"After ten years of mismanagement, there were no fish. That made me sit up and take notice. I realized I couldn't use the land at the level it had been used or it was going to get worse."
Phil St. Clair
Rancher, Eastern Oregon
Good Science: Steps for Watershed Restoration
It's important to use good science to choose a restoration project. Ecology-the study of the relationships of living things and their environment-and hydrology-the study of the relationships of water and its environment-are key sciences for watershed restoration. An understanding of some of the relationships among water, land, plants, and animals in the watershed will help you figure out how to use your limited resources wisely. A watershed assessment is a systematic way to collect this information.
This section offers
guidelines based on physical and biological science for watershed assessment, protection, and restoration.
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"After ten years of mismanagement, there were no fish. That made me sit up and take notice. I realized I couldn't use the land at the level it had been used or it was going to get worse."
Phil St. Clair Rancher, Eastern Oregon |
Starting in the year 2000, restoration projects proposed for funding by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) through the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA) are required to have a watershed assessment. BPA guidelines state that the assessment should include evidence of an understanding of ecological relationships among watershed processes, functions, and biota. It should describe the status of key elements of the watershed, such as target species, habitat refuges, key habitats, key restoration opportunities, and risks to ecological function and connectivity.
It is important to synthesize information on upland land use, stream channel physical habitat, water quality and quantity, aquatic species, riparian vegetation, and erosion. The cumulative effects of land use may be caused by interrelationships that are not immediately apparent from studying one or more of these elements in isolation.
How big is the watershed? The first question is where to draw the line for a watershed assessment. If the study area is too big, the data can only broadly describe it. If the study area is too small, the data do not represent the larger-scale ecosystem processes at work. For an overview that will help focus priorities for restoration projects, choose watershed boundaries that represent a meaningful, functional unit for your purposes. At the least, your watershed includes all the land drained by tributaries upstream of your project. You may need to define a larger area, depending on what questions you hope to answer. |
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A watershed. 13 |
A great deal of watershed information has been collected by various organizations, public agencies, or landowners for various purposes. Such data take a long time to collect and are often available to the public-so it makes sense to find out what is available before collecting your own. Check with StreamNet to get started (see Resources section for contact names and telephone numbers). StreamNet, a cooperative venture of the Columbia Basin's fish and wildlife agencies and tribes, is a storehouse of data related to fish and wildlife protection and restoration in the Columbia Basin. StreamNet may have the data you are looking for, or be able to direct you to other resources.
Many organizations interested in watersheds have developed assessment methods. These vary in purpose, applicability, and limitations. For example, the Federal Guide to Watershed Analysis is easy to use but is geared toward steep, forested terrain. The Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board Watershed Assessment Manual for Oregon makes good use of existing data sources but is specific to the State of Oregon. The Washington Forest Practices Board Manual focuses on forested land and does not provide a means for identifying restoration targets.
(REO,1995; GWEB 1997; Washington Forest Practices Board, 1997)PhotoCredits.html - Rainwater
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The numbers of native species in the Columbia Basin that are in decline, have disappeared from a certain range, or are extinct testify that something is wrong. A scientific survey of interior Columbia Basin ecosystems found, for example, that steelhead "are extinct in approximately 54 percent of their historical range," and have healthy populations in only 1.3 percent of their current range. (Quigley et al., 1997) Chinook salmon have healthy populations in less than 1 percent of their current range. Twenty-four resident fish species are also threatened with extinction; they do not have to bypass dams and yet they are still in trouble. |
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Rainwater Ranch, recently purchased by the Umatilla Tribes, will be managed for fish and wildlife habitat. 14 |
Habitat for many native species is found in scattered pockets of land that for one reason or another have not been developed. Because these places are few and valuable, the goal is to protect them permanently by land purchase or conservation easement. Water can be protected by securing legal water rights for instream flow.
One way to protect land is to buy it and set it aside for fish and wildlife habitat. There are various ways to hold land in trust, ranging from government programs to private organizations. Two private land trusts that operate on a national level are the Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy. These organizations often serve as intermediaries, buying a piece of land when it comes on the market and eventually transferring it to a public agency. The Nature Conservancy may manage the land as range or farm, while working to enhance its biodiversity.
The Bonneville Power Administration has set aside funds to "mitigate" fish and wildlife habitat lost as a result of building the Columbia River dams. With BPA mitigation funds, the Columbia River treaty tribes have purchased several parcels within the lands ceded in the Treaties of 1855 to manage exclusively as fish and wildlife habitat.
