Final
Project Title-Blind Slough Restoration Project
Statement of Work and Budget FY2005

BPA Project Number:  200301500
Performance/Budget Period:  October 1, 2004-September 30, 2005

Technical Contact Name: Allan Whiting
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce
750 Commercial St. Room 205
Astoria, OR  97103
Technical Contact:  Allan Whiting
Phone:  503.325.0435
E-mail:  awhiting@columbiaestuary.org


Financial Contact Name:  Paula Gertula
Financial Contact Title:  CREST Grants Administrator
Company / Agency Name
Street Mailing Address
City, ST Zip+4
Financial Contact Phone / Fax
Financial Contact email




Project Context
The term "successful restoration" is not uniformly understood or agreed upon.  Data gaps exist for a variety of ecological parameters that quantitatively track the success of restoration projects in the Columbia River Estuary.  Efforts are underway in the Blind Slough area to reconnect tidal sloughs cut off from historic diurnal exchanges.  Currently these fragmented water bodies demonstrate degraded water quality conditions in the form of higher temperature and reduced availability of dissolved oxygen due to levee building, tidegate installation, road building, etc.  Tidal slough habitat is also recognized as important areas for juvenile salmonid rearing, protection, and foraging.  Data that compares pre and post restoration treatment conditions is sparse and has lacked the scientific rigor to demonstrate with some certainty that the restoration treatment has improved conditions.  

What follows is a summary of the effectiveness monitoring goals for the Blind Slough project for water quality and fish use.    To achieve the goals, a monitoring design is suggested that identifies monitoring site locations, methods, and analysis of data that contributes to answering working hypotheses related to water quality and fish use changes from restoration treatments.  
Monitoring Plan Summary-Water Quality
The goal of the monitoring program is to develop continuous monitoring data that captures the dynamics of water quality changes related to restoration activities in the tidal area.   Proposed parameters to be measured include:  temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity.  These parameters have been identified as critical indicators of estuary habitat health as they relate to the survival and productivity of endangered salmonid species.  Data gathered will attempt to prove or disprove a working hypothesis stated below.  

Working Hypothesis -Water Quality:  Increasing the intensity and extent of tidal exchange associated with tidegate design modification enhances water quality in three parameters:  Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, and Salinity.
Proposed Monitoring Site Selections
The degree of water quality changes related to restoration activities is a function of multiple variables in a particular watershed not limited to: historic proximity to tidal influence, bio-chemical responses to climate (i.e. seasonal changes in air temperature, upwelling, wind, spring freshets, etc.), land use activities in the area, and sub-basin riparian conditions.  The map below shows the locations chosen in the Blind Slough restoration area.  Monitoring sites were not selected randomly buy according to access and to capture the maximum range of expected water quality changes from the project.    All sites are located in similar low-gradient slough channel configurations that have been partially cut off from historic roadbed infill, dike construction, and/or tidegate installation.  
Methods
Several methods are proposed to adequately measure water quality changes for the Blind Slough restoration project.  Water quality condition measurements started in July 2002 using three types of equipment listed below, their proposed frequency and parameters measured.  

Equipment Method Frequency Parameter(s)
Onset Stowaway Tidbit Temperature Logger Continuous, single parameter Hourly Temperature
Hand-held YSI Grab sample @ surface and depth Weekly Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity
Hydrolab 4 Continuous, multiple parameter Hourly Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity


Monitoring Plan Summary-Fish Use
Existing scientific literature about the Columbia River Estuary points to the historic role lost tidal wetland habitat types played in salmonid life history strategies.  Low velocity, well-vegetated, tidal sloughs provided a number of biophysical functions for migrating juvenile salmonid populations in the form of refuge and food web inputs.  Because of anthropogenic modifications to both historic habitat types and native fish population structure, the role that restored habitat conditions now perform for anadromous species is not well understood.  A potential benefit of the restoration strategies applied to Blind Slough is the increase of habitat opportunities for migrating juvenile salmonids.  The goal of the fish use monitoring plan is capture the changes in fish composition resulting from restoration treatments.   Through enhancing water quality conditions and by reconnecting habitat patches of previously cut-off areas of the historic tidal slough network, changes in existing fish composition and abundance may occur.  A draft hypothesis is in place that frames fish use monitoring objectives for Blind Slough.

Working Hypotheses: Fish Use:  Increasing the tidal connectivity between Blind Slough's channel network and the Columbia River Estuary increases anadromous fish abundance for rearing, foraging, and spawning.

Proposed Monitoring Site Selection
Sites are systematically selected to focus efforts on existing fish use conditions of the disconnected tidal slough network.  The map below shows the potential sites based on preliminary reconnaissance conducted in Blind Slough.

Methods
A variety of fish use sampling protocols are being tested in the Columbia River Estuary through the efforts of NOAA Fisheries and local efforts by Sea Resources Watershed Education Center in Chinook, WA.  The applicability of these techniques to the conditions of the Blind Slough is currently being assessed with NOAA-Fisheries in their Hammond lab and staff at Sea Resources.   In-water reconnaissance has taken place to profile channel conditions for conductivity, depth, chlorophyll, and temperature as well as the feasibility of in-water sampling and identification techniques. The table below proposes parameters, techniques, and corresponding frequency of the samples that will measure relative species composition for both pre- and post- construction fish use conditions:
Parameter Technique Fish Use Monitoring Time Frame Frequency
Abundance-Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) Trap netting February - June Monthly
Methods entail the following steps with experienced personnel from NOAA fisheries and/or Sea Resources staff:

· Capture
· Identification to Species
· Identification of existing marks such as fin clips, etc.
· Fork length
· Release

During each sample, water quality samples will be also taken for temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity at the water surface and depth.