Gus Wathen

Eco Logical Research Inc. · Fish Biology

The following document describes a low–tech process–based riverscape restoration (LTPBR, see Wheaton et al. 2019) implementation and as-built report for approximately 1 mile of Whychus Creek mainstem and floodplain habitat within the Willow Springs Preserve during the Summer of 2022. The restoration is designed to promote natural fluvial processes...

As-built report for Phase 1 of the Bailey Flat Low-tech Process-based Riverscape Restoration.

Current approaches for biodiversity conservation and management focus on sustaining high levels of diversity among species to maintain ecosystem function. We show that the diversity among individuals within a single population drives function at the ecosystem scale. Specifically, nutrient supply from individual fish differs from the population aver...

Year end report of monitoring efforts for the evaluation of steelhead and their habitat's response to implementation of Beaver Dam Analog stream channel restoration. Monitoring components include: temperature, stream discharge timing, beaver activity surveys, surface water extent surveys, juvenile steelhead abundance, density, growth and movement,...

Freshwater habitat restoration is a major conservation objective, motivating efforts to restore habitat complexity and quality for fishes. Restoration based on the engineering activities of beavers (Castor canadensis) increases fish habitat complexity, but how this affects fish habitat use and movement behaviours is not well known. We used a networ...

This document summarizes the work products that ISEMP and CHaMP produced. Much of this work was done in collaboration with State and Tribal fishery and habitat agency staff and other BPA FWP projects. All of the work was done to support specific tributary habitat monitoring and evaluation objectives under the 2008 Biological Opinion for listed salm...

This document describes the restoration and monitoring design developed as part of a stream and riparian restoration project on Bear Creek, a tributary of Bridge Creek and the Lower John Day River in Wheeler County, OR.

Closed population models are commonly used to estimate stream salmonid abundances using mark–recapture information collected during electrofishing surveys. To meet the model assumption of geographic closure, block nets are often used to prevent emigration and immigration of fish during the survey. Increased sampling and tagging efforts in an open s...

Beaver are an integral component of hydrologic, geomorphic, and biotic processes within North American stream systems, and their propensity to build dams alters stream and ripar-ian structure and function to the benefit of many aquatic and terrestrial species. Recognizing this, beaver relocation efforts and/or application of structures designed to...

The Bridge Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) project was launched in 2007 as a watershed scale restoration experiment designed to test whether encouraging beaver activity could improve habitat to the benefit of a threatened steelhead population. Currently in its 7th year of post restoration monitoring, the Bridge Creek project offers insi...

Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) of the Pacific Northwest co-evolved with the once ubiquitous American beaver (Castor canadensis). Extirpation of beaver and their associated dams are thought to have had negative impacts on stream function in desert watersheds where high water temperatures, low water levels. And simplified habitat can limit steelhead...

Bridge Creek, a tributary to the Lower John Day River, flows through the high-desert of central Oregon and serves as an important spawning and rearing stream for Mid-Columbia Steelhead. Much of Bridge Creek suffers from a high degree of channel incision and features an overall lack of habitat complexity, hydrologic disconnection from groundwater an...

Invasive smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu have been introduced to some of the last remaining watersheds that contain wild anadromous Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, yet little is known about the interactions between these species. We used an artificial stream equipped with passive integrated transponder tag antenna arrays to monitor habitat use an...

Introduced smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu have invaded much of the historic freshwater habitat of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in North America, yet little is known about the ecological interactions between the two species. We investigated the possibility of competition for habitat between age-0 Atlantic salmon and age-0 and age-1 smallmouth b...