Land purchase is an important part of the tribes' long-term plan for salmon recovery. Recently, for example, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation completed negotiations for the Rainwater Ranch, which contains 8,441 acres in the headwaters of the South Fork of the Touchet River, a tributary to the Walla Walla River. The headwaters are prime spawning and nursery habitat for young salmonids. Spring chinook were extirpated from the Walla Walla Basin at the turn of the century, but the South Fork still supports bull trout and a threatened run of summer steelhead.
The Umatilla Tribes will manage this parcel for the benefit of anadromous fish and for riparian-dependent and upland terrestrial species of wildlife. In cooperation with local citizens and public agencies, the tribes are developing a management plan incorporating appropriate measures for watershed restoration.
The US Bureau of Reclamation may also purchase land with attached water rights for watershed restoration. In eastern Washington, for example, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau is negotiating with two landowners near the confluence of the Teanaway and Yakima rivers to acquire fee title to one parcel containing a wetland, and to acquire a permanent conservation easement for another parcel containing riparian and floodplain habitat.
A legal restriction on future development is called a "conservation easement." A conservation easement is not an outright purchase.
3 The landowner sells or donates certain rights attached to the property but keeps others. For example, the owner may give up the right to subdivide or clearcut the property, but retain the rights to farm it, reside on it, exclude the public from it, and sell it. A conservation easement may be held by a federal, tribal, or state government entity, or by a private organization such as a land trust.To determine the payment for a conservation easement, the land is appraised. The value of the easement is the value of the foregone development. If the easement is donated, the owner is entitled to a tax deduction equal to the value of the easement. Alternatively, the owner is paid outright for the value of the easement or some proportion of it, depending on the terms of the agreement. While some conservation easements are required to be in perpetuity, others are negotiated for 15- or 30-year terms.
Private land trusts include The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Lands, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and American Farmland Trust. In Oregon, the Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board has funds for conservation easements. For more information about conservation easements, contact a local office of one of the national land trusts (see Resources section).
Two voluntary federal programs offer landowners financial incentives for conservation easements: the Wetlands Reserve Program of the NRCS, and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program administered by the Farm Service Agency.
Wetlands Reserve Program
The Wetlands Reserve Program is a voluntary program to restore and protect wetlands on private property. It offers landowners financial incentives to enhance wetlands and retire marginal agricultural land. Congress authorized the program under the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended by the 1990 and 1996 Farm Bills.
To be eligible for this program, the land must be restorable and suitable for wildlife benefits. These are some of the eligible types of lands (for a complete description, contact NRCS, a state cooperative extension office, or the local soil and water conservation district):
• Riparian areas that link protected wetlands
• Farmed wetland pasture
• Rangeland, pasture, or production forestland where the hydrology has been significantly degraded and can be restored
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
The Conservation Reserve Enhance-ment Program (CREP) is a federal-state partnership that provides cost-sharing and technical assistance to protect riparian zones and plant trees along salmon and trout-bearing streams in Oregon and Washington. Administered through the Farm Service Agency, NRCS, and local soil and water conservation districts, CREP is a 1998 offshoot of the ongoing federal Conservation Reserve Program. Agricultural landowners and producers will receive incentive payments on 10- to 15-year contracts for establishing and maintaining filter strips and riparian buffers, and for wetland restoration. Both cropland and pastureland are eligible. The purpose of the program, which currently obligates $250 million for each state, is to improve water quality and habitat on streams supporting fish listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Many fish-bearing rivers and streams in the Columbia Basin simply don't have any water along certain reaches in late summer. That's why putting water back into the stream-or increasing "instream flow"-can be an essential step in restoring fish habitat. There are several ways to do this. First, if tribal water rights were honored (see discussion on page 16), there would be enough water for the fish. And watershed restoration will, over time, result in better retention of water in the uplands and slower release into the stream, increasing flow during the dry season. In addition, Western states are modifying their traditional water laws to recognize the importance of water in the stream.4 |
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Fish need enough water for spawning, feeding, and migration. 15 |
The Value of Instream Flow
Many people feel that water flowing by without being put to use is wasted. Western water law, which got its start in the gold rush days in California, is based on that philosophy. Human uses of water, such as irrigation, mining, drinking water, or manufacturing, are called "beneficial uses," and legal rights to use water are based on beneficial use. Until recently, leaving water in the stream for fish, wildlife, or recreation was not considered beneficial use.
