Assessment

* A Past View of Resources in the Lahontan Region

*Deer Creek Watershed Conservancy

* Watershed Risk Assessment

* Mercury Contamination

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING WATERSHEDS AND AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY

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Goals

Strategies for improving watersheds and aquatic biodiversity have two goals:

1. Improve the biotic integrity and sustainability of aquatic habitats and ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada. This goal implies that protection, management, and restoration of watersheds is needed to maintain natural hydrologic and ecological processes.

2. Secure long-term social and economic benefits of a dependable supply of clean water from naturally functioning watersheds.

Possible Solutions

Conditions that lead to deterioration of aquatic and riparian ecosystems vary among different watersheds in the Sierra Nevada, but all river basins have been altered to some degree. Therefore, an optimal strategy for preventing further degradation includes all watersheds of the range but recognizes their differences. Such a strategy involves a mixture of approaches from protecting the best of what is left to restoring highly degraded systems. In addition to implementing long-term local and regional strategies, there is a need to prevent loss of species and habitats in the short term. There are also opportunities to reestablish chinook salmon and other native species of fish and amphibians in areas where they have been lost because of water development or introduction of exotics. Restoration of the functions of aquatic and riparian habitat where they are identified as impaired will support the recovery of imperiled species.

Watershed Focus

Problems and opportunities for solutions come from analysis on a watershed-by-watershed basis unless there are easier or more effective ways of doing so. A watershed approach allows connections to be made between upstream actions and downstream consequences and benefits. Evaluation of the health of individual streams and their watersheds could identify particular problems and their causes. Reduction of the adverse impacts of land disturbance (e.g., erosion, stream-bank instability, loss of riparian habitat, loss of large woody debris and its recruitment) requires cooperation among citizens groups, regulatory agencies, private landowners, and public land managers within a watershed. The Central Valley and Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Boards may occupy the logical position to provide oversight and coordination of local watershed efforts. Alternatively, creation of regional boards with an ecosystem management focus might be considered to address problems that are connected across watersheds, such as restoration of native frog populations.

Restoration of Stream-Flow Pattern

In watersheds where water management activities degrade water quality and aquatic biodiversity, improvement may be possible by altering some aspects of reservoir or diversion operations. In general, restoring some semblance of a natural stream discharge regime (such as increasing minimum flows or peak flows) is beneficial to aquatic health. Voluntary adjustments in operations, greater use of conjunctive water-use practices, changes in timing and volume of releases from reservoirs during relicensing, and more stringent enforcement of the Fish and Game Code provide mechanisms for improving stream flows.

Reserve Systems and Management Practices

In watersheds where the principal problems are caused by land disturbance, there is a wide spectrum of possibilities, with different mixes being appropriate in different river basins. A reserve strategy of protected watersheds might be necessary to sustain and improve the few remaining areas of relatively natural flows or high biological integrity (e.g., Deer and Mill Creeks, Tehama County; Clavey River; North Fork Calaveras River; Middle and South Forks Kings River; North and South Forks Kern River). A system of protected areas could be maintained with variable mixes of public and private controls appropriate to each watershed, including economic incentives to landowners for protection of unique or unusual areas. In addition, it is critically important to apply locally adapted best management practices to all lands to minimize soil loss and impacts on aquatic systems.

Institutional Innovations

New policies and institutional mechanisms must be designed to recognize the ecological importance of riparian areas, minimize further disturbance and fragmentation, and provide incentives and funding for restoration activities. On public lands, a well-supported and financed effort is needed to relocate roads, campgrounds, and other incompatible uses out of riparian areas.
Improved riparian and in-stream protection can be achieved by designing variable-width buffers that recognize the dependent terrestrial community habitat requirements, energy and food supplies, and management-influence areas adjacent to aquatic systems. Existing data combined with GIS technology allows layout of such buffers as a first step until more refined information is obtained on-site. Continued efforts to rewater dry and near-dry channels below diversions could proceed through enforcement of existing laws and changes in in-stream flow requirements during relicensing of hydroelectric projects. Changes in road location and grazing management practices are needed to avoid further damage to mountain meadows and spring systems. Existing regulatory approaches to wetlands conservation require better coordination among agencies, local governments, and citizens groups.