Project Details

Wetlands in Snake Valley and Tule Valley serve as critical habitat for two Conservation Agreement Species, least chub and Columbia spotted frog, and three spring snails currently on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Listing Workplan, bifid duct pyrg, longitudinal gland pyrg, and sub-globose snake pyrg. A key threat to habitat for these species, and spring-fed wetlands in general, is the loss or degradation of habitat and ecosystem function because of declining water table levels resulting from groundwater development and inter-basin transfer of water. These threats have come into focus from the proposed development of water supply wells and an interconnecting pipeline system in the far western portion of Snake Valley (in eastern Nevada) by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Additional threats exist from proposed water development within the local basins.

In 2009, the UGS began a 10-year project to collect hydrologic data in Snake Valley with a network of shallow (~6 ft) wells. The primary goal of this network is to provide baseline data on the depth and timing of surface water and groundwater in wetlands crucial to state sensitive species. These data are important for documenting baseline conditions and aiding with early detection of potential water declines. The data could be used to help prove impairment to the Utah Division of Water Rights in the event of future declines caused by new withdrawals in the region. The initial network consisted of 60 wells; 29 additional wells were added between 2012 and 2014 and 12 were retired in 2014. Transducers in the wells started failing in spring 2018; there are currently transducers in only 58 of the 77 non-retired wells.

The UGS convened a meeting of stakeholders in December 2018 to discuss the future of the Snake Valley groundwater monitoring network. Stakeholders were interested in using the data to produce predictive models to assess how changes in water levels would affect sensitive species. Current groundwater models for the region focus on the effect of withdrawals on groundwater levels rather than surface levels. More sensitive predictive models could be used to support the proposed groundwater management plan that may be developed for Snake Valley or to protest individual water rights applications that threaten sensitive species. Stakeholders also provided the UGS with recommendations on the most important wells to maintain based on proximity to key habitat and other considerations. The UGS subsequently prioritized wells as low, medium, and high priority and ensured that active transducers were in place in all the high priority locations, with funding from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to replace or repair transducers that had failed in fall 2018.

The UGS installed 20 wells in Tule Valley in May 2018 at the request of the BLM to start monitoring water levels in this important habitat for Columbia spotted frog. Coyote Spring, one of the springs in Tule Valley, has shown a recent decline in available surface water habitat for breeding Columbia spotted frogs and die-off of vegetation, likely associated with decreased water availability. The Tule Valley wells will provide data for the current baseline of conditions in Tule Valley.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

The overall goal of this project is to ensure that adequate hydrologic data are available in critical least chub and Columbia spotted frog habitat to support protection of these species. The project has two objectives: obtaining hydrologic data in Snake Valley and Tule Valley and developing a final report for 10-year water monitoring study in Snake Valley.

Objective 1: Obtain hydrologic data from Snake Valley and Tule Valley wetlands.
Task 1: Download data from transducers twice per year, process data to correct for barometric pressure and anomalies, and add data to groundwater data portal. Obtain estimate on field and processing time needed to maintain network at the current size.
Task 2: Maintain network by removing transducers from low priority wells and repairing or purchasing replacement transducers as needed in higher priority wells. 
Outcome: Additional year of data added to water level database and groundwater data portal and network with functioning transducers placed in high priority wells.

Objective 2: Develop final report for 10-year water monitoring study in Snake Valley.
Task 3: Summarize data, including list of wells with location, number of months of data collected, associated vegetation, trend analysis, and status as active, inactive, or removed.
Task 4: Conduct literature review and review existing data and regional groundwater models to evaluate feasibility, additional data needs, and cost of linking surface water outputs to deeper groundwater levels and of linking surface water outputs to annual population data for sensitive species.
Task 5: Based on results of task 4 and task 1 and feedback from stakeholders, develop a recommendation for the future of the monitoring network, including number and location of wells to maintain, estimated cost of continued maintenance, and potential funding partners.
Outcome: Final report with summary of water level monitoring data, recommendations for future studies, and recommendations for future of the monitoring network.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

1. Amendment to the 2005 Conservation Agreement Strategy for the Least Chub (Iotichthys phlegethontis), February 2014
-Conservation Action to address groundwater withdrawal: "UDWR agrees to coordinate with Utah Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey to assess current piezometer data and monitor groundwater levels at Snake Valley least chub population sites. UDWR will also coordinate with these agencies to install additional piezometers, as needed." The proposed work directly addresses this Conservation Action.
-Conservation Action to address climate change/drought: "The UDWR agrees to coordinate with Utah
Geological Survey and United States Geological Survey to monitor piezometers and surface flow gages at the Snake Valley wild population sites in order to evaluate the changes in groundwater levels and spring discharge rates, respectively." The proposed work directly addresses this Conservation Action.

