A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board

A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board Salmon Recovery from Summit to Sea -- Lessons from Puget Sound A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board Usha Varanasi, Ph.D. Science Director Philip Roni, Ph.D. Research Fishery Biologist Northwest Fisheries Science Center NOAA Fisheries Service August 2005

Outline • Purpose • Issue • Presentation of Briefing • Desired Outcomes

Purpose • Present an informational briefing on science and management for recovery of west coast salmon populations • Discuss successes and opportunities for next steps in Puget Sound

Issue • Difficulty translating ESA requirements into practical recovery goals for use by state, tribal and local entities • Creating science and policy frameworks and products to support effective stakeholder decision-making • Adopting sound recovery strategies through stakeholder-driven processes

Presentation • Brief history of salmon recovery on the West Coast • Science-policy interactions in designing recovery strategies • Major advances in the science of salmon recovery • Emerging issues

Presentation • Brief history of salmon recovery in the region • Science-policy interactions in designing recovery strategies • Major advances in the science of salmon recovery • Emerging issues

Status of Pacific Salmon • Considerable extinction of ESUs has occurred throughout range • ESUs are the ESA-listing unit. They are: • Groups of populations • Distinct genetically and ecologically (From Gustafson and Waples, in prep)

Status of Salmon Recovery • 58 identified ESUs, 26 listed under Endangered Species Act • 6 geographically oriented recovery teams convened to identify delisting criteria

Technical Recovery Teams Broad Scientific Tasks: What are population boundaries? What are recovery goals (viability targets for populations and ESUs)? What actions are consistent with achieving goals?

Puget Sound Technical Recovery Team

Puget Sound ESU • Independent populations of Puget Sound Chinook with geographic regions

Status – Puget Sound • Watershed plans completed by local recovery planning groups and submitted to NOAA Fisheries. • Watershed groups worked through regional coordinating group (Shared Strategy) • NOAA Fisheries will turn the plans into the recovery plan for the Puget Sound ESU. • Coordinating group is designing governance structure for plan implementation.

Science-policy interface between TRT and Shared Strategy

Developing conservation strategies and scenarios within watersheds Shared Strategy Policy Development Committee Technical Committee Forum Conservation strategy(s) Socioeconomic analysis Goals Develop conservation scenarios Evaluate conservation scenarios using biological criteria Selection of conservation scenario for inclusion in plan

Major advances in the science of salmon recovery SUMMARY: • Defining common attributes of Viable Salmonid Populations (VSP) and ESUs • Including a large-scale, ecosystem perspective to identify recovery needs • Estimating the integrative effects of hatchery, harvest, hydropower and habitat management on salmon • Scenario planning for restoration strategies under uncertain future conditions

Viable Salmonid Populations Population and ESU viability include 4 components: 1) abundance 2) productivity 3) diversity 4) spatial structure (McElhany et al. 2000)

Harvest Habitat Hatchery Hydro

Conceptual foundation for designing & evaluating salmon recovery strategies Landscape processes • Life-cycle model is at the core • Changes to the “H’s” alter habitats, ecological interactions, and population dynamics Land use Habitat effects Hatchery effects Harvest effects Life-cycle model Hydropower effects

Monitoring • Management actions as experiments to assess effectiveness • Need to evaluate restoration approaches • Provide technical guidance and assistance to “recovery practitioners”

S S: Supplementation R: Reintroduction C: Control R S S C C R S C S C S C Hood Canal Chum Supplementation Program

Landscape processes Land use Habitat conditions Biological response Watershed processes & human impacts: understanding causes of habitat threats • Focus on landscape processes and land use impacts affecting streams

Restoration Effectiveness Assessments Monitoring & Evaluation Prioritization

Key Restoration Questions Reach Scale • What is effect of project x on local conditions? • What is effect of projects like x on local conditions? Watershed Scale • What is effect of project x on conditions in watershed or basin? • What is effect of a suite of projects on conditions in a watershed or basin?

Habitat restoration actions • Physical habitat (LWD, boulder structures, ELJs) • Reconnection/creation of floodplain habitats • Dam removal • Levee removal

Watershed Scale Restoration - Elwha River

Watershed Scale Evaluation

1.5 Daily rainfall in the Longfellow watershed (inches) 1.0 0.5 Longfellow Creek, Fall 2002 0 10 Flow in Longfellow Creek (cfs) 11/1/02 10/1/02 12/1/02 5 0 10 = no sampling (high flows) Dead and symptomatic females (pre-spawn) * * 5 * n = 64 0 10 Dead females (spawned out) 5 n = 8 0 Chemical Habitat Quality Coho Pre-spawn Mortality

Role of Climate and Ecosystems • Impacts of climatic and oceanographic variation on salmonid survival and population status • Determine impacts to food web structure due to introduced species and human activities

How Robust are Recovery Actions to Alternative Future Scenarios (land use and climate)? Climate Model Predicted AtmosphericCO2 Air Temp., Meteorology Hydrology Model Stream flow, Temp. Land Cover & Land Form Maps Salmon Pop. Model (SHIRAZ) Salmon Population Forecast

Emerging Issues: Developing an Ecosystem-based Recovery Strategy for Puget Sound

Desired Outcomes • SAB endorsement of the approach to recovery planning used in Puget Sound • SAB support for developing an ecosystem approach to management in Puget Sound • SAB ideas on opportunities for ecosystem-based science in Puget Sound

A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board