Missouri River Planning Recognizing and Incorporating Sediment Management (2011) / Chapter Skim
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4 Sediment and Current Ecological Restoration Activities
4 Sediment and Current Ecological Restoration Activities
Pages 67-87
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From page 67... ...
Under the mitigation program, lower Missouri River floodplain lands are purchased from willing sellers and many SWH projects are constructed in these areas. The Gavins Point Dam "spring rise" flow modification component of the Biological Opinion in part is intended to redistribute channel sediments and contribute to SWH and ESH creation and maintenance.
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From page 68... ...
This chapter focuses on the prominent ESH and SWH projects, but it is important to recognize that the ESH and SWH programs are implemented within the larger Missouri River Recovery Program and that they have important ecological and institutional linkages with these other MRRP programs. This chapter addresses Question 7 in this report's statement of task, which asks, "Are current Corps' management strategies, restoration tools (e.g., channel widening, creation of chutes, shallow water habitat, etc.)
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From page 69... ...
, an endangered species and habitat monitoring program, and an annual reporting requirement. Additionally, the charter of Missouri River Recovery and Implementation Committee (MRRIC)
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From page 70... ...
A recent background document for Missouri River recovery discusses the challenges associated with a long-term, viable adaptive management program: Perhaps the primary challenges raised concern long-term commitment to ecosystem monitoring, data analysis, and adherence to a decision frame work that incorporates scientifically based thresholds for change in man agement actions. That is the "iterative phase" of adaptive management and it may take decades.
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From page 71... ...
Decision makers often are reluctant to acknowledge uncertainty in making policy choices and may lack the necessary authority to carry out the complicated administrative steps involved in planning and implementing new and complex management programs. The scientific knowledge bases where adaptive management has been applied have been improved through more monitoring and collaborative 2 Some small-scale forestry projects have shown success at achieving adaptive management objectives (e.g., Marmorek et al., 2006)
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From page 72... ...
Corps of Engineers Adaptive Management Actions and Strategies The 2000/03 Biological Opinion and Development of Adaptive Management guidance One observation in the implementation of adaptive management actions and programs to enhance the habitat of Missouri River endangered species is that there has been a mismatch between, on the one hand, the large amount of resources devoted to ESH and SWH project construction activities along the river and, on the other hand, the relatively modest efforts aimed at development of adaptive management guidance, protocols, performance goals, and stronger science-based monitoring and evaluation to guide and learn from that ongoing project construction. The need to take decisive actions to improve habitat in accord with the Biological Opinion is understandable, and a tenet of adaptive management is that actions often need to be taken in the face of uncertainties.
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From page 73... ...
The following section discusses details of implementation and monitoring efforts associated with those projects. EMERGENT SANDBAR AND SHALLOW WATER HABITAT PROJECTS As was explained in Chapter 2, a longstanding goal of engineering activities along the Missouri River channel downstream of Sioux City, Iowa, has been to stabilize river banks and maintain a channel with adequate depth to support commercial navigation.
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From page 74... ...
Today within the BSNP area, almost all bends of the river have a field of dikes on the inside bank of the bend and revetment along the outside bank of the bend. Constructed chute: In the Missouri River, the term chute refers to almost any secondary channel that is connected to the main channel (at both ends)
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From page 75... ...
. Emergent Sandbar Habitat In response to the 2000/03 Biological Opinion, the Emergent Sandbar Habitat (ESH)
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From page 76... ...
As described in Chapter 2, the preregulation Missouri River channel was characterized during summer by large expanses of shifting, open, unvegetated sandbars or emergent sandbar habitat. This habitat is important for nesting and foraging by the two endangered bird species on the Missouri River today, the interior least tern and the northern Great Plains population of piping plovers.
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From page 77... ...
Shallow water habitat was abundant along channel margin and sandbar shorelines in the historical Missouri River channel, but most was lost with channelization and bank stabilization below Sioux City, Iowa. What remains has been identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service as critical habitat for recovery of pallid sturgeon.
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From page 78... ...
78 MiSSOuRi RivER PlANNiNg FIGURE 4-1 Missouri River Recovery Program Emergent Sandbar Habitat and Shallow Water Habitat projects. SOURCE: Michael Gossenauer, USACE, personal communication, 2010.
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From page 79... ...
The shallow water habitat structures in the main channel aim to enhance habitat diversity by creating zones of higher and lower flow through dike fields and in chute-like areas behind dikes and revetments. Two types of shallow water habitat projects are being constructed: habitat creation at the margins of the navigable portion of the main river channel, and construction or modification of chutes and backwaters on floodplains (Missouri River Recovery Program, 2010)
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From page 80... ...
An example of Missouri River-specific studies is being led by USGS scientists and their work on river corridor habitat dynamics (see Jacobson et al., 2004b, for evaluation focused specifically on Missouri River chutes)
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From page 81... ...
In a dynamic environment like the Missouri River, the question of persistence of created habitat over time is important. It is unlikely that any created habitat will last for many decades without repeated maintenance, but better knowledge of differences in short- to medium-term persistence (less than one reproduction season vs.
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From page 82... ...
Shallow Water Habitat Shallow water habitat projects in the main channel, such as dike notching, bank notching, or chevrons, have been monitored under the Habitat Assessment and Monitoring Program (HAMP) since 2004.
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From page 83... ...
Shallow water habitat is also created through construction of chutes off the main channel, originally as part of the Missouri River Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Project. Monitoring results of this project for 2006-2008 are summarized and analyzed in a 2009 report (Sterner et al., 2009)
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From page 84... ...
These models also will be useful in gauging the effectiveness of management actions, such as the ESH and SWH projects, and in promoting the propagation and recovery of endangered species. To date, however, these efforts have been not been conducted or employed as part of larger, systemwide management strategies by the Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and other entities working on Missouri River recovery programs.
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From page 85... ...
However, adaptive management applications for Missouri River recovery have encountered many of the difficulties in implementing functional adaptive management programs described in this chapter. Without a decision-relevant, sciencebased management framework, habitat restoration and endangered species programs along the Missouri run the risk of being uncoordinated, chaotic, inefficient, and ineffective.
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From page 86... ...
Corps management strategies to address sediment and nutrient issues in the Missouri River are undertaken through multiple interdependent programs within the MRRP under their Biological Opinion compliance responsibilities as directed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives.
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From page 87... ...
Given the uncertainties associated with outcomes from Corps of Engineers Emergent Sandbar Habitat and Shallow Water Habitat programs, it is possible that they may not meet requirements of the Biological Opinion to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of the tern, plover, and sturgeon. The ESH and SWH programs, and the suite of new Missouri River system initiatives and studies, thus should formulate alternative actions that eventually may need to be implemented to increase the likelihood of endangered species recovery.
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