Project Details

Ecologically sensitive aquatic insects -- including species of stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies -- have declined worldwide. Such declines are concerning because aquatic insects represent the core of freshwater biodiversity, are integral to food-webs, and support economically important fisheries. Further, aquatic insects are biological indicators used to detect water quality deficiencies. Despite known water quality impairments and anecdotal evidence of aquatic insect declines in the Odgen River Basin, little is known about how aquatic-insect communities have changed, and we lack robust, standardized, baseline data necessary for future comparisons. Filling these knowledge gaps will assist resource managers to assess the status and trends of stream health, to integrate insects more effectively into management and restoration planning, and to make more informed contemporary and future decisions regarding resource use within the watershed. 
To fill these knowledge gaps and, ultimately, to better protect the water quality and biodiversity of the Basin, we propose to quantify macroinvertebrate densities at 14 sites within the Ogden River Basin (supplemental figure 1). Data will be used to calculate biodiversity and the conservation status and distributions of a vulnerable species such as the giant salmonfly  [Pteronarcys californica], which has anecdotally been described as declining. We will compare metrics to those measured historically from 1996--2017 (available via the National Aquatic Monitoring Center) to quantify trends in macroinvertebrate and water quality data. Outputs will also be used as a contemporary baseline for future comparison during massive anthropogenic growth and land-use changes that are expected to occur over the next one to three decades within the Basin. This work is imperative to characterize current stream health and to provide scientifically defensible, standardized, and robust data to guide management decisions.
Providing more data on sensitive species, including the giant salmonfly will be particularly impactful. The giant salmonfly is one of the largest of all stream insects and draws unapparelled attention from both fishes, terrestrial insectivores, and anglers during its late spring emergences. Salmonflies are a keystone species given their role in cycling nutrients by shredding leaves. However, the giant salmonfly is being considered for inclusion as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the 2025 Utah Wildlife Action Plan due to widespread populations declines. The giant salmonfly has disappeared from much of the nearby Provo River and from all of the Logan River. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it is also declining in the Ogden River Basin. However, additional data is needed to confirm these claims and to describe the extent and severity of potential declines. If sensitive taxa are declining, it suggests that local water quality is impaired. Once improved data has been gathered on the status and trends of sensitive species, resource managers will be better able to create conservation and restoration plans to protect and enhance local biodiversity and water quality. This will be of benefit to other at-risk species in the Ogden River and/or in the larger Weber River Basin such as Bonneville cutthroat trout and green sucker. 
Additional macroinvertebrate data will also facilitate improvements in future resource management during anthropogenic development in the Ogden River Basin. Watershed threats and impairments are already significant within the Ogden River Basin and were recently summarized in the Ogden River Basin Watershed Plan (2023). Impaired waters include the Middle Fork Ogden River (Dissolved Oxygen), South Fork Ogden River (Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators), and Pineview Reservoir (Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Phosphorus, and pH). The presence of these impairments in upstream portions of the watershed suggests that downstream locations in the Ogden River Basin, such as the mainstem Ogden River, may also be experiencing adverse effects. Further, rapid, ongoing human development raises concern about other potential impairments, such as increased municipal water demand. Indeed, chronic dewatering is known to occur in portions of the North Fork Ogden, the Middle Fork Ogden, and the South Fork Ogden Rivers and will be worsened by additional withdrawals related to municipal development including those proposed on the South Fork Ogden River (see the Ogden Valley Water Supply and Infrastructure Study [2023], which projects the total number of water connections to grow from near 3,000 in 2012 to over 13,000 in 2060).

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.

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.

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.

To complete these objectives, we will collect quantifiable macroinvertebrate samples at 14 riffled sites across the Ogden River Basin -- four sites on the mainstem and South Fork and three sites on the North and Middle Forks. Most sites have been previously sampled by historic, quantifiable macroinvertebrate surveys, which will facilitate temporal comparisons. Previously unsampled sites will be sampled on North Fork Ogden and Middle Fork Ogden rivers to improve distribution of sampling locations in the Basin (supplemental figure 1). At each site, Utah DWQ methods (see Standard Operating Procedure for Aquatic Benthic Macroinvertebrate Collection in Streams Version 2.1 [2023]) will be used, and two composite samples consisting of 8 subsamples each will be collected. Collections will be made using modified Surber samplers from 8 randomly selected riffle locations. Samples will be preserved in ethanol, and invertebrates will be identified and enumerated by taxonomists at StagBenthics, Montana. We will then use the resulting data to assess the current health of the streams and to measure temporal changes, using historical data as a baseline. Response variables used in our assessments and comparisons will include outputs from the River Invertebrate Prediction And Classification System (RIVPACS). RIVPACS is a widely-used, multivariate predictive model that incorporates observed versus expected benthic macroinvertebrate data to detect and quantify anthropogenic stress on aquatic communities of streams and rivers. For example, Utah DWQ uses RIVPACS to compare observed species occurrence with expected species occurrence (i.e., O/E) to monitor stream health across the State. Comparisons will also be made between historical and contemporary biodiversity (e.g., Shannon diversity, richness) and functional metrics, (e.g., percent fauna within functional feeding groups), other water quality metrics (e.g., percent EPT), and densities and distributions of sensitive species such as the giant salmonfly. A final report will be completed to detail our findings, including conservation recommendations, and the report and data will be submitted to an open access repository.

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.

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.