Clear Creek, tributary of North Fork John Day River, is a mountain stream located in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. It joins Granite Creek about 1.5 miles below the old abandoned mining town of Granite. Gravel removed from Clear Creek by gold dredging activity was replaced in a 3.37-mile...
The project objectives were to determine the possibility of raising the subterranean water in adequate amounts by installation of an underground weir; to determine what type of structure would be most feasible; and to formulate a biological evaluation program if the first two objectives were accomplished. Tex Creek, tributary to...
The upper drainage of the John Day River system produces summer steelhead and spring chinook salmon. The fish are generally confined to the main stem and its tributaries above Prairie City. The spawning and rearing areas are comparatively free of undesirable fish species, but salmonid smolts migrating downstream must travel...
Partial migration is a common migratory behavior where some individuals in a population migrate and others do not. Patterns of partial migration can vary dramatically, especially for species that inhabit a wide range of environments. I described and predicted spatial variation in marine migration (anadromy) of female Oncorhynchus mykiss (steelhead...
This thesis focuses on the economic efficiency of alternative habitat, streamfiow, and land use
allocations within a major drainage of the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, productivity of present habitat
and streamfiow conditions is evaluated with respect to anadromous fish species (chinook salmon and
steelhead trout) in the John Day River Basin,...
Subsurface inputs into lotic systems are a primary mechanism for cooling streams with high ambient water temperatures. Objectives of this study include: 1) to determine the effectiveness of Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imagery to detect shallow
aquifers, 2) to characterize certain physical, spatial, and temporal characteristics of the fluvial,...
Fish assemblage structure was determined along a longitudinal
gradient for three drainages in the upper John Day basin: Middle
Fork, South Fork, and upper Mainstem proper. One or two tributaries
in each drainage were included. Where possible, sites were paired:
those with good versus those with poor riparian habitat. Detrended...
Evaporation was studied along the Middle Fork of the John Day River in northeastern Oregon. Evaporation pans and various meteorological sensors recorded data at nine sites during the summer of 1998; measurements were made at each site over a 3-4 day period. A Dalton-type evaporation model was produced using water...
The evolution and maintenance of multiple phenotypes within populations is an interesting evolutionary and ecological question, and is becoming increasingly important for the restoration and conservation of partially migratory species. In particular, why individuals adopt a particular phenotype has been the focus of numerous research efforts. In the partially migratory...
Because riparian canopy controls most energy inputs to stream
ecosystems, it directly affects the structure of aquatic food webs and the
ecological processes that govern interactions among trophic levels. This
study addresses the interdependence among riparian canopy, benthic
community structure, and the carrying capacity of high desert streams for
salmonid...
Water temperature is an essential property of a stream. Temperature regulates
physical and biochemical processes in aquatic habitats. Various factors related to
climatic conditions, landscape characteristics, and channel structure directly influence
stream temperature. Numerous studies indicate that increased average air temperature
during the past century has led to stream warming...
I examined the relative roles of biotic and abiotic factors in structuring redband trout
Oncorhynchus mykiss distributions in the South Fork John Day. I first examined the
relationship between the biological traits of the fish assemblage and riparian-geomorphic features in context of prevailing theories of stream ecology stemming from the...
Temperature is a key factor for salmonid health and is an important restoration metric on the Middle Fork of the John Day River in northeast Oregon. In the past century, dredge mining, deforestation, and overgrazing have degraded stream habitat and resulted in greater daytime stream temperatures in the region. Recent...
This study examined the distribution and behavior of adult spring chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) related to patterns of stream temperature and physical
habitat at channel unit, reach, and basin-wide spatial scales in both a wilderness stream
and a disturbed stream in the John Day River basin in northeastern Oregon. Thermal...
This study determines the optimal allocation of watershed conservation funds in the John Day River Basin, Oregon. Fund managers can use a variety of targeting schemes to allocate their limited resources. Depending on which targeting criteria is used, they may or may not be achieving the maximum environmental benefits per...
Understanding seasonal changes in growth, survival, and movement rates is
crucial to salmonid management. These life history characteristics provide a context for
evaluation of management actions. We evaluated the life history of individually
marked Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri in the South Fork John Day River basin in
Northeastern Oregon. This thesis...
The American beaver (Castor canadensis) was nearly extirpated by the late 1800's due to the fur trade. Due to reintroduction efforts, it now occupies much of its former range. Beavers are a keystone species and ecosystem engineers, greatly influencing riparian and instream habitats through selective harvesting of plant materials and...
Alternative male phenotypes in salmonine fishes arise from individuals that mature as either larger and older anadromous marine-migrants or as smaller and younger freshwater residents. Variability in age and size of males at maturity is hypothesized to be preceded by early differences in growth in size and lipid storage. Water...
The overall goal of this study was to identify multiple scales of habitat use and habitat electivity by redband/steelhead trout and define the limiting factors affecting the distribution patterns of this species during summer flows.
The main objective in chapter 2 was to identify the most important habitat associations that...
The goal of this research was to characterize thermal habitat requirements for juvenile redband steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri) in the South Fork John Day River (SFJD), Oregon using physiological indicators of fish condition. Physiological indices of fish condition measured were whole body lipid content and heat shock proteins, specifically...
The Middle Fork of the John Day River (MFJD) in Northeastern Oregon contains important spawning grounds for spring Chinook and summer steelhead of the Columbia River Basin. In the summer of 2008 phase one of a river restoration project was completed which included the addition of engineered log jams (ELJs)...
"The Willamette River has the largest runs of spring chinook salmon of any tributary of the Columbia River rising in Oregon. The run to the Willamette is most unique in that the migrating fish pass up the river through Portland, a city of several hundred thousand people, and support a...
Water temperature in rivers and streams is an important factor for aquatic ecosystem health. Measurement of stream temperature has traditionally been accomplished by point temperature measurements, continuous point temperature loggers, and more recently, airborne remote sensing techniques such as Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) or Thermal Infrared Radiometry. While each of...
The goal of this research was to characterize thermal habitat requirements for juvenile redband steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri) in the South Fork John Day River (SFJD), Oregon using physiological indicators of fish condition. Physiological indices of fish condition measured were whole body lipid content and heat shock proteins, specifically...
Water temperature is an important measure of water quality, as well as a dominant factor affecting aquatic life within the stream environment. Elevated water temperatures can decrease the survival rate of fish in each life stage. Cold water species, such as salmonids, are particularly susceptible to elevated water temperatures. For...
The growing demand for water in the arid regions of the West
increases the need for optimal allocation of water among competing
uses. An efficient allocation of water between instream and out-of-stream
uses has been impeded by institutional constraints and the
scarcity of information regarding instream flow benefits. The
objectives...
This study was an investigation of lotic macroinvertebrate distribution in northeastern Oregon at two different spatial and biological scales. Examination of assemblages at a limited spatial scale revealed relationships with natural and disturbance gradients and led to questions about distribution of a population at broader spatial scales. In a 16...
The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (now National Marine Fisheries Service) conducted stream habitat surveys in the Upper Grande Ronde River Basin in 1941. This survey was part of an extensive inventory of stream habitat conditions for anadromous salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) throughout the Columbia River Basin. The survey systematically
inventoried 158...