What we monitor and why Streams Fisheries thresholds Stream - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
What we monitor and why Streams Fisheries thresholds Stream Environment Zones SEZ thresholds Noise (highways, Noise thresholds shorezone, Plan Areas) Air Quality (ozone, visibility, Air quality thresholds etc.) Wildlife
Fisheries thresholds SEZ thresholds Noise thresholds Air quality thresholds Special interest species thresholds Regional trends, mode split, supporting grant applications, etc. Vegetation thresholds
– 600+ macroinvertebrates (i.e. fly-fishing bugs) collected at each site; ID’d in a lab – Macroinvertebrates compared against pristine streams throughout CA / NV using the California Stream Condition Index to obtain stream “score” – Hundreds of measurements taken on substrate, erosion, canopy cover, etc. – Physical habitat results used to identify degraded conditions
Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded
Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are.
Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are. ✓ There are also degraded streams throughout the Basin that are not currently on restoration lists = restoration opportunities
Examples: degraded streams not on EIP list
Rosewood Creek, Incline Village Deer Creek, Incline Village North Zephyr Creek, Zephyr Cove Third Creek, Mt Rose Highway Blackwood Creek, west shore Lonely Gulch Creek, west shore
Streams - Key Findings: ✓ 73% of streams are in good or excellent condition; 27% are degraded ✓ Degraded conditions mostly in South Shore and Incline Village where the majority of EIP stream restoration projects are. ✓ There are also degraded streams throughout the Basin that are not currently on restoration lists = restoration opportunities ✓ Stream restoration projects are mostly functioning well in the long-term
BEFORE (2008) AFTER (2016) BEFORE (2010) BEFORE (1998) AFTER (2015) AFTER (2016) Angora Creek, Meyers Third Creek, Incline Village Trout Creek, South Lake Tahoe
Examples: restoration effectiveness
100% of degraded SEZ in non-urban areas; preserve all naturally functioning SEZ”
to assess wetland function…
– biotic structure – surrounding buffer – hydrology – physical structure
SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that have been developed)
SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that are gone) ✓ Degraded SEZ are widespread in developed and undeveloped areas = lots of restoration
Examples: degraded SEZ not on EIP list
Bijou Meadow, South Lake Tahoe 1940 aerial photo showing wet meadow with braided channels Ditch diverting water out of meadow Golden Bear Meadow, El Dorado County 2015 aerial photo with old railroad fill running through middle of SEZ Old railroad fill running through middle of SEZ Heavenly Valley Creek, Pioneer Trail 1940 aerial photo showing wet meadow with braided channels An extremely dry meadow in 2017
SEZ - Key Findings: ✓ 82% of SEZ are in good or excellent condition; 18% are degraded (does not include SEZ that are gone) ✓ Degraded SEZ are widespread in developed and undeveloped areas = lots of restoration
✓ Some SEZ restoration projects have not resulted in improved SEZ function
RESTORATION EFFECTIVENESS SEZ: Colony Inn Year restored: 2008-ish Evaluation:
used to be SEZ
AFTER: Reduced erosion and reduced silt in stream.
– Osprey – Peregrine Falcon
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Active Nests Year
Osprey nests - Lake Tahoe
1 2 3 4 5
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Active Nests Year
Peregrine Falcon nests - Lake Tahoe
10 20 30 40 50 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 micrograms/m3 YEAR
PM10 - Annual Avg.
Stateline TRPA Lake Tahoe CC DL Bliss State Park Incline Village/Crystal Bay South Lake Tahoe Sandy Way Stateline Horizon Cave Rock Trendline: confidence > 99% 0.050 0.060 0.070 0.080 0.090 0.100 0.110 0.120 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 ppm YEAR
Ozone - Highest 1 Hr Avg.
Stateline TRPA Lake Tahoe CC DL Bliss State Park Kings Beach Tahoe City Incline Village/Crystal Bay South Lake Tahoe Airport South Lake Tahoe Sandy Way South Lake Tahoe Tahoe Blvd Cave Rock Lake Tahoe Basin Trendline: confidence > 99%
Particulate Matter, Ozone, Nitrous Oxide, Visibility, etc.
partnership with DRI, UC Davis Nuclear Lab, and national park visibility network
– Plan Areas – Highways – Shorezone
✓ Consistent with past findings ✓ Nearly 40% of Plan Areas exceed noise standards ✓ Over 60% of highway locations exceed noise standards ✓ Shorezone noise is getting worse in some locations
highway, and shorezone has maximum allowable decibel levels allowed in TRPA thresholds
– TRPA part of inter-agency monitoring group representing
monitoring TYC since 1979 – Lake-wide count over 1 week every September
6219 6220 6221 6222 6223 6224 6225 6226 6227 6228 6229 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 Lake level feet LTD Number of occupied sites
Tahoe Yellow Cress survey results
Number of occupied sites Lake Tahoe level
– Upward trend since 1979 – Number of occupied sites is highly correlated with lake level – 2017 had a low number of
as last times lake level was high (2006 and 2011) – Overall population is stable
– TRPA threshold “maintain 26 TYC population sites”
Tahoe Yellow Cress is a small plant that only grows on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
– Prior to 2016, manual counts over 1 or 2 days by consultants / volunteers – Began doing in-house in 2016 using automated counters – By end of 2018, over 30 counters installed by TRPA and partners around the Basin – Data downloaded once a month on tablet and uploaded into LT Info
– 1,600 per day at Camp Richardson during summer 2017 – 150 per day in South Lake Tahoe during the very snowy winter of 2017 – Highest daily count was 5,500 at Lake Forest (north shore) on July 4th… fireworks!!!