Report/Item

The Riparian, Watersheds, and Habitat Committee has completed its evaluation of entries for the 2008 Riparian Challenge.  The Riparian Committee appreciates the time the entrants took to prepare top notch entries.  The Committee received 17 entries (2 BLM, 7 USFS, 8 Other).  The following entries were selected for the 2008 Riparian Challenge Award.

BLM - Holister Field Office - Santa Cruz IWRP for Santa Cruz County

USFS - Lolo National Forest - Nine Mile Ranger District - Eustache Creek Project

Other (2):

The Nature Conservancy - Williamson River Delta Restoration Project - Tulana Phase

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks - The Big Hole Partnership - Watershed Restoration for Arctic Grayling on Private Land

The winning entries are included below.  Thanks to all who participated and we'll look forward to seeing you in Portland for the 2008 Western Division/Oregon Chapter meeting. 

BLM Winning entry

USFS Winning entry

TNC Winning entry

MFWP Winning entry

2008 Riparian Challenge

The Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee is seeking entries for the Western Division’s 2008 Riparian Challenge Award. The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other conservation agencies or private industries in the states encompassed by the Western Division (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Mexico) are invited to participate in the Riparian Challenge. Winners will receive the Western Division’s Award of Excellence in Riparian Management to be presented at the Western Division Annual Meeting hosted by Oregon Chapter AFS in Portland, Oregon, May 4-9, 2008.  Please see the following documents for further information:

Please see the following documents for further information:

2008 Riparian Challenge Call for Entries

2008 Riparian Challenge Entry Format

The winner of the Western Division’s Award of Excellence in Riparian Management for the Bureau of Land Management went to the Salem District Field Office for the Tillamook Resource Area Riparian Restoration Effort.

The Forest Service award went to the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District for the Down Doggy Project. 

The Other Category award went to the Grande Ronde Model Watershed for the End Creek project.  Award recipients include (from left) Allen Childs (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation), Jeff Oveson (GRMW), Dr. Joel Rice (participating landowner), and Vance McGowan (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife).

The following documents are available for reference regarding the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee's activities, etc:

• Riparian Challenge Report - 2007

The following documents are available for reference regarding the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee's activities, etc:

• Riparian Challenge Report

The following documents are available for reference regarding the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee's activities, etc:

• Riparian Challenge Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee Report 2005

The mission of the Riparian, Watershed and Habitat Committee is to coordinate and promote scientific understanding and management of riparian zones, their watersheds, and fish habitat, among and between AFS members, scientific organizations, the public, policy makers, agencies and other relevant stakeholders. The Committee reviewed all available materials documenting the history of the Riparian Committee. This information was used to prepare a Draft Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee Procedures Manual. This project is ongoing and will be completed by the end of the fiscal year. The Committee assisted with the development of the program for the 2004 Western Division annual meeting in Salt Lake City by devoting a session to stream restoration, riparian and grazing management issues in fisheries. The Committee expanded the Riparian Challenge to include other agencies that are implementing improvements to the riparian and watershed ecosystems.

The Riparian Challenge Subcommittee Charge

•  Annually solicit nominees for the Division's Riparian Challenge Award from the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and other agencies.

Riparian Challenge Committee: Hilda Sexauer , Wyoming Game and Fish Department Committee Chair Troy Brandt, Private Consultant Committee Member Steve Wolff , Wyoming Game and Fish Department Committee Member Eric Reiland , Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee Member

