Life Sciences Commons^™

Expanding Instream Flows To Protect Ecosystems In Overallocated River Basins, Belize A. Lane, David E. Rosenberg

Reports

Utahns are expressing a rapidly growing interest in protecting and enhancing instream flows for outdoor recreation and environmental benefits (Endter-Wada et al. 2015). However, many Utah rivers are already over-allocated for agricultural, municipal, hydropower and other water uses, making it difficult to procure additional water for instream flows. ‘Use it or lose it’ western water law and mentality encourages Utahns to use water rather than return it to rivers and ecosystems.

This briefing reviews existing instream flow practices allowed by the Utah water rights system and the challenges to implementation. We suggest key technical and legislative opportunities within and outside …

Using Systematic Conservation Planning To Establish Management Priorities For Freshwater Salmon Conservation, Matanuska-Susitna Basin, Ak, Usa, Andrew W. Witt, Edd Hammill

Ecology Center Publications

1- The Alaskan Matanuska-Susitna Basin (MSB) provides habitat for all five Pacific salmon species, and their large seasonal spawning runs are important both ecologically and economically. However, the encroachment of human development through urbanization and extractive industries poses a serious risk to salmon habitat in the MSB.

2- Using systematic conservation planning techniques, different methods of incorporating anthropogenic risks were assessed to determine how to cost-effectively conserve salmon habitat in the area.

3- The consequences of four distinct conservation scenarios were quantified: no consideration of either urbanization or extractive industries (‘Risk ignored’ scenario); accounting for the risk of urbanization, and …

Age-Specific Estimates Indicate Potential Deleterious Capture Effects And Low Survival Of Stocked Juvenile Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus Lucius), Scott R. Clark, Mary M. Conner, Scott L. Durst, Nathan R. Franssen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Hatcheries and stocking programs have become necessary to repatriate or augment populations of imperiled fishes worldwide. Over nearly two decades, millions of endangered juvenile Colorado Pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius have been stocked into the San Juan River (Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah); however, recruitment of these individuals to adult life stages (age ≥6) remains low. Using a mark–recapture data set collected from annual riverwide electrofishing efforts between 2003 and 2016, we investigated apparent survival and capture probabilities of stocked Colorado Pikeminnow to identify age‐specific bottlenecks contributing to this lack of recruitment. With relatively high capture rates, which averaged between 0.34 and …

The Relationship Between Measures Of Annual Livestock Disturbance In Western Riparian Areas And Stream Conditions Important To Trout, Salmon, And Char, Lindsey M. Goss, Brett B. Roper

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Managing livestock disturbance in riparian zones in a manner that provides economic returns to ranchers while protecting streams is an important aspect of rangeland management on public lands in the western United States. Attempts to balance economic and ecologic outcomes have been made more difficult due to the presence of several salmonid species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. One approach to proper management of livestock use near streams has been to define the allowable limits of disturbance using 2 metrics, streambank alteration and stubble height. We evaluated 153 stream reaches within the Interior Columbia Basin to determine …