Stephen N. Bennett

Utah State University | USU · Department of Watershed Sciences

Before-after-control-impact (BACI) experimental designs are commonly used in large-scale environmental experiments but these designs can be confounded by location and time interactions. Staircase designs, where replicate treatments are staggered temporally, have been suggested as an alternative to BACI designs. We performed a simulation study based...

The Asotin Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed Project was established in 2008 as a large-scale, long-term experiment to test the effectiveness of stream restoration at improving freshwater habitat conditions and increasing production and productivity of a wild summer run steelhead population. Asotin Creek is recovering from past disturbances suc...

The Low-Tech Process Based Restoration of Riverscapes Pocket Guide is an illustrated and condensed version of the Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu). The pocket guide is designed to fit in your pocket (4 x 6") to use as a reference in the field.

Background The Asotin Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) was implemented in 2008. The focal species are natural reproducing summer steelhead. Based on previous habitat assessments and preliminary IMW monitoring it was decided that riparian function and instream habitat complexity were impaired. The restoration proposed was fencing, native...

- Riverscapes are composed of connected floodplain and channel habitats that together make up the valley bottom. - The scope of degradation of riverscapes is massive. Tens of thousands of miles of riverscapes are in poor or fair condition. - Structural-starvation is both a direct cause of degradation, as well as a consequence of land use changes...

The purpose of this design manual is to provide restoration practitioners with guidelines for implementing a subset of low-tech tools —namely beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS)—for initiating process-based restoration in structurally-starved riverscapes. While the concept of process-based restoration in riverscapes...

Chapter 3 of of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) Planning for low-tech process-based restoration is similar to planning for other forms of restoration. •We adapt the Conservation Planning Process to show what aspects of the process are distinctive to low-tech process-based re...

Chapter Two of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) Low-tech process-based restoration principles are critical to understand as both the basis for effectively applying low-tech restoration treatments and managing expectations about timing and magnitude of outcomes. We propose an...

Chapter 6 of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) •Key phases of restoration project implementation include obtaining regulatory consultations and permits, construction, monitoring and adaptive management. •Application of beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structure...

Chapter 7 of the Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes - Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu)

Chapter Four of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu Post-assisted log structures (PALS) and beaver dam analogues (BDAs) are hand-built structures. PALS mimicand promote the processes of wood accumulation; whereas BDAs mimic and promote beaver dam activity. •PALS and BDAs are perme...

Chapter 5 of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) • A complex is a group of structures designed to work together to mimic and/or promote specific processes to achieve one or more project objectives. Complexes are the building blocks of a low-tech restoration design. • The low-tec...

In summer 2018, the Sharps Fire burned major portions of the Baugh Creek Watershed in central Idaho. Prior to the Sharps Fire a stream restoration project was planned for lower Baugh Creek. Following the fire, the project was expanded to include two additional streams in the lower watershed and to address the risks posed post-fire, as well as ident...

Environmental stressors associated with human land and water-use activities have degraded many riparian ecosystems across the western United States. These stressors include (i) the widespread expansion of invasive plant species that displace native vegetation and exacerbate streamflow and sediment regime alteration; (ii) agricultural and urban deve...

Before-after-control-impact (BACI) experimental designs are commonly used in large-scale experiments to test for environmental impacts. However, high natural variability of environmental conditions and populations, and low replication in both treatment and control areas in time and space hampers detection of responses. We compare the power of two a...

KEY FINDINGS & RECOMMENDED RESTORATION STRATEGIES Background This report is part two of an assessment and planning process begun in 2016. The goal of the two reports was to determine the condition of streams, fish use, and factors limiting fish production (Part 1), and develop a framework for prioritizing restoration and develop a series of conce...

KEY FINDINGS & RECOMMENDED RESTORATION STRATEGIES Background We present a watershed assessment of four watersheds in the Asotin County Assessment Area (hereafter the study area): Alpowa Creek, Asotin Creek, Couse Creek, and Tenmile Creek. The Salmon Recovery Funding Board funded the assessment and the Asotin County Conservation District administere...

