Water Resources Collections and Archives

Aquatic ecosystems in the Upper Klamath Basin (Upper Basin), Oregon are degraded as a result of more than a century of land use alterations due to logging, dams, irrigated agriculture, and cattle grazing. These changes have led to degraded habitat conditions including decreased baseflow, loss of vegetation, increased stream temperature, fish impediments, and nutrient loading. All these factors negatively impact watershed function and resident fish populations, which have experienced severe declines in recent decades. The primary threats to fish populations include habitat loss, degraded water quality, barriers and entrainment, and predation and competition from non-native species. Millions of dollars have been spent since the late-1900’s to restore aquatic habitat in the Upper Basin primarily to improve the distribution and abundance of endangered and threatened fish species. This project details the hydrologic characteristics of three primary tributaries in the Upper Klamath Lake Sub-Basin including Sevenmile Creek, Wood River, and the Williamson River (including spring tributaries). Available discharge data was assembled to plot seasonal fluctuations in flows and identify annual peak flow at different re-occurrence intervals. Stream systems in the UKL Sub-Basin show a range of hydrologic inflow due to groundwater and/or snow-melt run-off. Characteristics of spring-fed vs. run-off dominated stream systems are reviewed and recommendations are made for how to address restoration practices considering the hydrologic and geomorphic characteristics of stream channels.

Our study attempts to assess how different methods of engaging student volunteers on Berkeley’s campus impact student’s enthusiasm for stewardship, such as their willingness to participate in future on or off-campus restoration projects.  Using a questionnaire and targeting four different undergraduate student groups, including students who lived adjacent to Strawberry Creek, we attempted to gauge their current involvement and future involvement in stream restoration activities.  We found that academic work is the strongest method of engaging student volunteers and that some form of spontaneous use is the best indicator of each student’s enthusiasm for future stewardship. In summary, student stewards can provide the link between academic solutions and collaborative engagement with urban creeks.

Abstract

Putah Creek (drainage area = 2,000 km2) drains the slopes of Cobb Mountain in Lake County, flowing 137 km southeastward into the Yolo Bypass near Davis, California. Lower Putah Creek, the 37km reach from the Solano Diversion Dam to the Yolo Bypass, is confined within a flood control channel.  Dry Creek (drainage area = 44km2) joins Putah Creek near Winters, California.  Putah Creek is regulated by water releases from Monticello Dam at Lake Berryessa.  Dry Creek flows only part of the year and has no dams. Southward channel migration of Putah Creek from the 1990’s was threatening Putah Creek Rd., a paved county road following the south bank of the evaluated stream-section.  The new location of the Putah Creek channel also reduced the amount of gravels entering Putah Creek from Dry Creek.  This was significant because dams reduced the amount of course sediment available from upstream, leaving Dry Creek as one of the only natural sources of the gravels important to the ecology of Putah Creek. In 2005, the Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee implemented a project to move the channel of Putah Creek northward to its approximate historical course.  The project included the removal of invasive giant reed (Arundo donax), in part because Arundo appeared to have contributed to the unwanted channel avulsion.  We evaluated the project performance towards the goals of 1. protecting Putah Creek Road, 2. keeping invasive plant species out of the area, 3. facilitating natural transport of Dry Creek gravels into Putah Creek, and 4. improving salmonid habitat.  Our evaluation found that 1. Putah Creek has stayed within the general path of the design channel and is not returning to the southern pre-1997 channel which threatened the road, 2. there is a mix of native plant species (e.g. willow, cottonwood) and invasives (e.g. Arundo, blackberry) in the floodplain, 3. There is no physical barrier separating Putah and Dry Creek, 4.  the channel and floodplain provide good habitat complexity for native fish, but fine sediments cover most of the potential spawning gravels.

In  California’s  Central  Valley,  dams  block  95  percent  of  historic  salmonid  habitat.    To  restore access by spring-run chinook salmon (Onocorhynchus tshawytscha) and other anadromous fish to approximately 12 miles of upstream spawning habitat on Clear Creek (drainage areas 720 km 2 ), the  US  Bureau  of  Reclamation  removed  the  McCormick-Saeltzer  Dam  in  November  2000.Previous  studies—the  most  recent  in  2004—identified  significant  sediment  mobilization  since dam removal at, and above, the former dam site.  In October 2011, we resurveyed two previously established  cross  sections at 26  m and 103.3  m upstream  of  the  dam  site  and  conducted  a  long profile  of  the  thalweg  from  the  dam  site  to  175  m  upstream.   We  also  replicated  previous  site photographs,  drew  vegetation  maps  and  compared  2010  aerial  photographs  to  those  from  1998 and  2004  to  assess  vegetation  change  and  erosion  patterns.   Our  results  documented  little incremental  erosion  at  and  upstream  of  the  dam  site  since  2004,  suggesting  that  sediment mobilization post-dam removal has largely stopped.  Establishment of riparian vegetation may be stabilizing remaining sediment deposits.

The simultaneous withdrawal of water from streams for springtime frost protection of grapevines in the Russian River basin can coincide with the emergence of salmonid fry and the rearing of juveniles. These water diversions have contributed to water level declines, which in some instances, have resulted in the stranding mortality of fish. Endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout can become stranded when water levels decrease abruptly and fish seek refuge in the rapidly dewatering gravel.

In response to this issue, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed a site-specific method to determine minimum flows to protect salmonids from these effects. This method seeks to identify “high risk” stranding surfaces and determine the stream stage at which they become exposed. In this study, we evaluated the ability of the NMFS protocol to accurately prescribe protective stages. To do this, we analyzed three components of the protocol: its stranding risk classification system, it’s sampling of stranding surfaces and its method of establishing protective stage recommendations.

We evaluated the risk classification system by comparing it to published literature values on salmonid stranding. We assessed the sampling of stranding surfaces by performing the protocol at two sites. NMFS developed the method based on data from a medium-sized drainage (12.6 mi2), so we selected a small drainage (4.6 mi2) and a large drainage (50.2 mi2) to evaluate how effectively the method characterized the variation in potential stranding surfaces in different watershed settings. We evaluated the protocol’s protective stage recommendation by comparing the protective stage from our two surveyed sites to stream stage data for the season of regulation. 

Our assessment has led us to make several recommendations. First, the risk classification system would benefit from consideration of other factors influencing stranding risk and should adjust stranding risk thresholds to better fit the literature. Also, the protocol is weak in its ability to capture within-site variation. We therefore recommend increased sampling of stream reaches and scaled mapping of each site to better define stranding surfaces. These measures should result in improved protective stage recommendations but further studies may be necessary. With these changes, we believe that the NMFS protocol will be an effective tool for protecting fish from being stranded due to vineyard use of water during frost events in the Russian River Watershed.