairments and to select, prioritize, and implement future habitat actions.  Implemented projects will have robust monitoring plans in place to help inform managers of specific project outcomes and to effectively utilize an adaptive management approach guided by lessons learned.

The 2023-2024 contract will include analysis of data collected in previous contract cycles and the following post-implementation habitat monitoring in Eightmile Creek, YFSR:

1) Physical Habitat Measures (2018 - 2023 Rapid Assessment Habitat Surveys):  Rapid Habitat Assessment (RHA) surveys were begun in 2018 and will be continued in the project area and an upstream reference reach to quantify changes in fish-centric habitat conditions.

2) Large Wood Movement Patterns (2020 - 2023):  Radio-telemetry tags were placed in select trees across the implementation stream segment beginning in 2020. Large wood movement will continue to be monitored in 2023.

3) Stream Metabolism (2018 - 2023):  We will continue 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.

4) Photopoints (2021 - 2023):  Photopoint stations in the Yankee Fork basin are operated primarily by the USFS and Trout Unlimited. Photopoints provide a visual monitoring tool to track habitat project site response over time. SRBNE staff provide some collaboration with USFS and Trout Unlimited to operate and maintain photopoint stations near habitat projects implemented through the SRBNE contracts. Large wood abundance and distribution were monitored in 2019, before the Eightmile Creek project implementation; large wood was monitored in 2020 and will continue to be monitored in 2022-2023 after high spring flows. Ten to twelve photo points, established before project implementation, serve as repeated points of reference. Photos are taken at these points on the oblique and images are compiled into an orthophoto.  Then, individual trees or groups of trees are identified and marked on GIS.  These repeat photos help visually show how the wood is distributed in the stream following implementation and high-water events, and are useful for presentations and reports regarding the project.  

5) Beaver Dam Surveys (2021 - 2023):  Observations of beaver activity were conducted during habitat and fish monitoring efforts in 2021 and will be continued post-restoration to document the location of potential beaver activity within the EMC project area. These observations are made in conjunction with other monitoring (e.g., rapid habitat assessments) and can be qualitative indications that habitat improvement projects (intended to restore ecological functions such as those provided by wood retention and floodplain inundation) are effective in recruiting beaver populations from the Yankee Fork mainstem into tributary systems.

6) Benthic Macroinvertebrate Surveys (2020 -2023):  Benthic macroinvertebrate community assemblage, abundance, and biomass information will be collected and utilized in a biomonitoring framework to better understand secondary production responses to nutrient enhancement and habitat actions in EMC.

7) Fish Community Surveys (2019 - 2023):  Salmonid fish community information has been collected since 2019; these surveys will be continued using electrofishing and Mark-Recapture techniques to develop community assemblage metrics and population estimates to compare before-and-after conditions in EMC treatment and reference reaches.

In 2023-2024, the SRBNE project will use the above-mentioned processes (e.g., YFSR IDT and Atlas) and spatial thermal infrared image temperature modeling to identify limiting factors and habitat impairments and to select, prioritize, and implement future habitat actions. Implemented projects will be monitored to help inform managers of specific project outcomes and to effectively utilize an adaptive management approach guided by lessons learned.

Relevant 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