This paper shows example applications of the Geomorphic Unit Tool, which is a GIS algorithm that will map geomorphic units from high resolution topography. Documentation and code can be viewed and downloaded from https://github.com/Riverscapes/pyGUT.

SYNOPSIS A gravel-bed river flowing in the ancestral Pataha Creek began aggrading its bed after ~22,000 years ago, and continued filling the bedrock valley with fine sediments until after ~3,700 years ago. After reaching its current fill thickness, incision of the valley fill began, eventually reaching bedrock and exposing river gravels of the pre-...

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...

Floodplain riparian ecosystems support unique vegetation communities and high biodiversity relative to terrestrial landscapes. Accordingly, estimating riparian ecosystem health across landscapes is critical for sustainable river management. However, methods that identify local riparian vegetation condition, an effective proxy for riparian health, h...

Across the Pacific Northwest, at least 17 intensively monitored watershed projects have been implemented to test the effectiveness of a broad range of stream restoration actions for increasing the freshwater production of salmon and steelhead and to better understand fish–habitat relationships. We assess the scope and status of these projects and r...

Despite substantial effort and resources being invested in habitat rehabilitation for stream fishes, mechanistic approaches to designing and evaluating how habitat actions influence the fish populations they are intended to benefit remain rare. We used a Net Rate of Energy Intake (NREI) model to examine expected and observed changes in energetic ha...

Substantial research effort has been devoted to understanding stream-dwelling salmonids’ use of summer rearing and growth habitat, with a subset of studies focusing on foraging position selection and the energetic trade-offs of differential habitat use. To date, however, cost–benefit analyses for most foraging model studies have focused on small sa...

• Asotin Creek in southeast Washington was chosen as a site to develop an Intensively Monitored Watershed Project (IMW). The goal of the IMW is to implement stream restoration actions in an experimental framework to determine the effectiveness of restoration at increasing salmon and steelhead production and to identify casual mechanisms of the fish...

AbstractWe conducted simulations to compare the precision and bias of survival estimates from Cormack?Jolly?Seber (CJS) and Barker models to known parameter values based on empirical data for steelhead/resident Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss from the John Day River, Oregon. We simulated seasonal differences in recapture and survival rates, and w...

Little is known about the variability in the spatial and temporal distribution of spawning potamodromous trout despite decades of research directed at salmonid spawning ecology and the increased awareness that conserving life history diversity should be a focus of management. We monitored a population of fluvial–resident Bonneville Cutthroat Trout...

Winter is commonly seen as a bottleneck for salmonid survival due to unbalanced energetics in cold temperatures, physical disturbance from ice formation or movement, a lack of preferred habitat, or any combination of multiple stressors. Salmonids can avoid some of these stressors by concealing themselves in interstitial spaces in the substrate. Qua...

Research into, and monitoring of, listed spring Chinook and steelhead and their habitat under the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) advanced the science and knowledge of fish and habitat relation-ships over the course of 2012. In one of the few instances in the field of effectiveness monitoring, ISEMP demonstrated that...

This report summarizes the first four years of pre-restoration IMW monitoring and infrastructure development. Restoration began in the summer of 2012 and be implemented in a hierarchical-staircase design (see below) in three tributaries to Asotin Creek over three consecutive years. Monitoring of the restoration effectiveness will continue until 201...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Asotin Creek in southeast Washington was chosen as a site to develop an Intensively Monitored Watershed Project (IMW). The purpose of the IMW program is to implement stream restoration actions in an experimental framework to determine the effectiveness of restoration at increasing salmon and steelhead production and to identify ca...

The Integrated Status and Effectiveness Project (ISEMP) was created nearly 10 years ago to systematically answer questions such as “what is the best way to measure stream habitat?” and “what is the best way to measure salmonid populations?”. These questions are related to the management that underpins the proposed tributary habitat-based, off -site...