2. Conservation Agreement and Strategy for Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana luteiventris) in the State of Utah (2009)
-Conservation Element C, Restore Hydrologic Condition: "Identify water needs in current and potential Columbia spotted frog habitats" and "Maintain natural hydrologic conditions." The proposed work will provide data that will allow for identification of water needs.
-Conservation Element F, Monitoring: "Monitor additional parameters (e.g., water level, precipitation), as necessary, to help interpret population fluctuations." The proposed work will provide hydrologic monitoring data that could support this type of analysis.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Objective 1: Obtain hydrologic data from Snake Valley and Tule Valley wetlands.

Task 1: Download and process data: Surveyors will visit each well (and associated barometers) once each in the fall and the spring, measure water level, stick-up height, and electroconductivity using a handheld meter, and download pressure transducer data onto a computer tablet via an existing Solinst application. Transducer data will be corrected for barometric pressure and drift using existing processing scripts and added to the water level monitoring database and groundwater data portal. During the spring 2020 survey event, employees will estimate the total field and processing time needed to maintain the network at its current size.

Task 2: Maintain network: Batteries for the Solinst Levelogger Junior Edge transducers started to fail in spring 2018 (they have a listed life span of 5 years), and we anticipate more battery failure in the year to come. We will continue to send nonresponsive transducers to Solinst to extract the remaining data and replace either the battery or whole unit, depending on Solinst's evaluation. We will redeploy transducers in all high priority wells and as many moderate priority wells as possible and remove transducers from low priority wells.

Objective 2: Develop final report for 10-year water monitoring study in Snake Valley.

Task 3: Data summary: We will use existing and new data analysis R and Python scripts to analyze existing water level data for each well to determine number of months of data collected and to evaluate trends after controlling for seasonal patterns. Data from existing databases will be used to list location, vegetation, and status for each well. Additional hydrologic metrics may be calculated for individual wells if identified as potentially useful under task 4. For example, it may be useful to calculate the number of days each well had surface water during the time that Columbia spotted frog lay eggs each year.

Task 4: Research recommendation: Groundwater hydrogeologists at the UGS will review literature, existing data, and existing regional groundwater models to develop a proposal outlining potential approaches for linking groundwater in Snake Valley to surface water outputs. UGS wetland ecologists will work closely with Drew Dittmer from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to conduct a similar review of literature and existing data to evaluate approaches to modeling fish and amphibian population measures using hydrologic data. Both groups will work closely together to discuss linkages between the proposals and to develop recommendations for future studies with associated data and funding needs.

Task 5: Network recommendation: We will use information on the time requirements for data download and processing from task 1, the recommendations for future studies from task 4, and stakeholder feedback to develop recommendations for the future of the network. We will address how many and which wells to keep active, based in part on data needs identified as part of task 4. We will also estimate the cost of continued maintenance of the network and discuss potential funding partners.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

This project supports Conservation Agreements for Least Chub and Columbia Spotted Frog to better
understand what hydrologic conditions occur across a range of sites with varying species populations, and over time as climate variation affects groundwater discharge and wetland hydrology - which affect habitat quality and population success. The UGS has presented results at the Conservation Team meetings for both species and continues to receive the support of the Conservation Teams.

UGS convened a meeting of stakeholders, composed primarily of Conservation Team members for least chub and Columbia spotted frog, in mid-December 2018 to discuss the future of the project. The stakeholders proposed continuing to maintain the network through the end of the 10th year by replacing transducers as needed and developing recommendations for how to develop predictive models showing how changes in water levels affect sensitive species. Employees with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and BLM have provided feedback prioritizing wells in the network and will continue to provide that feedback in FY2020. Drew Dittmer from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has agreed to work with the UGS on task 4.

The UGS currently has funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to quantify the relationship between climate variables and water level data in the shallow wells. This analysis is an important first step for being able to quantify the effect of groundwater withdrawal on water levels and to understand population changes related to changing water levels. Paul Inkenbrandt, who is leading this study, will be draw on his findings and be an active participant in the development of recommendations for future studies (task 4).

The UGS applied for and received funds from the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund (ESMF) to support this work in fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019 -- June 30, 2020). The ESMF funds will support half of the field work in Snake Valley and associated data processing and the majority of office time needed for preparation of the final report, while the requested BLM funds will pay for the remainder of field work in Snake Valley, all of the field work in Tule Valley, transducer replacement or repair, and a small portion of the development of the final report.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.