{"id":9155,"date":"2020-06-09T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/habitat.fisheries.org\/?p=2941"},"modified":"2020-06-09T05:00:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T05:00:25","slug":"navigating-whitewater-parks-and-their-effects-on-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/navigating-whitewater-parks-and-their-effects-on-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating Whitewater Parks and Their Effects on Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rivers attract all types of recreators. In addition to anglers, many of the rivers in North America are frequented by boaters, kayakers, and whitewater rafters. In the past several decades, <\/del>whitewater parks have increased in popularity throughout several Western states, including Colorado. These man-made structures are created to provide artificial rafting or kayaking opportunies in a river, and often bring economic benefit to surrounding communities. However, there is much about these structures that remains to be understood in terms of their effects upon fish habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there are experts like Matt Kondratieff, an aquatic research scientist, who study the intersection of recreation and fish management.. Matt works for state of Colorado, where whitewater parks have been increasing in number and popularity. I first met Matt at the River Restoration Conference in 2018, and I recently interviewed him via email for his perspective and expertise on whitewater parks. [The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A whitewater park in northern Colorado. These facilities rely on manmade structures to modify river flows. Photo via Matt Kondratieff.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dawson<\/strong>: As an\naquatic research scientist for the state of Colorado, can you describe what\nyour main responsibilities are and where you spend the majority of your time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kondratieff<\/strong>: As a Colorado\nParks and Wildlife research scientist, my primary responsibilities involve\nstream habitat investigations including studying fish population response to restoration\nand enhancement activities, understanding the barrier-potential of in-channel\nstructures like water diversions and whitewater parks (WWPs), development of\nfish passage solutions, and design of conservation barriers to protect native species\nsuch as cutthroat trout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson<\/strong>: It seems as if whitewater parks are becoming increasingly popular. What impacts do these structures have on fish? Do impacts to fish limit WWP projects?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kondratieff<\/strong>: WWP\nstructures have the potential to degrade habitat quality and restrict fish\npassage. Although they create deep pools, we observed fish densities and biomass\nwere higher in natural pools than in WWP pools for trout and native fish…. Site\nselection is probably the most important aspect to consider for limiting\nimpacts of WWPs on fish habitat. The stream gradient, stream hydrology, other\nfactors should be used to inform WWP designs and the placement of structures\nwithin the proposed reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish traits\nand capabilities are directly related to the physical habitat characteristics\nfound in the natural channels which they occupy. Low gradient stream channels\nin unconfined valleys or plains are typically occupied by fish species that are\nincapable of jumping over vertical obstacles and have resident fish with weaker\nswimming capabilities. High gradient mountain streams are typically occupied by\nfish species that are capable of jumping and have swimming capabilities that\nenable them to burst through high velocities and turbulence. Some weaker swimming,\nsmall-bodied fishes display avoidance behaviors that limit their ability to swim\nover deep pools where they are vulnerable to predation. Instead, they utilize shallow\nlateral edges of stream channels. Research has shown that impacts of WWPs on\nrivers and fisheries is very specific and will depend on the conditions at a\nriver site as well as the fish populations present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of\nthe WWP projects I have been associated with put a higher value on impacts to\nfish passage than fish habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the challenges posed by whitewater parks are the added complications for fish passage, such as new barriers or changed water velocities. Image via Matt Kondratieff.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dawson<\/strong>:\u00a0If a new whitewater park is going to be built, are there modifications available to minimize their effects on fish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kondratieff<\/strong>: Yes,\none of the most exciting changes we have seen over the past decade involves\nincorporation of fish passage criteria into whitewater park structures.  Nearly all of the whitewater parks that have\nbeen constructed in Colorado over the past decade include some form of fish\npassage incorporated directly into or in the vicinity of the WWP\nstructure.  Some types of fish passage\nsolutions include rock ramps, bypass structures, channel splits, fish notches, multi-stage\nchannel concepts and roughened channel boundaries.  Habitat mitigation measures have included\noff-site mitigation sites to replace lost angler opportunities. In addition,<\/ins> more projects are leaving some\nriffle habitats in portions of the whitewater park reach instead of replacing\nall the riffles with drop structures, and developing off-channel and side\nchannel locations for fish habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson<\/strong>:  In your\nopinion, is there any way that a whitewater park can be used to provide a\nbenefit for fish populations? I have heard that they were initially touted as a\nway to improve habitat, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kondratieff<\/strong>:  Yes, we have seen several examples of how WWPs\nhave been used to provide benefits to fish populations..<\/ins>  For example, we know of some locations where\nan existing water diversion that was functioning as a complete barrier to fish\nupstream movement was replaced with a WWP that included a form of fish passage in\nthe project.  The WWP improved fish\npassage by providing passage where none had previously existed.  Also, WWP structures have been used to\nfunction as a barrier to fish movement to protect conservation fish populations\nlocated upstream.  In Colorado, a\nRecreational In Channel Diversion (RICD) water rights can be attached to a WWP\nstructure.  This in channel water right\ncould potentially be used to increase the amount of water flowing in the stream\nand thus benefit fish populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson<\/strong>:\u00a0Going forward, what role do you see whitewater parks playing in the future of Western rivers? What research questions are still out there to better inform us on these structures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kondratieff<\/strong>:\u00a0 WWP designs are continually evolving as new research continues to inform the potential impacts on natural channel processes, fish passage and aquatic habitat.\u00a0 There are differences in the degree to which WWPs are being developed between states.\u00a0 For instance, in Colorado the application of water rights tied to WWP structures drives the expansion of WWPs in the state.\u00a0 States that have stream fishes that are federally-listed often have stricter regulations and restrictions that make WWP development cost-prohibitive and not economically feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future research includes refinement of species-specific fish\nswimming criteria, development of fishway solutions tailored to the specific\ncharacteristics of the site (i.e. degree of channel confinement and channel\nslope), understanding how the complex hydraulic forces associated with WWP\npools influence various fish species, and more direct studies of fish movement\nthrough WWPs would be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t take an expert to tell us that our rivers today\nexist in a multiple-use world, where the goals of different users vary as\nwidely as the flows in the rivers they use. That doesn\u2019t mean that our rivers\nhave to be degraded by competing uses, though. Whitewater parks may continue to\nincrease in popularity across the country, and with them will also grow the\nimportance of researching their effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you to Matt Kondratieff for sharing his expertise regarding whitewater parks and their effects. Matt is based out of the Fort Collins, CO office of Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and may be reached for further questions at matt.kondratieff@state.co.us. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the American Fisheries Society. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rivers attract all types of recreators. In addition to anglers, many of the rivers in North America are frequented by boaters, kayakers, and whitewater rafters. In the past several decades, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}