EBTJV

A Function-Based Framework for Stream Assessment & Restoration Projects: Stream restoration efforts have increased significantly in the US over the past few decades and are now recognized as a billion-dollar industry. These restoration efforts stem from centuries of abuse as humans continue to alter the riverine landscape for a variety of purposes, including farming, logging, mining and development on the floodplain, and the subsequent need for channelization and flood control. These activities have significantly diminished the natural functions of our stream corridors. Today stream corridor restoration efforts seek to improve or restore these lost functions. A variety of federal, state and local programs, along with efforts from non-profit organizations, provide funding for these programs. The goals are varied and range from simple streambank stabilization projects to watershed scale restoration. For these projects to be successful it is important to know why the project is being completed and what techniques are best suited to restore the lost functions. Knowing why a project is needed requires some form of functional assessment followed by clear project goals. To successfully restore stream functions, it is necessary to understand how these different functions work together and which restoration techniques influence a given function. It is also imperative to understand that stream functions are interrelated and build on each other in a specific order, a functional hierarchy. If this hierarchy is understood, it is easier to establish project goals. And with clearer goals, it is easier to evaluate project success.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications / Stream Assessment and Monitoring
April 2012 NFH Board Meeting Book: This document contains materials associated with the National Fish Habitat Board's April 17 - 18, 2012 in-person meeting.
Located in About EBTJV / National Fish Habitat Board Meetings / 2012 NFH Board Meetings
Brook Trout Catchment Scale and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: Climate change is currently a high risk threat to the current range of the brook trout due to changing thermal regimes. The effects of climate change may be exacerbated by greater fragmentation from land use changes. In order to effectively rank projects and work strategically, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture is working on refining the status map to the catchment scale and establishing climate change resiliency rankings for brook trout populations throughout the partnership boundary from Georgia to Maine. JMU in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Service have initiated efforts to determine resiliency rankings for brook trout populations in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. This project will allow the partnership to expand this analysis to cover all brook trout habitat from Georgia to Maine.
Located in Projects / 2006 - 2018 Projects / 2012 Projects
Brook Trout Catchment Scale and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: Climate change is currently a high risk threat to the current range of the brook trout due to changing thermal regimes. The effects of climate change may be exacerbated by greater fragmentation from land use changes. In order to effectively rank projects and work strategically, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture is working on refining the status map to the catchment scale and establishing climate change resiliency rankings for brook trout populations throughout the partnership boundary from Georgia to Maine. JMU in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Service have initiated efforts to determine resiliency rankings for brook trout populations in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. This project will allow the partnerhsip to expand this analysis to cover all brook trout habitat from Georgia to Maine.
Located in Funded Projects / EBTJV Projects
Brook Trout Movement in Response to Temperature, Flow, and Thermal Refugia within a Complex Appalachian Riverscape: We quantified movements of brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and brown trout Salmo trutta in a complex riverscape characterized by a large, open-canopy main stem and a small, closed-canopy tributary in easternWest Virginia, USA. Our objectives were to quantify the overall rate of trout movement and relate movement behaviors to variation in streamflow, water temperature, and access to coldwater refugia. The study area experienced extremely high seasonal, yearly, and among-stream variability in water temperature and flow. The relative mobility of brook trout within the upper Shavers Fork watershed varied significantly depending on whether individuals resided within the larger main stem or the smaller tributary. The movement rate of trout inhabiting the main stem during summer months (50 m/d) was an order of magnitude higher than that of tributary fish (2 m/d). Movement rates of main-stem-resident brook trout during summer were correlated with the maximum water temperature experienced by the fish and with the fish’s initial distance from a known coldwater source. For main-stem trout, use of microhabitats closer to cover was higher during extremely warm periods than during cooler periods; use of microhabitats closer to cover during warm periods was also greater for main-stem trout than for tributary inhabitants. Main-stem-resident trout were never observed in water exceeding 19.5◦C. Our study provides some of the first data on brook trout movements in a large Appalachian river system and underscores the importance of managing trout fisheries in a riverscape context. Brook trout conservation in this region will depend on restoration and protection of coldwater refugia in larger river main stems as well as removal of barriers to trout movement near tributary and main-stem confluences.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
