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| Floodplain Habitat Restoration in the Middle Green River |
Uintah, Utah |
Primary Project Type: Instream Restoration
Secondary Type: |
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The endangered Colorado razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus). Long-term ... |
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Primary Problem: Berms, Levees, Dikes, Channel Incision, Flow Alteration, Loss of Fish Habitat
Secondary Problem: |
| Main Restoration Action(s): Flow management, Habitat enhancement, Floodplain reconnection |
| Native Fish Focus: Bonytail, Razorback sucker |
Is this project part of a watershed scale restoration? No
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| Project Dates: 1996 to Ongoing |
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Initial Monitoring: 1996
Restoration Implementation: 1997 through present
Follow-up Monitoring: 1997 through present |
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Lead Agency:
Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program
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| Project Location:
The project area is located on the Green River, the largest tributary to the Colorado River. The study was conducted within a 42-mile reach of the Green River, which cuts through the Uintah Basin beginning south of Vernal, Utah at Bonanza Bridge and continues downstream to the confluence with the Duchesne River near Ouray, Utah. Approximately 14 miles of the lower section are within the boundaries of the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. This is the widest alluvial reach of the Green River and contains the most extensive floodplain. The project area now extends upstream to Thunder Ranch, encompassing 60 miles of the Green River. In addition, habitats along the Colorado and Gunnison rivers in Colorado have been acquired and restored.
To view a map of the project area, click here.
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Project Description:
The Colorado razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus), the bonytail (Gila elegans), the humpback chub (Gila cypha) and the Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) are endangered fish species that were once widespread in the Upper Colorado River system. Bonytail are essentially extinct from the Colorado River Basin, save hatchery reared and stocked bonytail. A small reproducing wild razorback sucker population exists in the middle Green River; however, despite successful reproduction, survival beyond the larval stage has rarely been observed. For more information on these fish, click here.
Water development, flow regulation by dams, and water diversion for agriculture have reduced the frequency and duration of connection of the Upper Colorado River system to its floodplains. Channel incision and realignment and a series of levees along the river system have isolated the fish from critical floodplain habitat. Reconnection to this habitat is an important step to the establishment and maintenance of self-sustaining populations of the razorback sucker. Scientific studies and hatchery incubation have shown that the bonytail and the Colorado pikeminnow will also benefit from access to the floodplain.
Long-term floodplain habitat is significant in razorback sucker recovery. Razorback suckers spawn on gravel bars in main river channels and their eggs hatch a week later. The larvae have little swimming ability and rely on passive drift into the bottomlands where they will rear. Timing is critical for the drift. As floodplains become inundated at spring runoff, they entrain larval razorback sucker. The periodic cycle of inundation of floodplain habitat allows for adequate water quality and lateral exchange of nutrients and oxygen, which enhances food web productivity necessary for the survival of the fish. Floodplain habitat also provides shelter from high velocities, and vegetative cover from predators. Juvenile razorbacks remain there for two growing seasons, and then they escape to recruit in the river system. Also important to the sustainability of the razorback sucker is periodic dewatering of these floodplains, stranding and killing predaceous and competitive non-native fishes. |
Project Goals: The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (Recovery Program) is a cooperative partnership of public and private interests dedicated to the recovery of the endangered Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus), humpback chub (Gila cypha), and bonytail (Gila elegans) fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Recovery efforts cannot impede water development in the basin. The Recovery Program, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is assigned the primary recovery goal of having self-sustaining populations of Colorado pikeminnow, razorback suckers, bonytail and humpback chub with natural habitat to support them. There are seven major program elements of the Recovery Program to attain the recovery goal. For more information on the Recovery Program and its program elements, click here. In 1994 an independent technical advisory group and a technical work group were established to review the scientific aspects of the Habitat Restoration element of the Recovery Program and to provide a forum for agencies and interested parties to provide input into the Habitat Restoration element of the Recovery Program. For more information on this review process, click here.
One goal of the Recovery Program is habitat restoration – to restore or enhance natural floodplain functions that support recovery of endangered fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The razorback sucker has become the priority species for the Habitat Restoration Program. Adequate floodplain habitat with the potential to flood seasonally, with wetland vegetation for cover, and a nutrient-rich environment, is necessary for seasonal larval drift and over-winter survival of the razorback sucker. A four-year study was conducted on the Middle Green River to support this goal of the Recovery Program. |
| Project Methods:
Reconnection of long-term floodplain depressions to the Upper Colorado River System has been an on-going project of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (Recovery Program). In 1996, the Recovery Program initiated a floodplain acquisition and enhancement program, which began on the Middle Green River. It now has expanded to other tributaries of the Upper Colorado. Restoration actions include excavating levee breaches at strategic sites to restore the bottomland flooding frequency and duration and to optimize capture of razorback larvae drift into floodplain habitat. Levee breaching is done cautiously to avoid destabilization of the river channel, which could result in a change in channel morphology, increased erosion and sedimentation, and unwanted migration of the channel and flood damage. To assure periodic inundation of the floodplain habitat, the Recovery Program also provides flow recommendations for the Green River below the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
For more information on project methods, click here.
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Levee breaches were done by excavating a “notch” in the levee or by lowering the... |
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Sites that were engineered to artificially drain on demand were effective in flu... |
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| Monitoring Data and Collection
Methods: Restoration monitoring for levee breaching and floodplain habitat restoration is being conducted by researchers of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Utah State University. It includes an evaluation of design functionality, post-construction monitoring of topography and channel morphology, an evaluation of vegetation changes and quantitative documentation of sedimentation. Several research projects are underway to evaluate the survival, growth, and recruitment of larval and juvenile razorback sucker under natural conditions or introduced into the restored floodplain sites.
For details on these studies, click here.
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| Was this project effective
and how was this determined? An adequate evaluation of response of the razorback sucker to the levee breaches and access to floodplain habitat is difficult due to the very low numbers of razorbacks in the wild. However, studies to date have given researchers confidence that reconnection of floodplain habitat to the Upper Colorado River system is a positive step for recovery of this endangered fish. Based on results of these studies, levee breaching and floodplain habitat restoration has continued in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
For more information, click here.
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(Before) Studies have shown that site configuration to optimize the timing and v... |
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(After) Early study results showed single downstream breaching was ineffective i... |
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| Confounding Effects/Additional
Information: The success of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program floodplain management strategy depends on six factors: (1) Periodic connection of the floodplain with the river channel and entrainment of drifting larvae; (2) Sufficient food production with a chronology of development timed to arrival of larvae; (3) Suitable quantity and quality of water to support fish for 12 or 24 months; (4) Reconnection of the floodplain depression in year two or three to allow escapement of fish to the mainstem and for freshening of water quality in the floodplain; and (5) Periodic desiccation of the floodplain, which strands and kills non-native fish. |
| Project
Specs (all specs are estimates): |
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Man Hours:
Thousands over a ten-year period
Cost of Materials:
~$300K mostly for riprap to stabilize levee breech configurations
Subcontracted Costs:
~$1M for design engineering and follow-up evaluation monitoring
Overall Estimated Cost:
~$10M (acquisition and construction costs; does not include cost of evaluation studies or monitoring)
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| For more information on this project
contact: |
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Debbie Felker, Information and Education Coordinator, Upper Colorado Endangered Fish Recovery Program, Email: debra_felker@fws.gov
Pat Nelson, Project Manager, Habitat Recovery Program, Upper Colorado Endangered Fish Recovery Program, Email: pat_nelson@fws.gov
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| This information
was collected by: Kristin Keith |
| Project last updated on: 10/27/2006 |
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