Demonstration Project to Test a New Interdisciplinary Approach to Rehabilitating Salmon Spawning Habitat in the Central Valley

This was the eleventh quarter of this CALFED project to demonstrate the utility of the Spawning Habitat Integrated Design Approach (SHIRA). In the previous quarter, all activity focused on data analysis, report writing and outreach. This quarter, more data analysis and report writing was conducted as described below. Several new areas of analysis, including new design considerations, were evaluated. Preliminary planning for the 2005 gravel augmentation was performed. The plan is to continue to use SHIRA’s slope creation methodology (described below) to continue to rehabilitate the Mokelumne River’s longitudinal profile for another ~500’ of channel length using ~3000 tons of gravel. Because Camanche Dam flow releases have been >1,500 cfs since January and will not be lowered until construction, the pre-project characterization phase will be done using data collected in previous years. This is not a major constraint, since the section to be rehabilitated has a deep hole from historic gravel mining right in the primary spawning reach, so that will need to be filled in before any significant habitat heterogeneity may be considered.