Successful watershed planning
for salmon habitat recovery

By KEITH WOLF
Golder Associates

The recent listing of numerous stocks of salmon and trout in the Northwest has resulted in many fundamental challenges in the areas of public policy, science and private business.

These challenges sometimes polarize constituencies and impede balanced progress towards an eventual path for delisting of species (e.g., the bald eagle and gray whale). What is clear is that the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Shorelines and Growth Management acts, and a host of additional environmental policies, will lead to an ever-increasing list of important decisions. How, and by whom, these decisions are made has tremendous implications for all citizens.

The responsibility to effectively merge science and public policy often falls upon decision-makers unprepared to fully manage this task, and upon a public disinclined to accept, or unable to implement, obdurate regulatory actions. Merging the uncertainties of science with the realities of regional growth and local economies is best accomplished at the local level and in a cooperative atmosphere that encourages problem solving and one that ultimately involves affected stakeholder groups at the highest levels of decision making. This approach tends to result in a stronger base of public support and more reliable funding mechanisms and facilitates highly structured technical responses.

The solution

To bring about successful local watershed planning efforts, local groups must be supported with overall process and capability building, and comprehensive technical expertise. Funding these efforts comes with it the responsibility to allocate limited dollars wisely and effectively. To ensure money is not misspent, funding boards must be certain that local process have the sophistication and capacity to develop logical, defensible and cost-effective salmon recovery plans and projects. Components of a complete and functional approach include:

• Strategic planning guidance
  
  
• Ecosystem and watershed assessment
  
  
• Salmon recovery limiting factors analysis
  
  
• Engineering and environmental science expertise
  
  
• Project development, implementation and monitoring support
  
  
• Funding procurement for local projects and processes

It is in the interest of the citizens of Washington to retain primary responsibility for managing the natural resources of the state. This is best accomplished by integrating local and regional recovery activities into a credible overall plan. If the plans are developed and implemented correctly, then the "right" individual salmon recovery projects emerge from within the plan. These projects then take on a much more "strategic" character rather than being entirely "opportunistic" in nature.

Recovery plans are best developed and implemented through an active public process, with local input and strong science-based project development. This approach will form a coordinated framework for responding to the salmon crisis.

A model for success

As an example, Golder Associates’ ecological scientists are working with citizens, agencies and local governments to develop effective fish enhancement/restoration projects for future funding cycles through the state’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB). We are assisting local groups in developing the tools to plan salmon recovery and assess their current ecological conditions. Golder is also providing expert service in project implementation and planning. Our technical groups are designing fish passage improvements, riparian restoration, stream channel improvements, as well as providing professional hydrological, biological, geological, and engineering services to project sponsors.

In the first formal round of funding by the SRFB, Golder assisted local groups in procuring over 66 percent of their requested funds. In Willapa Bay alone, Golder is assisting the lead entity in launching over $5.2 million in projects under an emerging and evolving ecosystem plan.

As part of a strategic recovery approach, a prioritized list of projects was generated by using a Multi-Objective Decisional Analysis (MODA) technique and model. The MODA relates individual projects and various project combinations with attributes such as: total cost; overall ecosystem benefit; area of habitat restored; number and priority of salmon stocks; public acceptance; salmon recovery limiting factors; and several dozen other important features to produce the most effective recovery projects, sequenced in a deliberate order.

The Willapa Bay Fisheries Enhancement Group conducted workshops with the public, stakeholders and its technical advisory group to select the attributes for input into the model. For each combination of projects, the MODA assigns a relative score to the various attributes. Once the process is complete, all project combinations considered are ranked based on total score to produce a technically defensible prioritized list of projects for the region. In sum, this process forces objective arguments and eliminates subjective "judgement" calls about which projects to implement, and ensures that limited salmon recovery funds are spent well and sequenced properly.

Implementation and follow through

Successful implementation of projects ensures that the full benefit to salmon is achieved. By providing engineering and design services, biological criteria, construction oversight and continued technical consultation, projects are given the best opportunity to play their part in overall recovery and keep all processes focused on the eventual delisting of salmon.

To ensure we continue on this path, Golder is conducting expanded limiting factors analysis and other activities using tools such as geographical information systems, state-of-the-art geophysics, and all manner of accredited and accepted technical assessment methodologies. Golder also uses a Web-based project management system to facilitate integration of watershed group information sharing, discussion, technical task assignments, strategic planning, project development and scientific documentation. The latter is a very important aspect of salmon recovery. Properly designed and implemented monitoring of project success is vital to produce results that feed back into strategic plans providing opportunities for adaptive management and future project development.

In summary

An effective watershed team includes people with expertise in public planning, group facilitation and fisheries biology; ESA planning and response; technical grant writing services; aquatic habitat ecology; surface and groundwater hydrology; sediment transport and erosion mechanics; and geology. These technical skill sets, integrated with the state, federal and local processes, will produce scientifically credible solutions to a diverse set of watershed issues including habitat restoration and ecosystem planning. Golder is committed to developing and using innovative tools for the analysis and management of watersheds that are transferable to natural resource managers and local communities.