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Project Goals
The goal of this project was to analyze the perennial rivers and streams within the North Fork Burnt River. Under the ETAL protocols BRAT was ran on the full HUC 8 level (Burnt River). The BRAT outputs are to be used by managers and members of the Powder Basin Watershed Council to where restoration and conservation efforts would be most effective for beaver in the study area. Further information concerning the scope of this project can be found on the BRAT website for the Burnt River Watershed BRAT page.
Project customizations
On October 23, 2018 we conducted site tours in the North Fork Burnt River watershed. We visited 11 sites over the course of the workshop in October 2018 (Figure 20).
Throughout the field tour we calibrated and validated the BRAT model outputs focusing primarily on examining four important inputs to the model: NHD stream network, base flow stream power estimates, typical 2-year flood stream power estimates, and existing vegetation conditions. We found that the NHD perennial stream codes exaggerated the actual perennial stream network (i.e. many streams coded as perennial were actually found to be intermittent or ephemeral). However, we concluded that the task of recoding the streams was beyond the scope of this current project but could be pursued in the future with additional funding. While verifying stream power estimates we found that base flow and 2-year flood estimates, used in the model, were of sufficient accuracy and precision to meet our modeling needs.
For the vegetation verification component, we were most interested in verifying three classifications: The "Northern Rocky Mountain Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna" coded as a 3,"Rocky Mountain Subalpine/Upper Montane Riparian Shrubland" coded as a 4 and "Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Riparian Shrubland" coded as a 4. Based on the lack of desirable deciduous shrubs and small deciduous trees in these classes, we decided to reduce their beaver dam building material preference scores to 2’s.
Upon discussion with the client the roads input was refined and updated using the United States Forest Service roads layer to determine the maintenance level (i.e. not maintained, closed, or open for use). Then merged with the existing roads layer outside of the forest service boundaries.
Throughout the field tour we calibrated and validated the BRAT model outputs focusing primarily on examining four important inputs to the model: NHD stream network, base flow stream power estimates, typical 2-year flood stream power estimates, and existing vegetation conditions. We found that the NHD perennial stream codes exaggerated the actual perennial stream network (i.e. many streams coded as perennial were actually found to be intermittent or ephemeral). However, we concluded that the task of recoding the streams was beyond the scope of this current project but could be pursued in the future with additional funding. While verifying stream power estimates we found that base flow and 2-year flood estimates, used in the model, were of sufficient accuracy and precision to meet our modeling needs.
For the vegetation verification component, we were most interested in verifying three classifications: The "Northern Rocky Mountain Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna" coded as a 3,"Rocky Mountain Subalpine/Upper Montane Riparian Shrubland" coded as a 4 and "Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Riparian Shrubland" coded as a 4. Based on the lack of desirable deciduous shrubs and small deciduous trees in these classes, we decided to reduce their beaver dam building material preference scores to 2’s.
Upon discussion with the client the roads input was refined and updated using the United States Forest Service roads layer to determine the maintenance level (i.e. not maintained, closed, or open for use). Then merged with the existing roads layer outside of the forest service boundaries.
North Fork burnt river deliverable data products include:
- KMZ files of the four primary BRAT outputs (existing dam capacity, historic dam capacity, human-beaver potential conflict and beaver conservation and restoration zones)
- Shapefiles and Geodatabases for the four primary outputs and standard inputs