Lower Yuba River Accord Monitoring and Evaluation Program and - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Lower Yuba River Accord Monitoring and Evaluation Program and Interim Report Overview Gary Reedy South Yuba River Citizens League Lower Yuba River Symposium June 12, 2013 1

Requirements of the Yuba Accord Fisheries Agreement (2005)  Monitor and evaluate “the effectiveness of the implementation of the Lower Yuba River Accord”  Evaluate “the condition of fish resources in the Lower Yuba River”  Evaluate “the viability of Lower Yuba River fall-run Chinook salmon and any sub-populations of the Central Valley steelhead and spring-run Chinook salmon Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs) that may exist in the Lower Yuba River” Monitoring & Evaluation Program 2

M&E Program Goals and Framework EVALUATE WHETHER OR NOT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE YUBA ACCORD . . .  Maintains Fish in Good Condition  Fish and Game Code § 5937  Promotes Viable Salmonid Populations  NMFS Recovery Assessment M&E Plan Structure: IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE . . . • Establish Performance Indicators  Flow and Water • Identify Data Requirements Temperature Relationships with • Define Analytics  Fish Populations • Examine Relationships Between  Aquatic Habitat Attributes Measures of VSP Parameters and Flows and Water Temperatures 3 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

Re-framed M&E Program Goals • Evaluate the condition and viability of fish populations in the lower Yuba River • Identify and evaluate relationships between flow and water temperature and … • Fish populations • Aquatic habitat attributes • Determine whether the Yuba Accord flow schedules provide conditions that are protective of the fishery resources of the lower Yuba River • Maintain physical habitat attributes that provide opportunity for good condition of aquatic resources and viable salmonid populations. Monitoring & Evaluation Program 4

M&E Program Activities DATA COLLECTION PROTOCOLS AND PROCEDURES  Flow & Water Temperature Monitoring  VAKI Riverwatcher System Monitoring  Morphological Unit & Mesohabitat Classification  Digital Elevation Modeling  2-D Hydraulic Modeling  Substrate & Cover Classification & Mapping  Acoustic Tagging and Tracking  Genetic Analyses  Chinook Salmon Carcass Surveying  Otoliths, Scales, Tissue, CWT Sampling  Redd Surveying  Juvenile Snorkel Surveying  Rotary Screw Trapping  Riparian Vegetation Mapping 5 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

Yuba Accord Implementation Technical Team Draft Yuba SWRCB issued RMT RMT begins developed Yuba Accord Accord signed by water right published multi-year flow schedules, including YCWA, resource orders; official Final M&E trend water temperature agencies, PG&E implementation Frame- evaluation for considerations and NGOs of the Yuba work M&E Report Accord (2001 – 2004) 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Water RMT published Yuba Accord Temperature annual reports implemented Objectives describing on a “ pilot Memorandum individual year program ” basis results (2006 – 2007) (2008 – 2011) 6 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

Draft Interim Report (April 2013)  M&E program is scheduled and funded to run through at least 2015.  Interim Report is a ‘report card’ on implementation of the Yuba Accord  For regulators, stakeholders and the broader scientific community  To inform the relicensing process before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission currently underway for YCWA facilities in the Yuba River Watershed (the Yuba River Development Project, FERC Project No. 2246)  The RMT will seek input and comment from the scientific community in order to refine the work planned for the next few years, and hopefully beyond. Available for review through July 12. www.yubaaccordrmt.com 7 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

What’s in the Report? 8 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

Chapters 1 through 3 1. Introduction to the Yuba Accord OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP Annual 1-30 Vol. (TAF) 1-15 16-31 1-30 1-31 1-31 1-29 1-31 1-15 16-30 1-15 16-31 1-15 16-30 1-31 1-31 1 500 500 500 500 500 500 700 1000 1000 2000 2000 1500 1500 700 600 500 574 2 500 500 500 500 500 500 700 700 800 1000 1000 800 500 500 500 500 429 3 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 700 700 900 900 500 500 500 500 500 399 4 400 400 500 500 500 500 500 600 900 900 600 400 400 400 400 400 362 5 400 400 500 500 500 500 500 500 600 600 400 400 400 400 400 400 335 6 350 350 350 350 350 350 350 350 500 500 400 300 150 150 150 350 232 2. M&E Program Overview McElhany et al . 2000 3. Physical habitat conditions  Historic  Current 9 Monitoring & Evaluation Program