The Native American tribes traditionally thought differently about water-and still do. Water is considered sacred, healing, life-giving-and water in a river or stream is considered valuable in itself. Tribal governments include instream uses as beneficial uses in defining their own responsibilities. For example, the water program of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation specifies water for fish and wildlife habitat and for ceremonial and subsistence activities as beneficial use.
From a biological and hydrological perspective, water left in the stream does important work.(Gillilan & Brown, 1997)
• It recharges and maintains the volume of groundwater in storage.
• It protects water quality. Sufficient water in the stream helps to control water temperature, prevent excessive growth of algae or bacteria, dilute toxic chemicals, and provide nutrients.
• It maintains the channel and floodplain.
• It provides fish habitat.
• It provides habitat for aquatic insects and other organisms that are, in turn, food for fish, birds, and other wildlife.
• It supports streamside vegetation.
In addition to these biological benefits, of course, water in the stream has direct human uses, such as hydropower, navigation, and recreation.
Western Water Law
Throughout the West, the waters of a state are publicly owned. A state grants permission to use the water-a water right, but the holder of the right does not own the water. The water right stays with the property when the land is sold. A water right specifies a point of diversion, a place of use, a rate of withdrawal, a total volume of water to be used, and a season for the use.(Wilkinson, 1992)
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"The water that runs through Mother Earth's veins is the blood of life to all beings."
Allen Slickpoo, Sr Nez Perce tribal elder |
The original purpose of Western water law was to resolve conflicts among users, not to protect the water in the stream. According to the doctrine of "prior appropriation," the bedrock of Western water law, the first person to take water from a stream for beneficial use has priority over all subsequent users. The priority date determines who gets water when there's not enough to go around. Early rights, called "senior" rights, take precedence over later, "junior" rights. In drier years, many of those with junior rights may get no water at all. |
Once the states' water agencies were set up to grant water rights, the water rights date from the time of the application. But rights claimed by earlier settlers (in Oregon, for example, all rights before 1909) date from the moment of first use and have to be "adjudicated"-established in court by a complex legal proof.
Water rights are "appurtenant" (attached) to the place of use; therefore, they transfer to the new owner when the land is sold. The rights can also be "transferred" without selling the land. If the point of diversion, type of use, or timing of use is changed, that change is also called a transfer.
Water rights are granted in perpetuity; the only way to lose a water right is to quit using the water for a certain number of years, voluntarily give it up, or break the conditions of the permit. In Oregon, for example, the Water Resources Department can place a temporary moratorium on water use if it determines there is a critical shortage in a certain area, but it cannot take back the water right.
Today, Western water is overappropriated. States routinely grant water rights for more water than is actually in the stream. The water is diverted for irrigation or municipal use, run through turbines, or stored in reservoirs. Some of the water is lost through evaporation, leaky pipes or canals, or the draining or filling of natural water storage areas. About 80 percent of the water that is withdrawn from streams or groundwater in the West is used for irrigation. Residential, municipal, and industrial users are beginning to compete for a larger share.
Tribal Water Rights
In their treaties with the Government of the United States, the Columbia River tribes did not give up their rights to water. They explicitly reserved the rights to continue fishing, hunting, and gathering "in all the usual and accustomed places." These reserved fishing and hunting rights have been construed, in several court cases, to include an implied reservation of the water necessary to fulfill them.7 Moreover, because these reserved rights had been exercised since "time immemorial," the priority date of the implicitly reserved water right would also be time immemorial.
Further, the US Supreme Court has ruled that when the federal government created Indian reservations, it implicitly reserved the amount of water necessary to support present and future homelands. This is true whether the reservation was created by treaty or executive order. The priority date of these implied water rights is the date of the reservation.Cohen, 1982;, Pisani, 1996).
Native fish species that should be protected under the tribes' reserved fishing rights include both anadromous fish such as salmon and sturgeon, and resident fish such as trout, whitefish, and sucker. Because these species have different life cycles, their needs vary, too. The natural river system provided a wide range of habitats that supported the native fish. It is difficult, however, to meet the same range of needs in the highly manipulated and dammed river system of today.
Many native plant species that are culturally important to the tribes, for food, medicine, or other purposes, also have water needs, especially if they are adapted to riparian areas or marshes.
How Much Water Do Salmon Need?