The Riparian Challenge Committee is in charge of annually soliciting nominees for the Division's Riparian Challenge Award. Prior to this year we have only solicited entries from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. In an attempt to recognize other agencies besides the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management we have incorporated a third category that includes other agencies or groups that are striving to improve riparian and watershed habitats. The subcommittee was responsible for soliciting submissions from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other agencies or industries, ordering plaques and making award presentations at the Western Division's annual business meeting. The committee began soliciting nominations on October 15, 2003. The Riparian Challenge entry form and criteria were posted on the Western Division's website, the Colorado-Wyoming Chapter website, The Tributary, and The Angler . These forms were also sent to Dave Lentz for distribution to all Western Division AFS members. Letters were sent to one Washington , DC representative from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management announcing the solicitation for the 2004 Riparian Challenge. This information was forwarded by the Washington , DC representative to the appropriate National Forests and Field Offices. The deadline for entries was January 9, 2004. Most entries were received on January 8 th and 9 th . The Committee Chair sent each committee member a CD and a hard copy of all entries on January 16, 2004. The committee members used a modified version of the 2003 judging form. Four committee members independently judged each of the 24 submissions (10 BLM, 7 FS and 7 other). The final ranking from the four judges were averaged to select the winner for each category. This year we selected a recipient from the following categories: •  Bureau of Land Management •  Forest Service •  Other: This category includes all submissions besides those entered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management The 2004 Award of Excellence in Riparian Management was awarded to three entities. The recipients of the award were contacted during the week of February 2, 2004. On February 6, 2004 a letter announcing the winners was sent to the Washington , DC representative for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The winner of the Western Division's Award of Excellence in Riparian Management for the Bureau of Land Management went to the Carson Field Office for the Truckee River project and the Forest Service award went to the Mt. Adams Ranger District of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for the Wind River Stream Channel and Riparian Rehabilitation project. We awarded the Restore McComas Meadows/Meadow Creek Watershed project submitted by the Nez Perce Tribe for the Other Category. The winning projects can be viewed on the Colorado-Wyoming Chapter and the Western Division's websites. The Committee will present representatives from the winning offices with the award at the Annual Western Division's Business Luncheon in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2004. The Committee Chair prepared and mailed letters thanking each entrant for participating in the Riparian Challenge and announcing the winning entries. We also informed the entrants that the winning projects would be posted on the websites and hopefully announced in Fisheries . Future Committee Plans: •  Develop standardize criteria for judging Riparian Challenge nominations. •  Identify tools for distributing the Riparian Challenge information to other groups besides Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. •  Forward all the committee documents not included in the Procedures Manual to Venice Beske, the Western Division Archivist.

2004 Activities

• The committee is Seeking Entries for the 2004 Riparian Challenge Award --- Application Deadline: January 9 , 2004.
• Entry Form and Criteria for Evaluation for the 2004 Riparian Challenge Award

2003 Annual Report
Committee Chair - David Zafft

The Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee revised the entry format for the 2003 Riparian Challenge. The entry format was more clearly defined and nominations were limited to 4 pages of text. The committee solicited nominations for the 2003 Riparian Challenge. Letters were sent to the USDA Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in mid-October 2002 and all information related to the Riparian Challenge has been updated on the Division website. The deadline for nominations was February 3, 2003. The Riparian Challenge Subcommittee will then judge the nominations and select award winners. Winners will receive the Western Division's Award of Excellence in Riparian Management at the annual business meeting in San Diego.

The committee is continuing work on a Committee History and Procedures Manual . A topic that has routinely come up over the years has been how to recognize exceptional riparian management projects that are conducted by entities other than the USFS or BLM.

Since the inception of the Riparian Challenge, the BLM and USFS have been eligible for up to three awards each, depending on the number of entries. BLM awards included Best Resource Area, Best District and Best State. Similarly, USFS awards included Best Ranger District, Best National Forest and Best Region. Many years ago, the Riparian Challenge nomination consisted of a short form that was sent to all the BLM and USFS offices. Participants simply filled in the blanks on the nomination form and returned it to the Riparian Committee. As a result, large numbers of nominations were received and many awards were routinely given. In an effort to allow more detailed descriptions of the projects, the nomination form was later abandoned in favor of a more detailed report describing each project. Over the years, these reports grew to many pages and the number of applications subsequently began to dwindle. It has been a number of years since either agency received more than one award. However, other entities have continued to express interest in nominating projects.

Following discussions at the 2003 Western Division Excom Retreat and with representatives of the USFS and BLM, the committee decided to revise the Riparian Challenge after 2003. Beginning in 2004, three awards will be presented. One award will be given to recognize the best riparian habitat management project submitted by the USFS. A second award will recognize the best BLM project. Beginning in 2004, a third award will be presented to the best project submitted by any entity other than the USFS or BLM. This award will be open to private consulting firms, state agencies, conservation organizations and any other groups that would like to nominate a riparian habitat project for the award. The judging criteria will be revised again in 2003 and will emphasize watershed scale projects and holistic habitat management.

As a result of these modifications:

Nominations will be continue to be solicited from the USFS and BLM at least three months prior to the application deadline. Announcements for the Riparian Challenge will continue to be posted in the Division newsletter and on the web site.

