1. Panel 1: Understanding the Challenges of Today
Notes will be available at habitatconference.org/notes

2. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Environmental Baselines
Jeremy Freimund, Lummi Nation
Example from Lummi Nation:
Degradation of freshwater habitat through the conversion of a forested landscape in 1800s
Deforestation from agriculture and urban development
Decrease in channel length and fish habitat
What is appropriate baseline? Shortened length or channels with room to migrate?
Also water diversion and road crossings

3. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Environmental Baselines
Jeremy Freimund, Lummi Nation
Degradation of marine water habitat through the conversion of eelgrass beds and tidelands in 1800s
750 ac of habitat armored, dredges and filled
Even if it can’t be restored to pristine conditions, historic conditions are more appropriate for clean-up and restoration
Treaty rights are at risk – current conditions are not an appropriate environmental baseline to protect treaty rights.

4. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Predicting Dike Breaches for Tidal Marsh Restoration
W. Gregory Hood, Skagit River System Cooperative
Goal: building quantitative predictive models for tidal marsh restoration
Number of tidal challenges that drain marsh islands scale with the size of island
Looked at restoration sites and reference tidal marshes in Puget Sound and Columbia River
Restored sites have only 20% as many tidal channels as natural reference sites
Largest channels point downstream, but many others flow in all directions on the islands
Smith Island Snohomish Co. Project more than doubled number of planned breeches with this nformation

5. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Dungeness River Floodplain Restoration and Levee Setback
Randy Johnson, Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe
Dungeness River salmon and char, almost all are imperiled
Productivity (smolts per female) not meeting replacement levels
Large ranges of productivity rates means river is not resilient to disturbance, especially high peak flows during incubation
Why? River was cleared of log jams and building of dikes disconnected most of floodplain
Dungeness Meadows Restoration--dike setback and reforestation, but there are still barriers: landowners willingness
Solutions? Wait for natural disaster, paying more, condemnation, litigation

6. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Experiences with Addressing Climate Change Impacts on the Nooksack River -- Oliver Grah, Nooksack Indian Tribe
Climate project components:
Baseline trends
Restoration effectiveness
Climate change and temperature modeling
Sediment dynamics and modeling
Multiple climate change impacts predicted to flows and temperatures—interacting with legacy impacts
SF Nooksack CWA 303(d) listed, but temperature TMDL didn’t include climate change, legacy impacts, and upland watershed processes
How are “natural conditions” defined by agencies—must be be consistent with tribes’ understanding--prior to the problem

7. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Experiences with Addressing Climate Change Impacts on the Nooksack River -- Oliver Grah, Nooksack Indian Tribe
Under the TMDL, there is a possibility that the standards will change in a manner that does not protect fish under CWA
Model results show river once met all temperature standards, even though TMDL originally was going to use modeled temperatures that did not meet standards
Quantitative and qualitative assessments of impacts on climate change on salmon and salmon habitat
Draft Report out: Qualitative Assessment: Evaluating the Impacts of Climate Change on Endangered Species Act Recovery Actions for the South Fork Nooksack River,
Webinar May 19, PM.

8. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Detecting Ocean Acidification in Neah Bay
Yongwen Gao, Makah Tribe
Two phases of OA study: shellfish and finfish
Shellfish use calcium carbonate (CaCO2) to make shells, and ocean water becomes undersaturated with atmospheric CO2 deposition into the water
Study of California mussels from 3 islands in Neah Bay:
Is OA happening in Neah Bay? And what are fisheries management options?
Sea scallop: huge population loss—due to temperature, OA or genetic shift?
Geoduck in Hood Canal and low dissolved oxygen from 1990 to 2005
Stable isotopes in shells show the life history of geoduck and sea scallop and can be used to study OA and climate change

9. Understanding the Challenges of Today
Air Quality and Climate Change
Tony Basabe, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
Major changes in last decades on Swinomish reservation: Increase in fossils fuel trains to Marches Point and Cherry Point
Also more of the time downwind of refineries
Meteorological impacts to air quality and water quality due to climate change (temperature, precipitation)
Tracking trends:
Burn ban season
Timing of precipitation
Little known about air quality and air-water interface
Funding being cut, but can make a difference if speaking in a unified voice