Changes to fish habitat are driven by geomorphic processes occurring at the catchment, landscape (immutable and human induced characteristics), geomorphic reach, and geomorphic unit (pools, riffles, and bars) scales. The geomorphic processes shaping fish habitat need to be strongly considered in order to determine the effects of management practice...

Fish select habitat based on the suitability of the habitat to provide areas to forage, rest, provide thermal refugia, breed, and avoid predators. Streams with a high degree of habitat complexity can potentially provide a greater range of habitats and thus decrease fish movement throughout a stream. Conversely, poor habitat quality might make movem...

The effectiveness of past anadromous stream habitat restoration actions has been hard to determine because few restoration projects were implemented in an experimental fashion, or were not large enough to produce a detectable effect size. Recently, a series of Intensively Monitored Watersheds (IMWs) have been established with the explicit intent to...

Fish production is often used as quantitative measure of population performance and is key goal of steelhead and salmon recovery. Three key metrics of freshwater production are abundance, growth, and survival. By using individually marked fish more precise estimates of these metrics are now possible. A multitude of abiotic and biotic factors can in...

A number of researchers have attempted to predict profitable foraging positions for drift-feeding fishes by combining process-based foraging models with spatially explicit hydraulic models. The foraging model component allows for estimates of energy intake while energy expenditure is estimated using the depth and velocity information provided by th...

As part of the recovery planning for steelhead and salmon, Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) designs are being implemented throughout the Pacific Northwest. A primary goal of IMW projects is to determine the effectiveness of specific restoration actions on increasing salmonid production. The Asotin Creek Watershed in southeast Washington was se...

To comply with legal mandates, meet local management objectives, or both, many federal, state, and tribal organizations have monitoring groups that assess stream habitat at different scales. This myriad of groups has difficulty sharing data and scaling up stream habitat assessments to regional or national levels because of differences in their goal...

Hybridization and introgression between introduced and native salmonids threaten the continued persistence of many inland cutthroat trout species. Environmental models have been developed to predict the spread of introgression, but few studies have assessed the role of propagule pressure. We used an extensive set of fish Stocking records and geogra...

Introgressive hybridization (introgression) between native westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi and introduced rainbow trout O. mykiss in the upper Kootenay River, British Columbia, appears to be recent and is partly attributed to rainbow trout stocking in Koocanusa Reservoir starting in 1988. In 1998, rainbow trout stocking was st...

The distribution and genetic integrity of all inland cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki ssp.) have been negatively affected by the introduction of non-native salmonid species throughout their range. Westslope cutthroat trout (WCT, O. c. lewisi) have the largest historic distribution of all the inland cutthroat trout. In the USA the range of WCT h...

Species Information Taxonomy The Westslope Cutthroat Trout is one of 14 sub-species of interior Cutthroat Trout, Oncorhynchus clarki, native to western North America (Behnke 1992). Westslope Cutthroat Trout were first described by the Lewis and Clark expedition in the Missouri River, near the present-day city of Great Falls, Montana in 1805 (Behnke...

Surveys for the interior subspecies of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis atricapillus) were conducted for the second consecutive year during 2001, mainly in Block 4, Canadian Forest Products Ltd. TFL 48, Chetwynd, BC. The objective of the study was to collect data on the relative abundance and distribution of goshawks in Block 4 and to test and...

The primary objective of this paper is to summarize the distribution and habitat use of red and blue listed neotropical migrant songbirds (hereafter referred to as ‘listed’ species) in the Fort Nelson Forest District (FNFD) in northeastern British Columbia (BC). Data was summarized from two main sources: anecdotal data and studies conducted prior t...

The Wildlife Tree Committee of British Columbia defines wildlife trees as "standing dead or live trees with special characteristics that provide valuable habitat for the conservation or enhancement of wildlife". British Columbia has at least 90 species of vertebrates which depend in some way on dead or deteriorating trees. However, forest harvestin...