Chipola River Watershed Restoration Listed Mussels and Black Bass Initiative: The Chipola River Watershed (HUC # 03130012) is located in northwest Florida/southeast Alabama and includes parts of Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Washington and Bay Counties in Florida and Geneva and Houston Counties in Alabama. Some of the smaller tributaries that encompass the Chipola River watershed include: Chipola River Dead Lakes, Spring Creek, Muddy Branch and Otter Creek (subunit 020, 050). The Chipola River Watershed traverses over 100 miles through 812,800 acres with 200,000 acres being utilized in crop production, which is vital to the economy of the region and is the primary socio-economic resource. The Chipola River is defined by Northwest Florida Water Management District as a major Florida river. It originates from freshwater springs in the upper watershed and accounts for approximately 20% of the waters to the Apalachicola River, which is the largest river in Florida. High base flow in Chipola River is supported by over 63 known Floridan aquifer springs. The Chipola River is defined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an “Outstanding Florida Waterbody”. However, threats have been identified that could degrade water quality, reduce habitat, or negatively impact rare or imperiled species within the Chipola River watershed. In the past three decades, nitrate concentrations in spring waters have increased substantially in northern and central Florida. Jackson Blue, a tributary to the Chipola and first magnitude spring has the second highest concentration of nitrates of any spring in Florida. The Chipola River and its subunits Dead Lakes (WBID 51B), Muddy Branch (WBID 175) and Otter Creek are 303(d) listed due to agricultural non-point source pollution within the watershed area (EPD 305b report). A great diversity of habitats exist within the watershed from xeric upland longleaf pine forests, to bottomland hardwood swamps, freshwater wetlands, numerous natural springs, and meandering creeks with multiple tributaries. These habitats support rich animal communities with several hundred species of fish and wildlife. There are six federally threatened and endangered mussels species that occur within the Chipola River i.e., oval pigtoe, fat three-ridge, Chipola slabshell, Gulf moccasinshell, purple bankclimber, and shinyrayed pocketbook. The Chipola River is also a managed resource for striped bass and the unique shoal bass fishery. Other threatened and endangered species include: Amphibians & reptiles- American alligator, eastern indigo snake and flatwoods salamander; Fish; Gulf sturgeon; Birds; Arctic peregrine falcon, southeastern kestrel, bald eagle, wood stork, red-cockaded woodpecker; Mammals: i.e. Indiana bat and gray bat. Chipola plants listed on the state or federal endangered list include Marianna columbine, sicklepod, and Apalachicola wild indigo. Endangered and threatened species under serious threat from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation have been documented and a watershed based plan of action should be developed and initiated for their recovery. A Chipola River watershed partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have been initiated since 2006. The purpose was to develop and lead a research-based platform for environmental restoration and conservation. The Service, along with FWC, West Florida RC&D; Council and others developed a Chipola River Watershed Management Plan (CRWMP) to achieve management and conservation of fish and wildlife resources. This proposal is for the next steps toward management activities under the CRWMP.
Located in Funded Projects / SARP Projects W2B
Community-based and larger-scale oyster restoration in ACE Basin NERR Phase II: This project will create and protect intertidal oyster reefs and saltmarsh, essential fish habitat, within the Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve in South Carolina. Organization: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Located in Funded Projects / SARP Projects W2B
Culvert Replacement and Instream Habitat Restoration in the Nulhegan River Vermont: This project will replace three fish passage barriers and install approximately 3 miles of chop and drop instream restorations on the East Branch of the Nulhegan River and its tributaries.
Located in Projects / 2006 - 2018 Projects / 2012 Projects
Culvert Replacement and Instream Habitat Restoration in the Nulhegan River Vermont: This project will replace three fish passage barriers and install approximately 3 miles of chop and drop instream restorations on the East Branch of the Nulhegan River and its tributaries.
Located in Funded Projects / EBTJV Projects
Estimating size-specific brook trout abundance in continuously sampled headwater streams using Bayesian mixed models with zero inflation and overdispersion: We examined habitat factors related to reach-scale brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis counts of four size classes in two headwater stream networks within two contrasting summers in Connecticut, USA. Two study stream networks (7.7 and 4.4 km) were surveyed in a spatially continuous manner in their entirety, and a set of Bayesian generalised linear mixed models was compared. Trout abundance was best described by a zero-inflated overdispersed Poisson model. The effect of habitat covariates was not always consistent among size classes and years. There were nonlinear relationships between trout counts and stream temperature in both years. Colder reaches harboured higher trout counts in the warmer summer of 2008, but this pattern was not observed in the cooler and very wet summer of 2009. Amount of pool habitat was nearly consistently important across size classes and years, and counts of the largest size class were correlated positively with maximum depth and negatively with stream gradient. Spatial mapping of trout distributions showed that reaches with high trout counts may differ among size classes, particularly between the smallest and largest size classes, suggesting that movement may allow the largest trout to exploit spatially patchy habitats in these small headwaters.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications

Next 10 items » [1] 2 3 4 5

Sections

Personal tools

Search results