Watershed Assessment and Restoration
The hands-on field experience provided at each placement site varies by region and season. However, the following are a sampling of the field duties members may have the opportunity to engage in, what the duties entail, and a brief description of why these are critical to understanding watershed processes:
• Downstream Migrant Trapping – Juvenile salmon and trout are trapped, counted, measured, and sometimes tagged with pit tags or temporarily marked, then released back into the creek or river. This helps determine how many juvenile salmon are surviving long enough to make their way downriver to the ocean, and helps determine where and when to focus restoration efforts. These typically occur in spring and summer.
• Spawner/ Carcass/ Redd Surveys – Survey crews hike smaller tributaries or boat larger sections of rivers looking for salmon or trout (collectively known as salmonids) carcasses, redds (nests of salmonid eggs partially covered by cobble/ large gravel), and spawning adult fish. This shows where good spawning habitat exists, how many fish can be projected to survive, and how much of the watershed is accessible/ usable for fish. These occur in the fall and winter, depending upon the geographical location of the site.
• Snorkel Surveys (“Dives”) – Dive teams snorkel rivers and creeks to see first-hand where adult and juvenile fish are, assess whether they are using natural or man-made habitat structures, and understand population distribution. These can occur year-round, although there are dives throughout the summer months which utilize volunteers to snorkel the entire length of many local rivers.
• Habitat Typing, Riparian and Habitat Surveys – Some members spend a large amount of time throughout the summer and early fall surveying streams and rivers to determine the habitat available for juvenile salmonids. These surveys consist of two members walking the entire length of a stream system quantitatively assessing physical aspects of the channel, such as temperature, width, length, depth, substrate, gradient, canopy, etc. This data is then translated into a report utilized by biologists and habitat specialists to identify areas in need of watershed restoration.
• Restoration Implementation – Teams of trained restorationists build habitat structures, implement bioengineering projects, and improve habitat and fish access. This work occurs year-round in different ways, although it is sometimes unsafe in rainy or otherwise inclement weather.
• Other Restoration – Tree planting, planting native plants, removing invasive plant species, fire safeing and fuels reduction, collecting native plant seed, and other upslope restoration work is a major focus of some sites, and a component of all of them. These projects overlap, and occur year-round.
• Road Decommissioning, Culvert and Road Failure Analysis – Some members get the opportunity to analyze the source of excessive instream sediment, and participate in mapping and monitoring road and culvert failures. Surveys and GPS mapping are critical to this work.
• Macroinvertebrate Sampling – Sampling for aquatic macroinvertebrates helps to understand stream health, as many macroinvertebrates are indicator species of overall water quality as well as food for juvenile salmonids. This sampling sometimes occurs in conjunction with sediment and water quality analysis.
• Water Quality Monitoring and Hydrological Studies – Some of our sites have an excellent infrastructure for water quality and hydrology monitoring, including field sampling and laboratory analysis. Members are engaged in steady data collection at these sites, as well as helping analyze, report and draw conclusions on the data collected over an extended period of time. This occurs year-round, but often collection is important during high and low flow periods to determine the effect of water quantity and sediment movement on water quality.
Lab, Office and Site Support
WSP members have the opportunity to be involved in nearly every aspect of watershed management, monitoring and restoration. During certain times of year, the work moves indoors predominantly and members are engaged in report writing, data analysis, document preparation and technical writing, project design and development, GIS analysis, website design, fish scale reading, sediment studies, and other lab and office projects depending on the site’s focus.
