Conservation & Management

Elkhorn Slough CTP | 2023-05-09

“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don’t need a diploma to plant a tree.”

Wangari Maathai | Unbowed (2008)

Conservation Strategies

Removal of dams / Flow Management in RABO habitat
Augmentation / Translocation
Watershed protection
Stream Habitat and Nonnative Species Management
Watershed Scale Management
Population and Habitat Monitoring
Improve gene flow & connectivity

After dam removal
sediment grain
size was much
smaller

Pacific Lamprey to the rescue!

Excavation and Bioturbation

Breeding shifted upstream…but

also observed 81 clutches in lamprey redds

Eggmasses in redds benefit from:

⬇︎ depth without exposure to ⬆︎ velocity
⬇ mortality due to stranding

“Animals don’t go extinct because someone shoots the last one, or a bulldozer scrapes away the last habitat. They go extinct because the web of relationships that sustain them unravels…”

Jim Lichatowitch | (2013)

Dam Removal

Population increased when dam was no longer operated.
Deconstruction did not have a long-lasting impact.

Augment threatened populations

Cresta Reach of NF Feather
PG&E license boating releases
Surveyed by Garcia and Associates (2002-2021)
Historically, > 30 egg masses / yr
Only 4 in 2016, 2 in 2017
Management changed, population not recovering
Introduced predators (bass, crayfish)

Head starting of tadpoles

pilot project 2017, expanded 2018-2020
rescue eggs from stranding & restore gene flow by sourcing eggs from a different reach
w/o intervention, 1 - 4% survival to metamorphosis

With baskets 13.6% of cohort released as metamorphs
large size because food supplementation, warm temp

Zoo-Rearing

Salvaged egg masses that might strand
Raised to juvenile and adult stages in tanks and recirculating troughs
Unintended breeding in tanks

Incidental Take Permit (ITP)

FGC 2081(b) requires that the impact of the authorized taking shall be minimized and fully mitigated.

Analysis includes scope of take
- Low (few individuals -short time period)
- High (many individuals-extended time period

Habitat Assessment

Consider

Quality of habitat impacted
Density of RABO population
Value of impacted habitat to species (dispersal, lek site)
Distance to other suitable habitat

Habitat
Assessment
Temporally

Temporal Loss Assessment

Permanent vs. Temporary
Duration of impacts
Duration of restoration

Compensatory Mitigation

Full Mitigation

Management actions to control predators, competitors or pathogens
Permanent conservation of essential habitat
Habitat restoration
Off-site creation/restoration/enhancement
and/or off-site acquisition and protection

Mechanisms

Acquisition and protection of currently unprotected functional habitat (e.g., conservation of essential habitat areas)
Restoration or enhancement of areas with degraded ecosystem function
Creation of functional habitat

Conservation Goals

Maintain the number and the range of impacted species by:

creating new functional habitat, enhancing or restoring existing functional habitat, or increase function (e.g., carrying capacity) and reduce/control adverse conditions (e.g., exotic species, etc.)
Conserve larger, contiguous habitat areas
Conserve and restore habitat connectivity corridors (i.e., decreased habitat fragmentation) and maximize species distribution across its range
Conserve and maintain associated ecological systems (i.e., including physical factors such as topography, soil, and hydrology as well as biological factors such as forage/prey, lek sites)
Conserve population structures and genetics
Conserve unique habitat features
Consistency with recovery plan goals that contribute to de-listing criteria