Restoration Planning for the Lower Willamette River

1. Restoration Planning for the Lower Willamette River Nancy Munn, Ph.D. Habitat Conservation Division NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) May 4, 2012

2. Today’s Presentation • The importance of the lower Willamette River (LWR) for the populations that use this reach • NOAA Fisheries’ role in the LWR • What the ESA Recovery Plans say • New tool to link ESA consultations, species recovery, and habitat restoration

3. Listed Salmon Species in the LWR • Chinook salmon • Steelhead • Coho salmon • Chum salmon

4. When are salmon present in the LWR? • Every month of year, but it depends on the species How long do they spend here? • Adults – not long • Juveniles – days to months What types of habitat do they use? • Depends on life stage- importance of shallow water habitat for juveniles (Bottom et al.)

5. NMFS’s Role in the Lower Willamette River De-Listing

6. Major Elements of a Recovery Plan • Status assessment (populations and habitat) • Threats assessment • Recovery goals (by population, can be very specific) • Recovery strategy (actions) • Implementation plan (when, priorities) • De-listing criteria

7. Recovery actions address 4 types of threats- the 4 H’s • Harvest • Hydropower • Hatchery production • Habitat degradation • De-listing criteria must address each type of threat (if relevant for the species)

8. Willamette ESA Salmon Recovery Sub-Domain • Two species listed: Upper Willamette R. Chinook salmon & Upper Willamette R. steelhead • final Upper Willamette Conservation and Recovery Plan for Chinook Salmon and Steelhead adopted on Aug. 22, 2011

9. Lower Columbia River ESA Salmon Recovery Sub-Domain • encompasses the estuary and all Columbia River sub-basins up to White Salmon, WA, and Hood River, OR, and the Willamette River up to Willamette Falls • 4 species listed:  LCR Chinook, LCR coho, LCR steelhead, & CR chum • Plan will be based on three management units: • Southwest Washington – 2010 version of the plan being implemented • White Salmon River sub-basin • Northwest Oregon -2010 The Oregon Lower Columbia Plan covers the populations of the species that occur in Oregon only.

10. 2 recovery plans address the LWR, but how do they help us -3 year implementation plan based on priority action • All watersheds have an existing prioritization scheme for locations • The prioritization schemes vary in degree of effort but all based upon watershed assessments • All envision tieringto these local assessments

11. Tiering Strategy for Habitat Actions • Protection efforts • Reconnecting isolated habitats • Restoring habitat-forming processes-water quality/quantity • Restoring habitat-forming processes-riparian Implementation at the watershed scale (not sub-basin)

12. But how do we get from Recovery Plans to Species Recovery? De-listing criteria—address viability criteria • Abundance and productivity (populations) • Genetic diversity (life history diversity, geographic)) • Spatial structure (e.g. Habitat underlying spatial structure should be within specified habitat quality limits for spawning, rearing, migration taking place within the patches)

13. Within-Population Diversity Criteria Guidelines Sufficient life-history diversity must exist to sustain a population through short-term environmental perturbations and to provide for long-term evolutionary processes. The metrics and benchmarks for evaluating the diversity of a population should be evaluated over multiple generations and should include: • A substantial proportion of the diversity of a life-history trait(s) that existed historically • Gene flow and genetic diversity should be similar to historical (natural) levels and origins • Successful utilization of habitats throughout the range • Resilience and adaptation to environmental fluctuations

14. Species recovery is complicated… But a few simple points can be derived • Cannot focus all restoration actions on one population, one life history stage (e.g. spawning) • Approach prioritization of actions at smaller scale than the domain…there is strong biological support for requiring restoration actions in the LWR • Build recovery goals to support improved viability criteria

15. Recovery Goals for the LWR • Increase productivity and abundance (e.g. Miller Creek, other Forest Park tribs, Johnson Creek, increase growth of yearlings and sub-yearlings during migration) • Increase genetic diversity (support for different runs in the tribs) • Increase spatial structure (shallow rearing habitat, off-channel habitat)

16. Willamette River Initiative • Tool to link consultations, recovery & restoration • Improve accountability, assessment of impacts and improvements by addressing scale • Based on the slices framework (Hulse, Gregory, et al.), which is a geographic framework for tracking change over space and time in the floodplain of the Willamette River • At the scale of 100m/1 km • Integrates geomorphic and hydrologic processes • Currently includes data on channel complexity and floodplain forests

17. Willamette Initiative Add data layers for: • species (population presence/timing, abundance, productivity, spatial structure, extinction risk/recovery probability, etc.) • Water quality, flow • Water quality, temperature, etc • Climate change • Tributaries • Threats • Access • Vegetation (tree species, age structure) • Structures (bulkheads, docks, riprap, etc.) • Consultations, restoration actions Currently working on the first reach- Mouth of Willamette River to Willamette Falls

18. Slices Framework • A spatially explicit framework allows the use of quantitative models to better understand the sensitivity of species to environmental change • A defensible foundation for the prioritization of conservation and restoration work, at the reach scale • Efficient tracking of change in habitat and species response over time

19. What does this all mean… • Salmon use the LWR to complete their life cycle • Recovery of listed species must address all life stages, including migration and rearing in the LWR • Creation and enhancement of appropriate habitat in the LWR will contribute to the recovery of listed salmon, and cannot be ignored for social or political reasons, but can be integrated with other social values • Tools are being developed to improve planning and accountability

20. ESA Recovery Tools • Conservation measures in ESA section biological opinions • ESA section 7(a)(1) – Puget Sound Initiative • ESA section 10 Habitat Conservation Plans • Conservation Banks, Species Banks- to get beyond no net loss To be successful, recovery actions need to target at-risk populations, all vulnerable life stages.