Spawning and Rearing

Habitat Restoration (g 

CVPIA 3406 b(13)John Hannon, Lead, Reclamation

Julie Zimmerman, Co‐Lead, Fish and Wildlife Se
Overview of Sp g awnin and Re

Habitat Restoration Program 

• Restore and replenish spawning gravel and r

habitat habitat lost from the construction construction and opera

opera

CVP dams

• Gravel augmentation is an ongoing activity

• Other CVPIA provisions provisions and agencies agencies place g

both CVP and non‐CVP streams

B13 actions actions are limited limited to three CVP streams streams

Sacramento, American, and Stanislaus Rive
Why Gravel?

• Provides

– Spawning habitat habitat for salmonids salmonids– Rearing habitat for salmonids– Habitat for aquatic insects

• Food for salmonids and other

species
Gravel Blocked by Dams

1949

2002

Nimbus Dam Hatchery Nim
Upper Sacramento River B13 S

*B13 acti

these CVP 

American River

Stanis
2011 Gravel Additions

• Sacramento Sacramento River – 5 000 , tons of g

added at Keswick Dam

• American American River – 20 770 , tons of grav

upper Sunrise

• Stanislaus Stanislaus River – 5 000 , tons of grav

added in Goodwin Canyon

$900,000 spent in 2011

$1,000,000 planned for 2012
Sacramento River – recent spaw

gravel injection sites
Sacramento River

Keswi kc Dam Gravel Inj i ect on

• 5 000 , tons in 2011

• 10,000 tons in 2012 + scoping and NEPA 

new project sites
Winter Chinook Spawning Spawning Distrib

Distrib

Reach

Miles below Dam

2001 - 2011 distribution

yeaave

Keswick to A.C.I.D. Dam. 3 2,678 A.C.I.D. Dam to Highway 44 Bridge 5.5 2,081 Highway 44 Br. to Airport Rd. Br. 19 1,526 Airport Rd Br to Balls Ferry Br Airport Rd. Br. to Balls Ferry Br. 27 75 Balls Ferry Br. to Battle Creek. 32 10 Battle Creek to Jellys Ferry Br. 36 6 Jellys Ferry Br. to Bend Bridge 45 10 Bend Bridge to Red Bluff Diversion Dam 60 0 

Red Bluff Diversion Dam to Tehama Br. 74 11 Tehama Br. To Woodson Bridge 85 0 

Woodson Bridge to Hamilton City Br Woodson Bridge to Hamilton City Br. 0 Hamilton City Bridge to Ord Ferry Br. 0 Ord Ferry Br. To Princeton Ferry. 0 Total 6,397 
Adaptive Management Management – Sac 

• Early gravel placements placements distributed distributed grav

through downstream areas

• Monitoring showed spawning spawning concentr

concentr

near dam, particularly for endangered w

Chinook which rely on the cool water n

dam

• Recent projects focused placement nea

dam where fish are present and gravel

recruitment has been most curtailed
Stanis

River ‐ 

• 5,000 ton

placed in 

Canyon

• ~70% tran

downstre

high flows
Stanislaus River – Goodwin Ca
Stanislaus R

•Two Mile 

Side ChFloodpGravelMulti

‐y

RPA ac
Stanislaus River 2012

Float Tube Pool

Augment 2004 placement

Upstream most spawning spawning areaUsing habitat builder (sluice)

3,000 tons planned
Adaptive Management ‐ Stani

• Experimental Experimental gravel mixes showed high

survival in smaller sized gravel

• Modified Modified gravel mix to include include a higher

proportion of smaller sized material

• I d ncreased emph i as s on rearing h bi a tat 

on monitoring showing rearing habitat

li i i m tat ons
American River

b13 and AFRP cooperative projects
Upper Sunrise Gravel Placement Design
Upper Sunrise Gravel Placem

Placem
Upper Sunrise Side Channel Gravel Placement Design
Upper Sunrise Sunrise Side Channel Channel 

Gravel Placement at 

Sorting Dredger Tailings for Placement into American RiverWoody Material Placement at Upper Sunrise Side CUpper Sunrise Restoration in Progre
Upper Sunrise Sunrise Side Channel Channel Completed Completed
Upper Sunrise Gravel Placement Completed
2011 Chinook Salmon Redds – Sailor Bar
2011 Chinook Redds – Upper Su
Steelhead 2011 Redds
American River monitoring monitoring ‐ 2

• 4% egg retention, retention, exceeding exceeding goal of <10• Riverwide 51% of steelhead and 47% of

Chinook spawned spawned on gravel projects projects

• Floodplain inundation increased by 4.6 • Hyporheic water quality• Gravel movement and bed changes• J il uven e sal id mon h bit t habitat use

• Macroinvertebrate production
Mandates:

Laws, Policies,

f

PrOACT Steps

Problem

pre erences

Trigger

Objectives

Decide & 

Take Action

Tradeoffs &

SDM Analysis

Toolkit

Alternatives

Tradeoffs &

Optimization

Modeling

Toolkit

Values:

Preference scales,

objective weights

& risk attitudes

Consequences

Data

Slide credit: M. R
Decision problem

• Instream habitats degraded due to CVP

– gravel recruit t men and avail bilit a y

– stream incision and loss of spawning and rearing 

• Efficiently use management resources to max

quality quality and amount of channel channel and floodplai

floodplai

for spawning and rearing by anadromous salm

• Objective: Maximize natural production of

anadromous fishes while minimizing minimizing manage

manage

costs
Decision model

• Estimate marginal gain (Chinook outmigrants

• Tradeoffs among alternative actions and mon

• Mdl o e components:

– Future habitat availability

• Sp g awnin• in‐channel rearing• seasonally‐inundated rearing• Streamflow Streamflow during spawning spawning and rearing rearing

– Fry emergence (future habitat, plus...)

• spawning potential

• Escapement

– Potential juveniles (future habitat, fry, plus...)

• Rearing potential

– Chinook outmigrants (fry, juveniles, plus...)

• System dynamics –spawning vs. rearing habita
Where do we need more informa

informa

• Parameterize model with actual data• Create individual model components and rec• Sensitivity analysis – create response profiles 

determine determine factors factors that have the greatest greatest effe

utility

• Focus monitoring where additional informati

cause a change in a decision
Adaptive Management – Amer

River

• Early gravel placements focused on margin hab

(along the banks)

• Monitoring Monitoring showed higher flows required required for f

utilize the placed gravel and to mobilize gravel

• Now use channel spanning placements in upriv

where fi hs d iti ens es result in competition for s

sites

• Egg retention is high when competition for sp 

a

sites is high so trying to ease competition by p

additional spawning and rearing areas

• Overall Overall increased increased emphasis emphasis on rearing rearing habitat habitat
Partners Make the Projects Projects Po

Po

 Water Forum City of Sacramento

 Oakdale Irrigation Dist

 City of Sacramento  South San Joaquin Irri Sacramento County Parks California State Parks

South San Joaquin Irri

District

 Water Board

C Fi h S i

Questions?

 California Department of

Fish and Game

 California Department of

 Cramer Fish Sciences CBEC Eco Engineering

California Department of  Fishery Foundation

Water Resources

 Army Corps of Engineers

Ni l P k S i

Fishery Foundation

 National Marine Fishe Fish and Wildlife Servi

 National Park Service Sacramento State

 Bureau of Reclamation

Questions?