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Spawn Creek fencing and restoration project

Cache Anglers - Spawn Creek fencing and restoration 

6-26-06 I would like to thank all the people and organizations that have volunteered time and resources to help us complete the Spawn Creek fencing project. Roughly 3.5 miles of buck and rail fence enclosing 250 acres of a spectacular Logan Canyon Watershed; 3200 21-foot rails, 1600 bucks, 3200 lag bolts, 11200 fencing spikes, 800 hours of Dedicated hunters volunteer hours, 500 UCC hours, and numerous hours from the Forest Service, Utah Trout Unlimited, USU, the Cache Anglers, Stonefly Society, Weber Basin TU, Blue Ribbon Fisheries, Division of Wildlife Resources, Audubon Society, American Fisheries Society, Briderland Outdoor Coalition, Embrace-A-Stream funding, Sportmen for Fish and Wildlife, and other organizations.

The research on this tributary continues, hoping to provide answers about the combination of grazing, spawning trout, and the spread of Whirling disease.

Thank You,

Chris Thomas, President
Utah Trout Unlimited

Collaborators:  Phaedra Budy, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Aquatic, Watershed, & Earth Resources, Utah State University; Paul Chase, Wasatch-Cache National Forest; US Forest Service, Logan Ranger District; Chris Thomas, President, Cache Angler’s Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Chris Wilson, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Northern Region.

Project: Spawn Creek, a tributary to Temple Fork on the Logan River, is currently one of the primary spawning grounds for native, endemic Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki utahst1).  Bonneville cutthroat trout are an imperiled species of special concern across their range but have avoided listing under ESA, despite repeated petitions, because of a special interagency conservation agreement.  The conservation agreement is based on the premise that threats to this species will be eliminated through multi-agency and private citizen efforts.  Spawn Creek is heavily impacted by intense grazing, that has denuded riparian vegetation, siltified stream substrates, and altered flow and temperature dynamics of the stream channel.  With this proposal, we are recommending restoring Spawn Creek to more natural conditions, through pasture resting (1 year), fencing (to eliminate cattle) and riparian re-vegetation, in an attempt to restore natural stream function and reduce factors that may negatively impact native fishes (e.g., sedimentation, high temperatures, altered discharge) and facilitate the spread and impact of whirling disease on native fishes.

Research on whirling disease (WD) and habitat on the Logan River, Utah and elsewhere has demonstrated a strong link between prevalence and both physical factors (e.g., de la Hoz Franco 2003) and biological factors (e.g., McMurtry et al. 1983) often associated with stream quality and management.  For example, in the Logan River watershed, de la Hoz Franco and Budy (2003) demonstrated that 74-83% of the variation in the degree of prevalence of WD could be explained by differences in discharge and temperature across index sites.  In other systems, temperature has been directly related to infectivity, lesion severity, and prevalence of Myxobolus cerebralis (Mc).  Monitoring (4 years) of cutthroat trout and brown trout in this system indicate positive confirmation of Mc based on PCR techniques with increasing prevalence (about 15% increase per year) with most recent prevalence (as percent testing positive for Mc) ranging from 10-100% and 0-100% (across index sites), for cutthroat trout and brown trout, respectively.  Factors which appear to contribute to the degree of WD effects include, but are not limited to, temperature, discharge, and the spatial and temporal separation of diseased adult fish in the mainstem from susceptible juveniles rearing in the tributaries (de la Hoz Franco 2003).  Juvenile cutthroat trout rearing in Logan river tributaries demonstrate, on average, 40% less prevalence in Mc as compared to adults, which reside in the mainstem but spawn in the tributaries.  This pattern suggests that cutthroat are currently becoming infected with the parasite in the mainstem river, when they have grown past the most vulnerable lifestage.  Thus it appears important to protect and restoring tributaries, that act as key spawning and rearing grounds for cutthroat trout and possible refuges from more highly infected mainstem riverine areas.

Project objectives:  Objective 1: Riparian (exclosure) fencing and re-vegetation of Spawn Creek, a major Bonneville cutthroat trout spawning and rearing stream (approximately 1.5 miles long) in the Logan River watershed, a system thought to be one of the few remaining, strong populations of this threatened species and a Blue Ribbon Fishery.  Objective 2:  Evaluation and documentation of changes in ecological variables associated with stream restoration and fish health (e.g., temperature, sediment, riparian vegetation), and thought to facilitate the impact of WD.  This evaluation will be based on rigorous before and after stream habitat manipulation comparisons.  Timeline:  Summer 2004 – Fall 2006.

Budget:  The total budget needed includes fencing material and labor= $75,000 plus $20-80,000 for project implementation and evaluation, depending on the degree of evaluation (graduate student involvement?) and matches provided.  Utah State University has offered a $23,000 in-kind match (salary, equipment, and waived indirect fees), UDWR FES has offered $1500 for diagnostics, and Cache Anglers has offered $1250 in seed money and labor.  The USFS will provide some fencing costs and labor depending on annual federal budget allocations.  The collaborative group seeking these funds plans to also inquire with the Whirling Disease Foundation, the Bonneville Chapter of AFS, and Trout Unlimited Embrace-a-Stream within the next year, for matching funds or contributions.  The project will also benefit from a parallel long-term monitoring effort on the Logan River watershed, (UDWR funded) aimed at understanding threats to Bonneville cutthroat trout and documenting the spread and impact of WD.

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This page last updated on 06/27/2006