1. PFC Introduction

2. The Green Zone in arid rangelands
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Although definitions abound, riparian areas are noticeable by their distinct vegetation found in areas where water flows or collects.

3. Riparian Proper Functioning Condition
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Riparian Proper Functioning Condition
A process for assessment
A defined condition
A starting point
A common language
An interdisciplinary team approach
Explain how the Riparian PFC class can meet most if not all of these expectations because PFC is A process for assessment helps people focus on the physical functioning of riparian systems. PFC is also a defined condition that meets certain expectations important for handling even the forces of moving water. PFC provides a starting point for assessment to which can be added any other data that is useful or needed and a starting point for physical functions that often causes systems to get better even through floods and droughts. The approach provides a common language for people from different disciplines and different walks of life to discuss the diversity and complexities of riparian areas and their management. It accomplishes all this by using an interdisciplinary team approach as exemplified by the Nevada PFC Training Cadre or Creeks and Communities Team.

4. PFC Technical References

5. PFC has: Had more peer review than most assessment methods
Used for over 20 years,
Training by State Teams, and
Tool for developing a common vocabulary.

6. Appendix B provides a list of possible quantitative techniques for stream assessment.
Calibration where answers are uncertain
Accurately and precisely monitor change in a particular attribute.
Burton et al. (2011) provides a “PFC Validation Table” in the MIM data analysis module
For 16 of 17 Items
Quantitative metrics for PFC Items
Measurements (References)
Interpretation, Notes

7. The PFC Assessment Tool
Requires an interdisciplinary (ID) team
Vegetation
Hydrology
Soils
Biology
Landowner or Permittee can add history and management
Local, on-the-ground experience in interpreting quantitative sampling techniques that support the PFC assessment.
TR (1998) page 1: PFC is a qualitative assessment based on quantitative science. The PFC assessment is intended to be performed by an interdisciplinary team with local, on-the-ground experience in the kind of quantitative sampling techniques that support the PFC checklist.
TR (1993, revised 1998) page 2: “The team should include specialists in vegetation, soils, and hydrology. A biologist also needs to be involved because of the high fish and wildlife values associated with riparian-wetland areas.”
[Panguitch Creek, Dixie National Forest, UT 6/21/2000. Interdisciplinary team.]

8. An ID Team needs to: Review existing documents.
Determine attributes and processes key to area being assessed.
Determine potential or altered potential for the site.
Determine a “functional rating”.
Provide written comments on all items unless N/A.

9. NV Creeks and Communities Team – Most Active
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Sherm Swanson, Range w/wildlife, hydro, soils
Chuck Petersen, Range
Carol Evans, Fisheries
John McCann, Hydrology
Doug Merkler, Soils
Bob Hall, Geomorphology Water Quality
Sarah Peterson, Hydrology
Robin Wignall, Hydrology
Scott Lusk, Range
The most active partners in the Nevada Cadre come from a variety of disciplines --

10. NV Creeks and Communities Team
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NV Creeks and Communities Team
Sherm Swanson - Coordinator, UNR Coop. Extension,
John McCann, US Forest Service
Carol Evans, BLM
Chuck Petersen, NRCS
Bob Hall, EPA
Desi Zamudio, Private Citizen
Jerry Annis, Rancher
Robin Wignall, US Forest Service
Sarah Petersen, BLM
Steve Foster, UNR Coop. Extension
John Cobourn, UNR Coop. Extension
Tracy Jean Wolfe, NRCS
Bob Gibson, BLM
Alan Jenne, NV Dept. of Wildlife
Jamie DeFoe, Y-2 Consulting
Jacob Burdick, UNR Hydrology Student
Shawn Vogt, USFWS
Scott Lusk, USFS & CA Cadre
Kathleen Petter, SETT
And the Cadre represents a diversity of agencies and other entities. This is not a process that only applies to one agency’s lands and not to just public lands. The language and approach can be used throughout the watershed.

11. PFC is designed to:
Be used to assess physical function of perennial & intermittent streams
Be used on most stream & river systems
Be used by an experienced interdisciplinary team
Provide consistent approach for assessing physical function of riparian areas

12. PFC is designed to:
Help establish, focus, & prioritize management, monitoring, & restoration activities
Provide a focused and effective foundation for determining resource values & developing management goals
Communicate fundamental riparian concepts

13. PFC is:
Used to describe both the assessment process & on-the-ground condition.
A minimum level or starting point for riparian area stability and sustained function.
A qualitative assessment based on quantitative science.

