2017 Wild Fish Initiative Campaign

Strategy for Steelhead Trout

Habitat Protection in WRIA 01

Tori Niewohner
ENVS 421 Lab 6
March 5th, 2017
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Introduction

The Nooksack River Watershed (WRIA 01) contains several different jurisdictions. These
jurisdictions implement federal and state environmental regulations differently. As a wild fish
advocacy group, we are concerned about protecting steelhead trout in WRIA 01.

10 distinct population segments (DPS) of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are

listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 1 DPS is listed as endangered, and
1 DPS is listed as a species of concern (NOAA Fisheries 2016). Favorable habitat for steelhead is
where the dissolved oxygen concentration is at least 7 parts per million (NOAA Fisheries 2016).
It is also important for streams to have deep low-velocity pools for wintering habitat and gravel
substrates free of silt for spawning habitat (NOAA Fisheries 2016). Steelhead are threatened by
a variety of factors including modifications to hydrology, land use, loss of habitat connectivity,
fishing, and introduction of non-native species (NOAA Fisheries 2014).

Since different jurisdictions implement regulations relating to steelhead differently, we

seek to identify which jurisdiction in WRIA 01 contains and is responsible for the most area of
high quality steelhead trout habitat. ArcGIS was used to accomplish this task.

Data

The four input datasets were SteelheadHabitat, WRIA1_Jurisdiction,

WRIA1_Routes_Final, and Jurisdiction_Event. They are all contained within the
Lab6_Part2_Data geodatabase. SteelheadHabitat is a vector polyline feature class of
steelhead habitat in WRIA 01. Each polyline has attributes on the width in feet, length, and
habitat potential. Habitat potential is described as high, moderate, low, very low, or unknown.
WRIA1_Jurisdiction is a vector polygon ZM feature class of the jurisdictions in WRIA 01. Each
jurisdiction has a length and an area. The jurisdictions are Canada, City/Urban Growth
Area/Municipal, County, National Park Service, Other Federal land, Reservation, State, US
Forest Service, and Wilderness. WRIA1_Routes_Final is a vector polyline M feature class of
the stream network in WRIA 01. Each feature has a route ID (COMID) and a length.
Jurisdiction_Event is an event layer table which identifies the different jurisdictions along the
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routes in WRIA1_Route_Final. Each feature has a route ID (RID), a from measure, a to

measure, and the jurisdiction which it belongs in.

I created the tables Steelhead_Event, Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Overlay, and

Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Statistics which are housed in the Niewohner_Lab6
geodatabase. Steelhead_Event is an event layer table which determines the steelhead habitat
potential along the routes in WRIA1_Routes_Final. Each feature has a route ID (RID), a from
measure, a to measure, the width in feet, and the habitat potential.
Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Overlay is an event layer overlay table which combines the
Steelhead_Event and Jurisdiction_Event tables. Each feature contains a route id (rid), a
from measure, a to measure, width in feet, habitat potential, and jurisdiction category.
Additionally, I added a field called Habitat_Area which displays the area of steelhead habitat
within each feature. Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Statistics is a summary statistics table
which sums steelhead habitat area by jurisdiction and habitat potential.

Methods
I created a model called Steelhead Habitat Jurisdiction which can be used to recreate
my methods (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A model titled Steelhead Habitat Jurisdiction which was used to determine the
amount of steelhead habitat of different potentials in various jurisdictions in WRIA 01.
I began by using the Locate Features Along Routes tool to create an event for the
Steelhead habitat. I used SteelheadHabitat as the input features, WRIA1_Routes_Final as
the input route features, COMID as the route identifier field, RID as the second route
identifier field, FMEAS as the from-measure field, TMEAS as the to-measure field, left all
checkboxes as the default setting, and titled the output event table as Steehead_Event.
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Next, I used the Overlay Route Events tool to overlay the Steelhead_Event and
Jurisdiction_Event event tables. I used Steelhead_Event as the input event table, RID as
the route identifier field, LINE as the event type, FMEAS as the from-measure field,
TMEAS as the to-measure field, Jurisdiction_Event as the overlay event table, INTERSECT
as the type of overlay, and titled the output event table
Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Overlay.

