What we monitor and why Streams Fisheries thresholds Stream - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What we monitor and why… • Streams Fisheries thresholds • Stream Environment Zones SEZ thresholds • Noise (highways, Noise thresholds shorezone, Plan Areas) • Air Quality (ozone, visibility, Air quality thresholds etc.) • Wildlife (osprey, peregrine Special interest species thresholds falcon, etc.) Regional trends, mode split, • Bicycle and pedestrian supporting grant applications, etc. • Tahoe Yellow Cress Vegetation thresholds

Stream Monitoring • Why: TRPA threshold “maintain 75 miles of excellent, 105 miles of good, and 38 miles of marginal stream habitat” • Monitoring since: 2009 • Number of sites: 40 per year (20 “trend”; 20 “random”) • Methods: Bioassessment uses macroinvertebrates (BMI) and physical stream habitat measures to assess stream health – 600+ macroinvertebrates (i.e. fly-fishing bugs) collected at each site; ID’d in a lab – Macroinvertebrates compared against pristine streams throughout CA / NV using the California Stream Condition Index to obtain stream “score” – Hundreds of measurements taken on substrate, erosion, canopy cover, etc. – Physical habitat results used to identify degraded conditions

Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded

Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are.

Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are. ✓ There are also degraded streams throughout the Basin that are not currently on restoration lists = restoration opportunities

Examples: degraded streams not on EIP list North Zephyr Creek, Zephyr Cove Rosewood Creek, Incline Village Deer Creek, Incline Village Third Creek, Mt Rose Highway Blackwood Creek, west shore Lonely Gulch Creek, west shore

Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are. ✓ There are also degraded streams throughout the Basin that are not currently on restoration lists = restoration opportunities ✓ Stream restoration projects are mostly functioning well in the long-term

Examples: restoration effectiveness Angora Creek, Meyers Third Creek, Incline Village Trout Creek, South Lake Tahoe BEFORE (2008) BEFORE (2010) BEFORE (1998) AFTER (2015) AFTER (2016) AFTER (2016)

SEZ Monitoring • Why: TRPA threshold “restore 25% of degraded SEZ in urban areas; restore 100% of degraded SEZ in non-urban areas; preserve all naturally functioning SEZ” • Monitoring Since: Trial monitoring program began in 2016 • Number of sites: 40 per year (20 “trend”; 20 “random”) • Methods: California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM) uses the following to assess wetland function… – biotic structure – surrounding buffer – hydrology – physical structure

SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that have been developed)

SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that are gone) ✓ Degraded SEZ are widespread in developed and undeveloped areas = lots of restoration opportunities

Examples: degraded SEZ not on EIP list Bijou Meadow, South Lake Tahoe Heavenly Valley Creek, Pioneer Trail Golden Bear Meadow, El Dorado County 1940 aerial photo showing wet meadow 1940 aerial photo showing wet 2015 aerial photo with old railroad fill running with braided channels meadow with braided channels through middle of SEZ An extremely dry meadow in 2017 Old railroad fill running through middle of SEZ Ditch diverting water out of meadow

SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that are gone) ✓ Degraded SEZ are widespread in developed and undeveloped areas = lots of restoration opportunities ✓ Some SEZ restoration projects have not resulted in improved SEZ function

RESTORATION EFFECTIVENESS SEZ: Colony Inn Year restored: 2008-ish Evaluation: • Not functioning as SEZ • Dry dirt and upland plants where it used to be SEZ AFTER: Reduced erosion and reduced silt in stream.

Wildlife Monitoring • Why: TRPA threshold “maintain 4 osprey nests, 2 peregrine falcon nests, etc.” • Monitoring Since: TRPA took over monitoring from USFS in 2010 (osprey) and 2015 (peregrine) • Species: – Osprey – Peregrine Falcon

Active Nests 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 1997 1998 1999 Osprey nests - Lake Tahoe 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

5 Peregrine Falcon nests - Lake Tahoe 4 3 Active Nests 2 1 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year

Air Quality Monitoring • Why? TRPA thresholds for Carbon Monoxide, Particulate Matter, Ozone, Nitrous Oxide, Visibility, etc. • About: Maintain 3 monitoring stations in partnership with DRI, UC Davis Nuclear Lab, and national park visibility network • Results: All air quality trends improving PM10 - Annual Avg. 50 Stateline TRPA Lake Tahoe CC 40 DL Bliss State Park Incline Village/Crystal Bay micrograms/m3 30 South Lake Tahoe Sandy Way Stateline Horizon 20 Cave Rock 10 Trendline: confidence > 99% 0 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 YEAR Ozone - Highest 1 Hr Avg. 0.120 Stateline TRPA Lake Tahoe CC 0.110 DL Bliss State Park 0.100 Kings Beach Tahoe City 0.090 Incline Village/Crystal Bay ppm South Lake Tahoe Airport 0.080 South Lake Tahoe Sandy Way South Lake Tahoe Tahoe Blvd 0.070 Cave Rock Lake Tahoe Basin 0.060 Trendline: confidence > 99% 0.050 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 YEAR

Noise Monitoring • We monitor noise in: – Plan Areas – Highways – Shorezone • Why: Each Plan Area, highway, and shorezone has maximum allowable decibel levels allowed in TRPA thresholds • Results ✓ Consistent with past findings ✓ Nearly 40% of Plan Areas exceed noise standards ✓ Over 60% of highway locations exceed noise standards ✓ Shorezone noise is getting worse in some locations

Tahoe Yellow Cress Monitoring • About Tahoe Yellow Cress survey results – TRPA part of inter-agency 50 6229 monitoring group representing over 14 organizations 45 6228 monitoring TYC since 1979 40 6227 Number of occupied sites – Lake-wide count over 1 week 35 6226 Lake level feet LTD every September 30 6225 25 6224 • Why? 20 6223 15 6222 – TRPA threshold “maintain 10 6221 26 TYC population sites” 5 6220 0 6219 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 • Results Number of occupied sites Lake Tahoe level – Upward trend since 1979 – Number of occupied sites is highly correlated with lake level – 2017 had a low number of occupied sites; but the same as last times lake level was high (2006 and 2011) – Overall population is stable Tahoe Yellow Cress is a small plant that only grows on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Monitoring • About – Prior to 2016, manual counts over 1 or 2 days by consultants / volunteers – Began doing in-house in 2016 using automated counters – By end of 2018, over 30 counters installed by TRPA and partners around the Basin – Data downloaded once a month on tablet and uploaded into LT Info • Results – 1,600 per day at Camp Richardson during summer 2017 – 150 per day in South Lake Tahoe during the very snowy winter of 2017 – Highest daily count was 5,500 at Lake Forest (north shore) on July 4 th … fireworks!!!

Monitoring data available at monitoring.laketahoeinfo.org Questions???