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EPA Tools for Fish, Habitat and Stream/River Restoration
Citation:
Ebersole, J. AND B. Rashleigh. EPA Tools for Fish, Habitat and Stream/River Restoration. Meeting of the Columbia River Tributary Habitat Steering Committee and Technical Team, Portland, OR, December 18 - 19, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
A multitude of federal, state and tribal entities, along with public utilities, industries, and non-governmental organizations, are involved in restoring habitat for Endangered Species Act listed salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River basins. Hundreds of millions of US dollars are spent annually on restoration actions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Fisheries branch provides tools and guidance to restoration funders and practitioners to help prioritize restoration actions. To that end, NOAA has convened technical experts to help guide prioritization strategies. This presentation will provide regional technical experts a high-level overview of water quality and habitat modeling tools and approaches in use or development at EPA.
Description:
Efforts to recover salmon populations in the Columbia River basin is a multi-million dollars per year enterprise, involving a wide array of stakeholders and managers, including Tribes, States, federal agencies, and utilities. Successful and efficient restoration of fish habitats and populations requires making well-informed decisions about when and where to implement various conservation practices. In the Columbia River Basin, funding and actions are being informed by approaches and tools to aid in prioritization of restoration efforts. In this presentation, we will provide a brief overview of datasets and tools under development and use at the US Environmental Protection Agency that could help inform salmon habitat restoration efforts. Examples include spatial datasets such as StreamCat and LakeCat, as well as water quality modeling tools like VELMA, HAWQS and WASP. Water quality tools and models can help supplement decision-making based on physical habitat needs and identify areas where salmon recovery may be constrained by water quality limitations. Tools are also available for informing watershed and water management best practices. Water quality and habitat assessments will also be best informed if future changes due to climate-change related risks can be taken into account, and we will describe one such approach under development.