14. PFC is not designed to: Assess the function of ephemeral systems
Be completed without an ID team
Assess specific resource values or be the sole method for assessing the health of the aquatic or terrestrial components of a riparian area

15. PFC is not designed to:
Assess functions where human alterations created artificial channel conditions.
Normally equate to desired condition.
Replace watershed analysis.

16. PFC is not: A long-term monitoring tool.
A replacement for quantitative inventory or monitoring.
PFC complements more detailed methods by providing context to synthesize data and communicate results.

17. PFC cannot:
Provide more than strong clues as to actual habitat condition for plants & animals.
Eliminate the need for more intensive inventory & monitoring protocols.
A non-functioning physical condition will not provide quality habitat conditions, except for early seral species habitat requirements for certain plants and animals.
A pfc would either be providing quality habitat conditions, or would be moving in that direction if recovery is allowed to continue.
A riparian area that is FAR would likely lose any habitat that exists in a high-flow event.
Needed to validate that riparian area recovery is indeed moving toward or has achieved desired condition or simply to establish what the existing habitat quality is.

18. Watersheds Capture, Store & Safely Release Water
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Watersheds Capture, Store & Safely Release Water
The job of a watershed is to capture, store, and safely release the water from precipitation. Think of a sponge in the bottom of a sink. This is critically important to riparian plants, fish, and wildlife. For our western lands, precipitation is not constant, regular, or even very predictable, with variable dry seasons that overlap the hottest part of the year when riparian areas experience maximum evaporation and transpiration. The alluvial aquifer of the riparian area performs this duty best when it functions properly. However, streams and floodplains vary widely in their ability to store water as illustrated by this labeling of different stream types.

19. RIPARIAN AREAS UPLAND RIPARIAN
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A form of wetland transition between aquatic and adjacent upland areas
Exhibit vegetation or physical characteristics of permanent surface or subsurface water
LAND ADJACENT to PERENNIAL or INTERMITTENT
STREAMS,
SPRINGS,
SEEPS,
PONDS,
ETC.
Riparian areas vary from the wetness of the aquatic ecosystem to the dryness of the adjacent upland. They also vary across a wide variety of water features, each with characteristic energies, forces, soils, flora, and fauna. The surface and subsurface water makes them special and obvious because of the unique vegetation structure that it supports.
UPLAND
RIPARIAN

20. STREAM TYPES PERENNIAL - a stream that flows continuously
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STREAM TYPES
PERENNIAL - a stream that flows continuously
INTERMITTENT OR SEASONAL - a stream that flows only at certain times of the year
EPHEMERAL - a stream that flows only in direct response to precipitation
INTERUPTED – a stream that flows below the surface in certain areas
Perennial and intermittent or seasonal streams provide water for periods long enough to grow the species that we collectively call riparian vegetation. Many of theses species adapted for life in saturated soils have special features to withstand the flow forces of these high energy environments. Plants with dense root systems that bind soils, the flexibility to bend in a flood and spring back provide roughness again in the next flood, or that produce woody debris that provides the reinforcing structure of some stream bottoms may not grow along ephemeral streams. This assessment approach is tested for perennial and intermittent streams where these plants do their work.

21. 1/1/2019
This stream is high up in the mountains and it tumbles over big rocks. Riparian vegetation is present, but is not the major stability factor. Because PFC is rated for the potential of each area, considerations for this area should be quite different from systems elsewhere on the mountain or further down the valley.
PFC?

22. 1/1/2019
Here too we have rocks and riparian vegetation. For its setting does it meet the definition for pfc?
PFC?

23. 1/1/2019
This system dominated by woody riparian shrubs has yet another potential. Does it have the structure it needs to function?
PFC?

24. 1/1/2019
Beavers played a keystone species role in the formation of many valley bottoms. By damming streams and capturing sediment, they helped form the floodplains and determined the soils and future plant communities. Big changes happen when unstable dams wash out.
PFC?