WRIA 8 Status and Trends Monitoring (2009-2011)

Hans B. Berge, Dan Lantz, Scott Stolnack, and Curtis DeGasperiKing County Department of Natural Resources and Parks

Roger Tabor and Kira MazziU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Purpose of Project• Provide Status and Trends data and

analysis to help understand the effectiveness of the WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Plan

• Evaluate assumptions related to hydrology, biology, and riparian conditions across a range of land cover and land use types

• Evaluate methods and develop metrics to be used to assess the health of streams across Puget Sound

Partners

• Washington Department of Ecology• Region 10 EPA Sentinel Sites Project• US Fish and Wildlife Service• WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council and

Jurisdictions

Timeline and Budget

• $995,716 awarded from EPA in 2010• $335,934 match (WRIA 8 and King County)

  YearMajor Task 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Project Management X X X X X

Sampling Plan Preparation X X        

Field Sampling X X X X X  

Analysis   X X X

Outreach     X X X

Deliverables         X

Approach• 50 sites in WRIA 8

(random)• 10 sites across Puget

Sound (sentinel)• Measure:

– Flow– Land Use/Land

Cover– Biological Indicators– Aquatic and

Riparian Condition

Hypotheses• H1:  If effective impervious cover influences hydrology, then

urbanized streams with impervious cover connected to streams will experience higher peak flows than systems with less connected impervious area.

 • H2:  If hydrology influences biological conditions in streams, then the

BIBI and FIBI metrics will be lower in streams that exhibit flashy flows caused by more connected impervious cover.

• H3: If land use type influences fluvial geomorphology, then the frequency of pools will be different in each land use type.

• H4: If the salmon recovery plan in WRIA 8 is successful, then the pool frequency will increase in basins where restoration actions are prescribed.

Methods• Hydrology

• Geomorphology

• Biology

• Remote Sensing

UGA

Fish Sampling• Electrofishing• Identification• Lengths and Weights• Hatchery vs. wild• F-IBI (Matzen and

Berge 2007)

Preliminary Results

North Creek, 067147

Habitat

Bear

Big

Beef

Ced

ar R

iver

Chu

ckan

utD

ewat

toG

riff

inG

lend

ale

Issa

quah

Lake

Sam

mam

ish

Coa

l Ju

anita

K

else

y Ly

on

May

Pete

rs

Tayl

or (

Lk W

a)Li

ttle

Bea

rLu

nd's

Gul

chN

orth

Perr

invi

llePi

pers

Swam

p

%Po

ols

05

1015202530354045505560

200920102011

Sentinel Sites

Good

Bear

Big

Bee

fC

edar

Riv

erC

huck

anut

Dew

atto

Gri

ffin

Gle

ndal

eIs

saqu

ahLa

ke S

amm

amish

Coa

l Ju

anita

K

else

y L

yon

May

Pete

rs

Tayl

or (

Lk

Wa)

Litt

le B

ear

Lund

's G

ulch

Nor

thPe

rrin

ville

Pipe

rsSw

amp

B-I

BI (10-50)

101520253035404550

200920102011

B-IBI

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

Very Poor

Sentinel Sites

Bear

Big

Bee

fC

edar

Riv

erC

huck

anut

Dew

atto

Gri

ffin

Gle

ndal

eIs

saqu

ahLa

ke S

amm

amis

hC

oal

Juan

ita

Kel

sey

Lyon

M

ayPe

ters

Ta

ylor

(L

k W

a)Li

ttle

Bea

rLu

nd's

Gul

chN

orth

Perr

invi

llePi

pers

Swam

p

F-IB

I (6-24

)

6

9

12

15

18

21

24200920102011

F-IBI

Sentinel Sites

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

Stream flow

• A work in progress• We have established 6 new gauges and

have 30+ existing gauges co-located with sampling reaches

• We will be using established metrics to evaluate our hypotheses

Land use/Land cover

• Looking at changes in land cover over time (see 2011 report)• Using land use classification to better describe how landcover

influences salmon recovery and to understand basin scale conditions

2005 2010

Deliverables• Final Report to EPA describing the

relationship between stream flow, aquatic habitat, and biological integrity across land use types in WRIA 8 and 10 sites across Puget Sound

• Report on the status and trends of 50 stream reaches across WRIA 8

Summary• Year 3 in a 5 year study• Currently sampling 57 sites annually• %pools is considered good for ~1/3 of our sites• Tier 1 streams are in the “fair” and “good”

categories• Wide range in FIBI across watershed following

pattern across Tiers similar to BIBI• Flow• Land cover change analysis shows losses in

UGA.

Acknowledgements

• Funding support from EPA, WRIA 8, and King County

• Field Crews from King County and USFWS• Jurisdictions for site access, especially

Dwayne Paige and Kit Paulsen• Ecology staff for database support• Sentinel site team at EPA and Ecology