Developing an Adaptive Management Approach for Large-Scale Coho Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Enhancement in Dry Creek (Russian River), CA

Entering the Pacific Ocean 112 km north of San Francisco, CA, the Russian River provides habitat for threatened and endangered coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead. To provide water supply and flood control for 600,000 residents, the Sonoma County Water Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulate flow from Warm Springs Dam/Lake Sonoma along 22 km of Dry Creek, a major Russian River tributary.  Bordered by nearly 200 private properties, Dry Creek flows through a highly valuable grape growing region. To improve stream flow and habitat conditions for coho and steelhead, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a 15 year Biological Opinion in September 2008 that mandates large scale enhancement of 11 km of Dry Creek summer and winter rearing habitat.  Guided by an adaptive management (AM) monitoring plan, enhancement work is designed in phases and construction will commence in 2012. 

This presentation focuses on advances made during the assessment and design phase of the AM cycle; we also provide insights on approaches that we found most helpful in a system with considerable technical and institutional challenges. Major challenges included different opinions on what constitutes project success, the preferred form of fish habitat, and appropriate scales and types of effectiveness monitoring (feature scale vs. site / reach scale).  Complexities in validation monitoring due to very low densities of coho, difficult sampling conditions, and variable levels of landowner participation are additional factors that necessitated a well-planned AM approach.

Progress in achieving interagency consensus on the AM plan was catalyzed by: independent technical facilitation; joint field trips to develop a common, realistic understanding of geomorphic opportunities, constraints, and logistical sampling difficulties; agreement on various organizing frameworks (conceptual model, objectives hierarchy, decision rules); adapting the restoration designs, success criteria, and effectiveness monitoring protocols to the geomorphic attributes of each reach; and novel approaches to validation monitoring using tagged fish.