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Winsor Lowe of the University of Montana

Below are answers to the Water Center’s recent questions to Winsor Lowe, and his graduate student, Adam Sepulveda, about their work. Adam is instrumental in collecting field data necessary for developing the information theory-based computer models Winsor will use to make their findings more useful to policy makers and land managers.

Q: Your work is based in the St. Regis River subbasin in western Montana. Can you please briefly describe the river and why you selected it for this research?

A: The St. Regis River is a 40-mile long tributary of the Clark Fork River in Montana’s Lolo National Forest. The St. Regis River watershed is a mosaic of roads, timber harvest clearcuts, railroads, high intensity burns, and pristine old-growth forests. We selected this watershed for our research because it has a unique mix of altered and unaltered habitats and it is the northeastern extent of the Idaho Giant Salamander range.

Adult Idaho Giant Salamander.

Q: The EPA and the Corps of Engineers are now working to clarify certain ambiguities of the Clean Water Act (CWA) that relate to what waters should fall under the CWA. Is there any way your work can contribute to that decision?

A: In 2006, the Supreme Court issued a consolidated decision (Rapanos vs. U.S.) in which Justice Kennedy set forth the “significant nexus test” as a means to determine those headwater streams and wetlands that fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The significant nexus test indicates that headwater streams and wetlands that affect the physical, chemical and biological integrity of navigable waters deserve CWA protection. A goal of our project is to improve scientific understanding of the influence of headwater streams on the ecological integrity of downstream navigable waters so as to assist policy makers, regulatory authorities, and the courts when attempting to use and apply the “significant nexus test”. Our proposed research will investigate the importance of stream connectivity, timber harvest, and road activity on the distribution and abundance of Idaho Giant Salamanders, a species of concern found in headwater streams and tributaries in the St. Regis River subbasin of the Clark Fork River in Montana. Information gained through this research will advance the broader discipline of water policy in Montana by extending principles of conservation biology to the challenge of protecting amphibians in headwater streams.

Immature Idaho Giant Salamander.

Q: And the practicality of your research includes attempting to determine “best practices,” correct?

A: Yes. For example, we realize that roads are an essential part of the St. Regis watershed. They are used by loggers, campers, fishermen and fire fighters.  A goal of our research is to determine best practices of road construction and use by understanding how roads and their associated stream crossings (i.e., culverts) impact stream organisms. Perhaps we can identify culverts and road designs that are less harmful to stream organism movement and population dynamics.

Q: You stated earlier that “information gained through this research will advance the broader discipline of water policy in Montana.” Who will carry your work to the attention of the appropriate decision makers?

A: We are collaborating with the Pacific Rivers Council, a non-profit whose mission is to protect and restore rivers, their watersheds and native aquatic species. One of its primary goals is to reduce road impacts on rivers and aquatic species. We will work with the Council to share our results with many of the stakeholders with whom they currently communicate, including the US Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Company. This communication will happen through workshops, reports, and conferences. Policy makers will also get the information.

Recording individual salamanders and their movements are key to this work.

Q: Why did you pick the Idaho Giant Salamander as your key species for this work?

A: Stream amphibians like this one are ideal model organisms for understanding the ecological connectivity between upper and lower stream reaches. There is growing evidence that movement at both local and landscape scales is important to population persistence in these species. In addition, stream amphibians are sensitive to a wide range of anthropogenic impacts to streams and surrounding terrestrial habitats. Specifically, we selected the Idaho Giant Salamander as our focal amphibian species because they exhibit facultative paedomorphosis, a polymorphism that results in the coexistence of gilled and fully aquatic paedomorphic adults and terrestrial metamorphic adults in the same populations.  Therefore, movement is possible within the stream channel and overland, between stream channels.

Q: How will your findings about this animal extrapolate to the larger issues of identifying best practices that allow for intact, ecological connections along a stream network and natural resource use by humans?

A: Stream salamanders are mobile, but most likely they do not move far in one generation. Most individuals move less than 50 meters, and only a few individuals will move greater than 500 meters in a lifetime, or so we think. Therefore, if there is a stress to the ecosystem, salamanders will be forced to respond. Stream fishes can move quickly away from the stress, while salamanders must face the stress head on. Moreover, they’re susceptible to stresses within the stream channel and on the landscape because of their aquatic and terrestrial stages. We are of the opinion that monitoring their demographics in connected and fragmented landscapes will help identify which stresses affect stream organisms. Initially our research will attempt to identify broad categories of stresses, such as road crossings and timber harvest. Once we identify a few broad categories that correlate with salamander absences or a decline in their survival, we plan to illuminate the specific mechanisms responsible for population changes and movement. For example, if road crossings do affect them, we would like to identify the types of road crossings that have the most and least deleterious and beneficial effects.

Q: Does any available research suggest what will happen to indicator species, or other species, if stream network connectivity is not maintained?

