DESCRIPTION
This project was a continuation of the Asotin Creek multi-year IMW project. The project was, and remains, an Intensively Monitoring Watershed monitoring project. The project focused on three tributaries to the Asotin Creek in Southwest Washington. The tributaries are: Charley Creek, North Fork Asotin Creek, and South Fork Asotin Creek. The purpose of this on-going project is to link steelhead responses to specific mechanisms related to habitat restoration. The fundamental approach is to treat restoration as an experiment and concentrate a large restoration effort in order to increase the likelihood of detecting a population increase. This type of project will increase our understanding of what restoration activities are most effective, demonstrate how changes in habitat influence survivial of various life stages of steelhead, determine what mangitude of restoration is required to cause a significant population response, and ultimately provide information to better evaluate the efficacy of habitat restoration. The restoration effort is focused on summer run steelhead habitat. The funds for this grant award provided a continuation of the IMW effort in the Asotin. This phase included:
1) Continue baseline monitoring of 12 permanent sites for fish abundance and habitat condition,
2) Implemention of the restoration treatment plan based that was approved by the Regional Technical Team (the vast majority of the treatments were funded by a seperate RCO grant)
3) Monitoring a wide variety of response variables