Abstract
Stream and wetland riparian areas are able to sustain a state of resiliency based on the ecosystem’s ability to attain the functions of its ecological potential. This resiliency allows an area to provide and produce desired and valued water quality and aquatic habitat ecosystem services. Maintaining healthy aquatic and riparian habitats depends on “management” allowing for, or facilitating natural recovery of riparian functions. Altering grazing management practices in Maggie Creek lead to changes in riparian functionality, water quality, and aquatic habitat. Maggie Creek basin, historically renowned for its fishery, is one of only a few watersheds in Nevada capable of supporting Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT) (Oncorhynchus clarkia ssp. Henshawi) meta-populations. Prior to 1993, the majority of Maggie Creek was grazed by cattle throughout the growing season. Decades of intensive grazing, water development, and road construction degraded aquatic and riparian habitats. By the early 1990’s, a majority of the Maggie Creek watershed was rated as nonfunctional or functional-at-risk condition with unstable banks, channel incision, loss of riparian vegetation, wide shallow channels, excessive erosion and deposition, reduced stream flows, and increased water temperatures. As mitigation for their 1993 South Operations Area Project mine dewatering, Newmont Mining Company, in cooperation with the Elko District Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Elko Land and Livestock Company, developed the Maggie Creek Watershed Restoration Project to enhance LCT habitat. The project was developed to enhance 82 miles of stream, 2000 acres of riparian habitat and 40,000 acres of upland watershed primarily through prescriptive livestock management. Beginning in 1994, grazing systems were implemented for portions of the perennial/intermittent streams. This greatly reduced the frequency and duration of hot season grazing on Maggie Creek and its tributaries. The objective of this paper is to compare 1994 and 2006 stream and wetland riparian assessments using proper functioning condition (PFC) protocol and water quality data.
Highlights
Maintaining healthy aquatic and riparian habitat after natural or anthropogenic disturbance depends on management allowing or facilitating natural recovery of riparian functions
Much of this assessment was done through remote sensing data in ArcGIS. 2006 Color Infrared (CIR) and National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) 1-meter resolution imagery were used to assess proper functioning condition (PFC) assessment for 2006. 1994 black-and-white (B&W) Digital Orthophoto Quarter-Quadrangles (DOQQs) and CIR 1-meter imagery were used to assess PFC for 1994. 1994 CIR imagery is not complete for the entire Maggie Creek Watershed
Note attributes 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, and the functional rating all had more than 10% change on either Maggie or the total miles assessed
Summary
Maintaining healthy aquatic and riparian habitat after natural or anthropogenic disturbance depends on management allowing or facilitating natural recovery of riparian functions. Streams differ in their potential to produce habitats, biota, and water quality for beneficial uses (i.e., swimmable, fishable, drinkable, etc.). The question is how to reduce loads when many streams are themselves the source of sediment, or nutrients, due to their failure to function properly. In these cases, reducing an external load is not the solution. Restoring riparian functions will result in slowing the nutrient spiral with flooding and floodplain deposition and allow nutrient uptake, aquifer recharge, and reconstruction of quality habitat, and complex niches/food webs that integrate riparian and aquatic ecosystems [1]
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