Implementing New Methods and Technology: Perspectives from a Long Term Monitoring Program

Habitat programs have spent extensive time and resources developing methods to sample wadeable stream habitats to assess status, trends and associations with fish use and assemblage. Numerous peer reviewed protocols exist giving agencies and individuals alike a plethora of sampling options depending on their particular interest. In contrast, large river habitats (often non-wadeable) have been largely understudied due to a number of factors including the highly altered or anthropogenic influenced nature of the habitat, lack of resources, personnel or time, and/or the absence of an applicable and flexible protocol. However, large river systems across the Pacific Northwest may offer the highest species richness potential, an understanding of life history diversity or lack thereof, and the potential for restoration across a watershed. While these opportunities are clear, developing a protocol to assess both the general health and key elements of the aquatic habitat for multiple species across multiple life histories has many inherent challenges that inhibit development and implementation of widely used habitat and juvenile fish monitoring techniques. We explore these challenges from the perspective of a multi-faceted monitoring program with deeply rooted habitat sampling methodologies looking to develop a non-wadeable sampling protocol utilizing side scan sonar technology throughout Oregon.