In order to calculate habitat area, I first had to create a field for it. I used the tool Add
Field. I set the input table as Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Overlay, the field name as
Habitat_Area, and the field type as DOUBLE. Then I used the Calculate Field tool to
calculate habitat area by setting the input table as Steelhead_Jurisdiction_Event_Overlay, the
field name as Habitat_Area, and the expression as [W_ft] * ( [tmeas] - [fmeas]). This
expression calculated area by multiplying width, which already existed in the attribute table, by
length, which was calculated by subtracting the from-measure from the to-measure. Now that
habitat area was calculated, I just needed to summarize it by jurisdiction and habitat type. I
used the Summary Statistics tool to accomplish this. I set the Steelhead Jurisdiction Event
Overlay table as the input table, Habitat_Area as the statistic field with a statistic type of
SUM, and set both CATEGORY and HabitatPotential as case fields.

After creating my data, I displayed the streams, steelhead habitat symbolized by

potential, and jurisdiction polygons in a map and put an emphasis on the jurisdiction polygon
with the largest area of high quality steelhead habitat. I also converted the habitat area
calculated in the model into square miles to use in a table showing steelhead habitat by
jurisdiction and habitat potential.
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Results
The County has the most high, moderate, low, and very low potential steelhead habitat
(Table 1). The U.S. Forest service has the second largest area of high potential steelhead
habitat, but it has about 7.5 times less than the County (Table 1).

Jurisdiction Habitat Potential Habitat Area (mi2)

County High 1.912
U.S. Forest Service High 0.252
State High 0.163
City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal High 0.118
Reservation High 0.002
County Moderate 1.833
State Moderate 0.048
City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal Moderate 0.043
County Low 0.287
U.S. Forest Service Low 0.139
State Low 0.113
City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal Low 0.041
Wilderness Low 0.020
Reservation Low 0.001
County Very Low 0.472
Reservation Very Low 0.086
City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal Very Low 0.081
State Very Low 0.018
Reservation Unknown 2.280
City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal Unknown < 0.001
County Unknown < 0.001
State Unknown 0
U.S. Forest Service Unknown 0
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Visually, it is noticeable that most steelhead habitat passes through County jurisdiction
(Figure 2). The map also shows that there are several jurisdictions with no or very little
steelhead habitat: Canada, National Park Service, Other Federal jurisdictions, and Wilderness
area (Figure 2).

Figure 2. A map displaying the different jurisdictions in WRIA 01 and the Steelhead Trout
habitat running through those jurisdictions. Steelhead habitat is symbolized by its quality as
habitat for steelhead. The area with diagonal hatching represents County jurisdiction which
contains the largest area of high quality steelhead habitat at 1.912 square miles. The projection
is in NAD 1983 HARN StatePlane Washington South FIPS 4602 Feet. The data is from WSDOT
and WWU.
Discussion
The County is responsible for the most area of high potential steelhead habitat in WRIA
01. Thus, our efforts should be focused on ensuring that the County is enforcing federal and
state regulations on steelhead trout appropriately. Although other jurisdictions contain high
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potential steelhead habitat, they do not contain nearly as much. It is important that we
advocate for steelhead regulations in these jurisdictions, but our focus should be on the County
as it contains about 7.5 times more high potential habitat than the jurisdiction with the second
highest area of high potential steelhead habitat, the U.S. Forest Service. Our order of focus for
the should be for lands under the jurisdiction of the County first, U.S. Forest Service second, the
State third, City/Urban Growth Area/Municipal fourth, and Reservation fifth. Areas under the
jurisdiction of Canada, the National Park Service, Wilderness, and other Federal entities
contain very little or no steelhead habitat per the data I worked with, so we should not focus
any efforts on these jurisdictions.

Works Cited
NOAA Fisheries. Pacific Salmonids Major Threats and Impacts. NOAA. May 2014. Web.

NOAA Fisheries. Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). NOAA. 24 Feb. 2016. Web.