A New Model of Watershed-scale Aquatic Monitoring from the Crown of the Continent: Quantifying the Benefits of Watershed Restoration in the Face of Climate Change

This project will support the design and development of a large-scale aquatics monitoring program across 1.5 million acres of the Crown of the Continent, as part of a 10-year, landscape-level restoration project established and funded by the U.S. Forest Service in 2010. The Forest Service has directed each of ten Cooperative Forest Landscape Restoration Program projects to develop and implement a large-scale monitoring program to inventory current resource conditions and facilitate the short- and long-term evaluation of the effectiveness of restoration projects to inform future management strategies and actions: the work proposed here would address significant challenges associated with maintaining or improving water quality and watershed function. Results from this work will ultimately facilitate broad landscape conservation of watersheds in the Crown of the Continent through better monitoring and understanding of aquatic ecosystems, more informed management and restoration activities, and greater understanding of potential future climate change impacts.

FY2011Objectives: Pilot and adapt the Forest Service PACFISH INFISH Biological Opinion Effectiveness Monitoring Program (PIBO; http://www.fs.fed.us/biology/fishecology/emp/) to determine the number of sampling sites required to establish relationships between road systems and current stream and watershed conditions across the landscap Pilot and adapt the Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP; http://www.fs.fed.us/GRAIP/index.shtml) to facilitate effective monitoring of the effects of road-related restoration projects at both site and watershed scales Identify streams that have been most severely impacted by climate change to date within the Crown of the Continent by correlating streamflow and temperature analyses from 1950-2008 with distributions of threatened and endangered native trout specie

FY2012Objectives: Implement the refined PIBO monitoring approach to quantify the influence of roads and road restoration on in-channel conditions and water quality in streams of the SW Crown project area. Inventory the complete road network of one or more watersheds to provide a baseline for evaluation of site-level road restoration actions and a refined measure of road effects for objective #1. Incorporate additional critically important climate-relevant datasets into analyses of watershed integrity

FY2013Objectives: Pilot and adapt the Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) for quantifying the erosion and delivery of sediment to streams and for monitoring of effects of road-related restoration projects at both site- and watershed-scales. Implement the refined U.S. Forest Service Pacfish Infish Biological Opinion Effectiveness Monitoring Program (PIBO) to quantify the influence of roads and road restoration on in-channel conditions and water quality in four complete watersheds Test GRAIP Lite in the Deer Creek and neighboring sub-watersheds in collaboration with a new partner agency, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP). Communicate relevant science information widely