The amount of water in the stream needed by fish, particularly salmon, is not a constant; it varies depending on season and stage of life cycle. Adult salmon need enough water to get past rocks, riffles, and other obstacles. They need enough water for spawning. The eggs and tiny fry will not survive without adequate stream flow to wash through the gravel and aerate them. The developing juveniles need enough water for feeding and refuge until they are ready to head downstream. During migration, they need higher flows to hurry them along the hundreds of miles to the sea.9
Salmon respond best to the natural "flow regime," which has peaks from fall rains or spring snowmelt and valleys from summer drought. They take many cues for feeding, migration, and spawning from the timing and quantity of fresh water flows.
Water temperature is another important variable for fish. Temperature generally varies inversely with flow; higher flow means colder water, especially for a stream that is also used for irrigation. Salmon need cold water; they need temperatures between 39° and 49° F for spawning, and between 45° and 58° F for rearing. Water temperatures between 60° and 73° F may not kill the fish directly, but do make them more vulnerable to stress and disease. Sustained temperatures above 73° F can cause death. Both juvenile and adult salmon take refuge in pools and areas of colder groundwater infiltration to survive summer water temperatures.
Calculating exactly how much water fish need is not easy, but it is safe to say that the more closely a river or stream approaches its historical natural flow, and particularly its natural flow regime or cycle, the better it is for the fish. Most Western rivers today have been greatly altered by human activities such as dams, irrigation diversions, development in the floodplain, grazing, logging, and removal of beaver. In general, these changes result in warmer temperatures, higher highs, and lower lows, and they decrease the diversity of habitats and life histories possible for salmon.
Water Conservation
Because nearly all rivers and streams are fully appropriated or overappropriated, water conservation by itself is not an effective way to increase instream flow.10 Without explicit planning to put the water back in the stream, the conserved water is most likely to go to additional irrigation. Although it seems paradoxical, sometimes switching to more efficient irrigation can actually reduce instream flow. In areas of heavy irrigation withdrawals, return flows from cultivated fields may be the only source of water for the stream during dry periods. If a new irrigation system uses considerably less water, the return flows may stop.
In Washington, the water conserved with state assistance goes into a trust and can, theoretically, stay in the stream. In Oregon, under the 1987 Conserved Water program, a minimum of 25 percent of the water conserved with state assistance goes back to the state to hold for instream flow. The state's percentage can vary up to 75 percent, depending on the amount of public funding. The irrigator may retain between 25 and 75 percent for use on the land. In Idaho, conserved water goes back to the state for reallocation, but not for instream use. |
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A healthy watershed releases water slowly. 20 |
The expense of changing systems is often a barrier to water conservation. Many existing small-scale irrigation systems were built by hand two or three generations ago. To replace them now with state-of-the-art, water-saving equipment can be quite expensive. Washington and Oregon have programs, often funded in partnership with one or more tribes, state agencies, or federal hydropower mitigation programs, to help with the costs.
Water Acquisition
For the reasons detailed above, the most effective way to ensure more water in the stream is to lease or purchase existing, senior water rights and transfer them, by the means available in the particular state, to instream use-or to create legal instream rights from conserved water.
Just as instream use is a new concept in Western water law, putting water rights on the market, separate from the land, is also a new idea, one that has met resistance from agricultural interests in most of the Western states. Water marketing, however, creates more flexibility for allocating water among potential uses; it also allows voluntary and financially compensated change.
In most states, water legally acquired for instream flow still cannot belong to private individuals or groups; rather, it must be transferred to the state. Arizona and Alaska have passed laws allowing private holding of instream rights, but the Columbia Basin states have not. In Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, private organizations can hold leases for instream rights and can broker donations and purchases from willing sellers. Once the water right is converted to instream use, it is held by the state in public trust.
Organizations actively working on acquiring water rights for instream flows include the Oregon Water Trust, the Washington Water Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and the Environmental Defense Fund, among others. In this decade, these groups have received donations of more than 213,000 acre-feet of water, and have purchased about 31,000 acre-feet.11
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Higher Flow |
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Lower Flow |
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Salmon are adapted to cold water and a natural flow cycle. 19 |
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Such relatively small water transfers wouldn't have much effect on major rivers, but they can make a big difference in the smaller tributaries where salmonids spawn. For example, the Oregon Water Trust recently purchased senior water rights totalling 1.61 cubic feet per second from four landowners on Squaw Creek, a tributary of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon. Irrigation withdrawals dried up the creek in late summer. Because these are senior rights, permanently converting this water to instream flow will keep several miles of the creek running again.