A: Multiple studies on cutthroat trout, steelhead, and salmon suggest that a fragmented stream network can have dire consequences for population persistence. In fact, stream fragmentation alone is often a great predictor of stream fish absence.

A sample of St. Regis watershed habitat -- home of Idaho Giant Salamanders.

Q: Tell us about the models you intend to develop and how they can help with making better land and water management decisions than those currently being made? When will the models be available?

A: Previous models compared an alternative hypothesis to a null hypothesis and inferences were based on the probability that the null hypothesis was true. The models I will use are based on information theory, which compares multiple models and selects a model or models that are most plausible. This will allow managers to compare the strength of evidence and select the model that most fits their needs and budget. The model development needs data, so these models will be ready in the fall or winter after my field season is complete.

Q: What is the most surprisingly thing you’ve learned or encountered in your work so far?

A: That current distribution patterns of Idaho Giant Salamanders are most likely a result of human alteration to the landscape in the last 100 years. We have been building roads, harvesting timber, mining and spraying the landscape with toxic chemicals for a long time. When I go out and survey for the salamanders in what looks to be a pristine area, I have no idea of what humans did to the area 75 years ago.  Occasionally, I hike six or more miles into a stream, with no road in sight for miles and miles, and yet find evidence of mining or grazing.  In summary, current conditions of the landscape are not good enough predictors of salamander occupancy or demographics. I need to find a way to integrate the cumulative effects of humans on the landscape into my models.

Water Sustainability: Challenges for Montana
Conference Update

The executive committee of the Montana Section of the American Water Resources Association is finalizing an excellent list of speakers and research presenters for the 25th Annual meeting to be held in Big Sky, Montana October 2-3. For the first time in its history, the conference will feature three concurrent sessions Friday morning. Nearly fifty presenters are scheduled, many addressing the conference theme of Water Sustainability: Challenges for Montana. More than twenty posters will be available for viewing and discussion during Thursday evening’s social hour.

For updated conference information, go to http://awra.org/state/montana/index.htm. Please note that in order to reduce consumption and expense, all registration will be done electronically this year. A registration page will soon be posted to the conference website. No registration packet will be mailed to potential conference attendees.

As a final note, if you receive this newsletter but do not receive conference notices and would like to, please contact the Water Center at water@montana.edu with your updated contact information.

Wanted: Photos for MT AWRA’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

This year our photo contest will center on our anniversary theme. We would like as many older photos as possible, showcasing some of our founding members either swilling a PBR or conducting field work. Do you have photos of Larry Cary, Bob Delk, Joe Moreland, Gail Dahl, Ron Shields, Mike Cannon, Wayne Van Voast, Tom Reed, Phil Farnes, Bob Davis or Marv Miller? For simplicity’s sake, it would be best if the photos could be sent as jpeg files, but if your resources are limited, we can covert your old photos into digital products. Please contact Cam Carstarphen at CCarstarphen@mtech.edu or call 496-4633. Please include the year of the photo, names and captions!

Abstracts are due by August 25, 2008. Submission guidelines and conference registration forms are on the River Center website at http://www.umt.edu/rivercenter. Posters are also welcome.

The Legislative Environmental Quality Council recently released a draft Montana climate change report, and a dozen pieces of related, draft legislation for public review and comment.

The report is available for comment through August 22. Comments will be compiled and presented to the EQC at a meeting September 8-9 in Helena. The full report, "Climate Change: An analysis of climate change policy issues in Montana," is available online at http://www.leg.mt.gov/eqc. The website includes all the information reviewed by the council over the last 12 months. Copies of the draft report and discussion drafts also may be obtained by calling 444-3078 or 444-3747.

Email comments to snowakowski@mt.gov. Please put "climate change" in the subject line. To submit comments by mail, send to Sonja Nowakowski, Legislative Environmental Policy Office, P.O. Box 201704, Helena, MT 59620-1704.

A Drought Advisory Committee Meeting was held on July 17, 2008. The agenda and minutes for this meeting, as well as any other information, can be found at http://drought.mt.gov/committee/meetings.asp.

The next Drought Advisory Committee Meeting will be August 14, 2008.

Do you have more news?

Take special note of upcoming national and local water meetings on the Events Calendar at MONTANA WATER.

Montana SWCS Chapter 2008 Summer Meeting and Tour, Pablo, August 13 - 14, 2008 [INFO]

Drought Advisory Committee Meeting, Helena, August 14, 2008 [INFO]

The Ecology of Pacific Salmonids Workshop, Seattle, WA, September 2-3, 2008 [INFO]

Pacific Salmonid Spawning Habitat Restoration Workshop, Seattle, WA, September 4-5, 2008 [INFO]

23rd Annual WateReuse Symposium, Dallas, TX, September 7-10, 2008 [INFO]

Fall Watershed Coordinator's Training, Fort Peck, September 14-16, 2008 [INFO]