All organisms need a place to live that meets their basic needs. This is true for the federally endangered pallid sturgeon too.  The recovery program for this species in the Missouri River consists of several components.  

These components include monitoring, research, propagation, and the creation of habitat.  The Habitat, Assessment, and Monitoring Project (HAMP) is focused on evaluating Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) habitat creation projects on the Missouri River. 

Historically, shallow slow-water habitat areas were lost on the river due to channel modifications and infrastructure additions to support navigation and bank stabilization.  Even though construction of these re-created habitat sites is intended for the pallid sturgeon, other native fishes will benefit from increased habitat diversity that mimics prenavigation river conditions.  HAMP sampling is intended as a monitoring tool for these created habitat sites, but uses a design that has been used in research for years. 

HAMP was instituted in 2005 and has undergone substantial evolution. The goal of the project is to determine if specific modifications are benefiting native big river species. The first year was dedicated to developing the framework for a long term multi-agency monitoring program. 

A Before/After/Control/Impact (BACI) sampling framework that relies on sampling discrete sections of the river (bends) as a controlled experiment (as much as possible in a dynamic large river) was selected. Bends with habitat construction sites are paired with bends lacking these sites. Both types of sites are sampled before and after habitat construction. This allows us to account for changes in fish data which may be due to the increased habitat versus natural annual changes in river stages and flow.

STEP students Cody Luebbering and Megan Ferry work up push trawl sample for HAMP.

Sampling gears were evaluated, sampling designs were developed and techniques were refined to address the specific goals of HAMP. Large river ecology is a rather new science.  Many sampling gear designs used in the past were borrowed from lake and large reservoir work. Although these gears catch fish in rivers, gears that are specifically designed for river conditions are currently being developed and implemented by Columbia FRO. Sampling gears selected for HAMP were intended to evaluate a variety of different habitats as well as a variety of fish species and sizes. In addition to pallid sturgeon we are interested in other obligate big river fishes such as sicklefin and sturgeon chubs, blue suckers and shovelnose sturgeon. These species either serve as food items for the pallid or inhabit similar areas.

In 2006, the focus shifted to how much effort was needed to detect differences between bends. The number of sampling gears was reduced to five.  Three gears; trammel nets, seines, and stern trawling; overlapped with the Pallid Monitoring Program to allow data sharing between the two projects.  Columbia FRO has developed two gears specifically to target young-of-year and small bodied fishes.  The push trawl was developed by our Mitigation Program crew while the HAMP crew developed the small mesh stern trawl. These gears have been so successful they are now being used by agencies and universities outside of HAMP to collect these species.    

An independent science review (ISR) process was conducted by the Sustainable Ecosystem Institute as a tool to help guide and improve HAMP.  In this process outside experts critique and provide guidance in areas of the program that need improvement.  Two ISR meetings were conducted in 2006.  Over 30 biologists and engineers, and two Sustainable Ecosystem Institute expert panel reviews, aided HAMP development. While we struggled as a group early on, the efforts were worth it. HAMP received a “thumbs-up” from ISR. This project will be a pivotal catalyst using new river sampling techniques.

Columbia FRO met with the ACOE and Nebraska Fish, Game, and Parks in early 2007 to incorporate participant comments from the ISR meetings to refine the 2007 sampling design and protocols. We also combined what we had each learned from previous years to develop the sampling design to meet the needs of HAMP.  This included paring down the total number of gears and setting sample size goals. Gears continue to be found that will enhance our ability to evaluate sites. The use of trotlines in a new fashion has eliminated the safety concerns which caused us to abandon the gear six years ago.   This will allow us to sample discrete habitats in fall 2007 in a way none of the current gears can. 

HAMP has come a long way in the last three years, with more refinements to come.  The future incorporation of telemetry will increase our understanding of juvenile pallid sturgeon habitat use. This work is not currently being done in the Lower Missouri or Mississippi Rivers.

Big river ecosystems and related management issues are very complex.  With perseverance and cooperation, solutions to management issues and pallid sturgeon recovery are attainable.

Nick Frohnauer and Andy Starostka