Aquatic and riparian state and transition models for the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon and the northern Oregon Coast Range
Description
Integrating riparian zone mapping with state-and-transition models to project the response of riparian zones, stream channels and salmon habitat to plant succession, natural disturbance and land-use activities.
Purpose and Scope
We are developing a decision support tool for habitat restoration planning that incorporates advanced remote-sensing technology and information about disturbance processes with existing knowledge of critical habitat needs for salmonids. We build state and transition models to simulate temporal dynamics of riparian vegetation, channel conditions, and salmonid habitat quality in response to plant succession, natural disturbance, and land-use activities. We are testing the models in two watersheds – the Wilson River in Oregon’s Coast Range and the upper Middle Fork John Day River in the Oregon Blue Mountains – to examine current conditions relative to the historic range of variability, assess the potential of passive restoration to meet recovery goals, and evaluate the potential of active restoration to accelerate recovery.
Use
The models are being applied to two intensively monitored watersheds – the Wilson River in the Oregon Coast Range and the upper Middle Fork John Day River in eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains to examine: 1) current conditions relative to the historic range of variability, 2) likely trajectories of aquatic and riparian habitats given current and expected land-use practices, 3) the potential of passive restoration to meet recovery goals, and 4) the potential of active restoration to accelerate recovery. The models can be run without anthropogenic disturbances to recreate historical conditions (pre-Euro-American settlement). Alternatively, the models can be initialized to current riparian and channel conditions in the watersheds and then run forward to project likely outcomes of alternative management scenarios. Realistic management scenarios were developed based on current policy and land management issues faced by managers within each watershed. The effects of policy decisions can be reflected in the models by either changing the rates of selected disturbances (e.g., decreasing grazing intensity), or by either adding or removing selected disturbance pathways from the models (e.g., removing all forest harvest treatments from riparian areas or adding fuels treatments). Consequently, decision makers could use these models to evaluate changes in habitat conditions under alternative management scenarios at sub-basin to regional scales.
Citation
Beukema, S.J., Kurz,W.A., Pinkham, C.B., Milosheva, K., Frid, L., 2003. Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool, User’s Guide, Version 4.4c. ESSA Technologies Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., Canada, pp. 239.
Hemstrom, M., Ager, A.A., Vavra, M., Wales, B.C., and Wisdom, M.J. 2004. Chapter 2: A state and transition approach for integrating landscape models. Pgs. 17-32. In: J. L. Hayes, A. A. Ager, and R. J. Barbour, Technical Editors. Methods for integrating modeling of landscape change: Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System. PNW-GTR-610. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, General Technical Report 610.
Hemstrom, M.A., Merzenich, J., Reger, A., and Wales, B.C. 2006. Integrated analysis of landscape management scenarios using state and transition models in the upper Grande Ronde River subbasin, Oregon, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 80:198-211.
McDowell, P. F. and Magilligan, F. J. 1997. Response of stream channels to removal of cattle grazing disturbance: Overview of western U.S. Exclosure studies. Pages 469-475. In: S.S.Y. Wang, E. J. Langendoen, and F. D. Shields (eds.). Management of Landscapes Disturbed by Channel Incision. The Center for Computational Hydrosciences and Engineering, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS.
Montgomery, D. R. and Buffington, J. M. 1997. Channel-reach morphology in mountain drainage basins. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109:596-611.
Montgomery, D. R. and Buffington, J. M. 1998. Chapter 2: Channel processes, classification, and response. Pgs 13-42. In: R. J. Naiman and R. E. Bilby (eds.) River Ecology and Management – Lessons from the Pacific Coastal Ecoregion. Springer-Verlag. New York, NY.
Thompson, J. 2007. Simulating the consequences of land management, based on science by Steven Wondzell, and Pete Bisson. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Science Findings #92.
Wondzell, S. M. 2001. The Influence of Forest Health and Protection Treatments on Erosion and Stream Sedimentation in Forested Watersheds of Eastern Oregon and Washington. Northwest Science 75:128-140.
Wondzell, S. M., and Howell, P. J. 2004. Chapter 6: Developing a decision support model for assessing condition and prioritizing the restoration of aquatic habitat in the interior Columbia Basin. Pgs. 73-81. In: J. L. Hayes, A. A. Ager, and R. J. Barbour, Technical Editors. Methods for integrating modeling of landscape change: Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System. PNW-GTR-610. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, General Technical Report 610.
Wondzell, S. M., Burnett, K. M., and Kline, J. D. 2007. Landscape analysis: Projecting the effects of management and natural disturbances on forest and watershed resources of the Blue Mountains, OR, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 80:193-197.
Wondzell, S. M., Hemstrom, M. A., and Bisson, P. A. 2007. Simulating riparian vegetation and aquatic habitat dynamics in response to natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes in the Upper Grande Ronde River, Oregon, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 80:249-267.
Vavra, V., Hemstrom, M. A., and Wisdom, M. 2006. Modeling the effects of herbivores on the abundance of forest overstory states using a state-transition approach in the upper Grande Ronde River Basin, Oregon, USA. Landscape Urban Planning 80: 212-222.
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