# Presentation: 669266

## 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

**Salmon Recovery from Summit to Sea -- Lessons from Puget Sound**

- A Presentation to the NOAA Science Advisory Board

## 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

- (From Gustafson and Waples, in prep)

- Considerable extinction of ESUs has occurred throughout range
**ESUs **are the ESA-listing unit.  They are:
- Groups of populations
- Distinct genetically and ecologically

## 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?

## 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

## Slide 11

**Notes:**
What is unique in salmon recovery planning is the relationship between the technical and policy teams.

## Puget Sound

**Puget Sound**
**Technical Recovery**
**Team**

**Notes:**
TRT made up of representatives from stakeholders and co-managers of salmon resources, including tribes, local, state, and federal government. 

## 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

| Science product | Policy product
(Shared Strategy) |
| --- | --- |
| Identify population boundaries | Watershed planning groups know specific populations on which to focus efforts |
| Population and ESU viability criteria | Population and ESU recovery goals |
| Guidance document for developing watershed recovery plans; technical liaison consulting | Draft watershed recovery plans |
| Population and landscape modeling of restoration alternatives | Estimates of results for salmon from recovery plans |
| Technical reviews of certainty of plan outcomes | Final watershed and regional recovery plans |

## Developing conservation strategies and scenarios within watersheds

**Technical Committee**

**Shared Strategy**
**Policy Development Committee**

**Forum**

- Conservation
-  strategy(s)

- Develop
- conservation
- scenarios

- Evaluate conservation
- scenarios using
- biological criteria

- Socioeconomic
- analysis

- Goals

- Selection of conservation
-  scenario for inclusion
- in plan

## 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

## 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)

**Notes:**
Population and ESU viability includes  4 components:

1) abundance
2) productivity 
3) diversity
4) spatial structure

Esu (strata) and pop scale

## Harvest

**Harvest**

**Habitat**

**Hatchery**

**Hydro**

## Conceptual foundation for designing & evaluating salmon recovery strategies

- Life-cycle model is at the core
- Changes to the “H’s” alter habitats, ecological interactions, and population dynamics

**Life-cycle model**

**Hatchery effects**

**Habitat effects**

**Harvest effects**

**Land use**

**Landscape **
**processes**

**Hydropower**
**effects**

## Monitoring

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

## Hood Canal Chum Supplementation Program

**S**

**C**

**S: Supplementation**
**R: Reintroduction**
**C: Control**

**S**

**S**

**S**

**R**

**R**

**S**

**S**

**C**

**C**

**C**

**C**

## Watershed processes & human impacts: understanding causes of habitat threats

- Focus on landscape processes and land use impacts affecting streams

## Restoration Effectiveness

**Assessments**

**Prioritization**

**Monitoring & Evaluation**

## 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?_ _

**Notes:**
Distill down to 4 main questions

Two scales

Large questions more difficult to answer, but more important

## 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

## 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**

## 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

## Climate Model

- Hydrology Model

**Air Temp., Meteorology**

- Salmon Pop. Model
- (SHIRAZ)

**Stream flow, Temp.**

**Salmon Population Forecast**

**Land Cover & Land Form ****Maps**

**Predicted**
**Atmospheric****CO****2**

**How Robust are Recovery Actions to Alternative Future Scenarios ****(land use and climate)?**

## 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