Chapter 4 New Developments in Anadromous Salmonid Life History Characterizations Adult spawning timing Refined lifestage periodicity Chinook Salmon Carcass Temporal Distribution Upstream of DPD Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 1 Lifestage Fresh Carcasses Relative Cumulative Proportion 0.9 Spring-run Chinook Salmon 0.8 Adult Immigration & Holding 0.7 Spawning 0.6 Embryo Incubation 0.5 Fry Rearing 0.4 Juvenile Rearing 0.3 Juvenile Downstream Movement 0.2 Pre-Accord (1999-2005) Smolt (Yearling+) Emigration 0.1 Accord (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010) 0 9/1 9/16 10/1 10/16 10/31 11/15 11/30 12/15 12/30 Date Redd superimposition Juvenile outmigrant timing Cumulative Distribution of Weekly Observed Catch 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 Cumulative Fraction 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 10 0.00 All Years Expected Distribution Pre Accord Expected Distribution Accord Expected Distribution

Chapter 5 Condition and Viability of Anadromous Salmonids in the Lower Yuba River Fish community evaluations Spring- and fall-run Chinook salmon differentiation Date Species January February March June September Total 400 California Roach 1 1 8/24/05 2005 Chinook Salmon Chinook Salmon 554 1622 3205 141 20 5542 350 Passing Daguerre Point Steelhead Trout 4 7 11 Chinook salmon = 11,374 fish Dam Riffle Sculpin 1 1 2 300 Sacramento Pikeminnow 1 105 126 232 Spring-run Chinook Salmon Predicted Sacramento Sucker 119 119 250 No. of Fish Logistic Tule Perch 2 2 Unknown Cyprinid 6 18733 281 19020 Fall-run Chinook 200 Unknown Salmonid 1 1 Salmon Predicted Largemouth Bass 1 1 Logistic 150 Total 554 1630 3205 18985 557 24931 100 Hatchery influences 50 0 Spring-run Chinook Salmon Upstream of Daguerre Point Dam 3,500 3/1 4/1 5/1 6/1 7/1 8/1 9/1 10/1 11/1 12/1 1/1 2/1 3/1 Ad-Clipped Fish Not Ad-Clipped Fish Date 3,000 9/6/06 250 2006 Chinook Salmon Passing Daguerre Point Chinook salmon = 5,203 fish Dam 2,500 200 Spring-run Chinook Salmon Predicted 2,000 No. of Fish No. of Fish Logistic 150 Fall-run Chinook Salmon 1,500 r 2 = 0.056 Predicted Logistic P = 0.571 100 1,000 r 2 = 0.104 500 50 P = 0.437 0 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 3/1 4/1 5/1 6/1 7/1 8/1 9/1 10/1 11/1 12/1 1/1 2/1 3/1 Year Date 9/4/07 Water temperature evaluations 2007 Chinook Salmon 60 Passing Daguerre Chinook salmon = 1,394 fish Point Dam 50 Spring-run Chinook Salmon Predicted 40 Logistic No. of Fish Fall-run Chinook 30 Salmon Predicted Logistic 20 11 10 0 3/1 4/1 5/1 6/1 7/1 8/1 9/1 10/1 11/1 12/1 1/1 2/1 Date

Chapter 6 Lower Yuba River Regional Interactions Comparisons to the Sacramento Comparisons to the Feather River River System 100% 25,000 Feather River Chinook Salmon Escapement 80% 80,000 90% Sacramento River System Spring-run Chinook Salmon Spring-run Chinook Salmon Escapement 70% 70,000 (% Yuba River/ Sacramento River System) 80% 20,000 Spring-run Chinook Salmon Hatchery Escapement In-River Escapement (% Sring-run / Spring + Fall Hatchery Escapement) FRFH Escapement 70% 60% 60,000 Escapement (No. of Fish) 60% 15,000 50% 50,000 50% 40% 40,000 43.9% 40% 10,000 33.4% 30% 30,000 30% 24.2% 20% 20,000 20% 5,000 16.5% 17.8% 16.8% 13.5% 14.3% 10% 10,000 10% 10.0% 7.7% 7.3% 6.8% 5.7% 5.9% 3.7% 9.0% 0% 0 0% 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Year Year Spring-run Chinook Salmon Spring-run Chinook Salmon Yuba River Sacramento River System without Yuba River Yuba River Feather River 8,000 24,000 12,000 12,000 22,000 11,000 11,000 Sacramento River System (No. of Fish) r 2 = 0.7192 7,000 Feather River In-River Spawners (No. of Fish) Yuba River In-River Spawners (No. of Fish) 20,000 10,000 10,000 P = 0.0078 Yuba River (No. of Fish) 6,000 18,000 9,000 9,000 r 2 = 0.2992 16,000 8,000 8,000 5,000 P = 0.1606 14,000 7,000 7,000 4,000 12,000 6,000 6,000 10,000 5,000 5,000 3,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 r 2 = 0.0061 2,000 6,000 3,000 3,000 r 2 = 0.0061 P = 0.8543 4,000 P = 0.8543 2,000 2,000 1,000 12 2,000 1,000 1,000 0 0 0 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Year Year