The water will benefit resident bull trout, redband trout, and other aquatic life. It could also reconnect the creek to the Deschutes River and make it once again prime habitat for steelhead salmon. Steelhead were abundant on Squaw Creek until the late 1950s, when two dams without fish passage were constructed on the Deschutes River. The Warm Springs Tribes have proposed taking ownership of the dams, which are on the Warm Springs Reservation, and restoring fish passage.
Since 1992, the Bureau of Reclamation has become a major player in water marketing for instream flows. Federal legislation allows this agency to both lease and permanently acquire water to
increase flows for salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service 1995 Biological Opinion on the survival of Snake River salmon requires Reclamation to provide 427,000 acre-feet of additional water from Idaho reservoirs. It leases the water yearly from the Idaho Power Company and the state water bank.
Reclamation also works with landowners to increase instream flows in other parts of the Columbia Basin where federal dams provide water for agriculture. For example, Reclamation has leased water rights to put water back into the Teanaway River in late summer, when irrigation withdrawals previously dried it up and prevented fish access (see details below).
Benefits to the Landowner
There are many benefits to the landowner from improving instream flows, starting with the satisfaction of seeing the fish come back. More efficient water delivery systems can increase agricultural productivity without new water rights. Pipe-and-pump systems, once installed, are less work than gravel berms or pushup dams and ditches, which have to be reconstructed or cleaned out annually. Selling or leasing water rights for instream flows can have financial benefits. Conservation easements usually carry tax incentives, and the owner still has the use of the land.
Case Study: Returning Water to the Teanaway River
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The Teanaway River, a tributary of the Yakima River in eastern Washington, was settled by European-Americans over 120 years ago. Irrigation began in this basin in the early 1880s with a series of diversions and associated open earthen ditches and laterals that are still being used. Extensive logging in the headwaters, road building, overgrazing, and development on the floodplain have contributed to degradation of habitat in the watershed. 12 |
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Teanaway River, eastern Washington. 20 |
As natural runoff declines in the Teanaway River during summer and fall, the instream flows drop dramatically. This, coupled with the peak demand for irrigation in mid- to late summer, often dewaters the lower river and prevents fish access or spawning. Even when the lower river does not dry up completely, instream flows in mid- to late summer are often well below the minimum for salmon passage to upstream spawning areas. The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Washington State Department of Ecology have listed the Teanaway River as violating Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act because of lack of instream flows.
Historically, the Teanaway River was a substantial producer of spring chinook, steelhead, and coho. Even now a few spring chinook spawn in the lower river and the North Fork. An occasional steelhead still spawns in the Teanaway as well. Resident bull trout are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Spring chinook and steelhead are proposed for listing. Coho salmon were extirpated from the Yakima River and its tributaries.
The farmers build pushup dams to raise the water level high enough to divert water out of the Teanaway River into their irrigation ditches. These gravel berms can be three to five feet high and sometimes span the width of the river, entirely blocking fish passage. It is estimated that approximately 30 to 50 percent of the diverted water is lost to evaporation and leakage.
The Bureau of Reclamation is working with the Yakama Indian Nation, Bonneville Power Administration, Washington Department of Ecology, local landowners, and others to replace the ditches and berms with piped and pressurized water systems in the Teanaway River. These water conservation systems will allow farmers to irrigate the same acreage, but with approximately half as much water. The water freed as a result of conservation will be left to increase instream flows.
Depending on the type of water conservation system they choose, the landowners can get up to 100 percent funding. The funding comes through the Yakama Indian Nation from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Northwest Power Planning Council as off-site mitigation for the dams on the mainstem Columbia River.
As a temporary measure to increase flows while the conservation projects are being completed, the Bureau of Reclamation is leasing irrigation water rights from farmers in the Teanaway River Basin and transferring them to instream flows. Since the water-leasing program began, the Teanaway no longer dries up. When the projects are done, the farmers will resume irrigating and the water leases will no longer be needed.
The benefits to the landowners, in addition to the funding, are substantial; they will no longer need to clean out the ditches or rebuild the pushup dams. The new system is a more reliable source of water that adds value to the property. And the new system meets Endangered Species Act requirements for avoiding harm to listed species.
The Teanaway River project involves a combination of protection (leasing instream rights) and passive restoration (removing pushup dams). The next section deals with passive restoration in greater detail.