The committee received seven nominations from the BLM and three from the USFS for the 2003 Riparian Challenge. The nominations were independently ranked by four members of the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee and winners were selected. The 2003 BLM winner was the Lewistown Field Office for their riparian habitat work on the upper Missouri River in Montana. The USFS winner was the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest for the Respect the River riparian education initiative. Award plaques will be presented to representatives of each agency during the Western Division's annual business meeting on Wednesday, April 16.

The Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee will prepare a couple of symposia sessions for the 2004 Western Division meeting in Salt Lake City. Don Wiley, President of the Bonneville Chapter, is chairing the subcommittee that will develop a symposium on Livestock Grazing for Fishable Waters – similar to the session that was organized for the 2002 Western Division annual meeting in Spokane, WA. The Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee will also assist in the development of a symposium on the Impacts of Fire Management on Fisheries and in the development of a continuing education workshop related to riparian management for the 2004 meeting.

In 2003, the committee was asked to represent AFS on the Society for Range Management's (SRM) Range Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) Task Force. The goal of the REAP initiative is to provide ranchers with a mechanism to promote voluntary environmental stewardship and self-regulation. The tool would identify the environmental shortcomings of the operations of participating ranchers and provide opportunities for them to correct problems before violating federal laws, thereby reducing the need for federal oversight and regulation.

The SRM REAP Task Force had their first meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona in August 2002. One of the issues identified at this meeting was who to involve on the Task Force. The group realized that specialists in other natural resource fields were needed. They decided to invite representatives from each of the following organizations to join the Task Force: American Fisheries Society, Wildlife Society, Grazing Land Committee of the National Association of Conservation Districts, and the California Rangeland Watershed Program. The group also decided that the National Cattleman's Beef Association (NCBA) must “buy into” REAP in order for it to succeed.

The second REAP meeting was held in Denver, Colorado in October 2002. Mathew Varner (District Fishery Biologist, BLM, Winnemucca Field Office) and Steve Wolff (Aquatic Habitat Supervisor, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Cheyenne) attended as representatives of the Western Division of AFS. The Task Force discussed and revised the goals and objectives of REAP. Some of the objectives identified were to: 1) Promote voluntary environmental stewardship, 2) Improve public perception of rangeland utilization, 3) Move agriculture toward self-regulation, and 4) Sustain rangeland environments through ecosystem stewardship, while maintaining or improving economically viable rangeland operations.

The plan is for independent assessment teams to evaluate ranching operations. The Task Force identified the variables that the teams would evaluate. These included things like soil stability, water quality, riparian vegetation, wetlands, etc. The Task Force then discussed who the REAP assessors should be and the necessary qualifications.

The REAP can't succeed without the support of NCBA. However, NCBA participants explained that several groups wanted their support for similar programs and that they had to decide which to support. They decided to support to no one at this time and to review all of the programs, prior to making a decision at their annual meeting in late December 2003. The REAP Task Force decided to assemble the information necessary for the NCBA to evaluate the REAP proposal.

In late January 2003, the NCBA notified the REAP Task Force that they were unable to support funding for REAP. They explained that a number of groups were in the process of developing similar proposals to monitor and otherwise assess resources on rangelands and that NCBA had decided that all proposals have merit, but that it would be inappropriate for them to appear to be favoring one proposal to the detriment of others.

Riparian Watersheds and Habitat Committee Chair, David Zafft. Committee Members: Arn Berglund (Bureau of Land Management), Troy Brandt (Water Consulting, Inc), Don Wiley (Utah Division of Wildlife), and Hilda Sexauer (Wyoming Game and Fish Department).

The Western Division did not present the Award of Excellence in Riparian Management awards in 2001-2002 and the ad hoc committee was being considered for elimination. Calls to the past Riparian Committee chairs and representatives of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service indicated that there was strong support for maintaining a Riparian Committee that, at a minimum, conducted the Riparian Challenge. In August 2001, Dave Zafft agreed to Chair the Riparian Committee.

The name of the committee was changed to the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee. Western Division Past President, Bill Bradshaw, drafted a mission statement and list of responsibilities for the Committee.

• "The mission of the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee is to coordinate and promote scientific understanding and management of riparian zones, watersheds, and fish habitat, among and between AFS members, scientific organizations, the public, policy makers, agencies, and other relative stakeholders."

He identified the following committee responsibilities:

• Annually solicit nominees for the Division's Riparian Challenge and select winners for the Award of Excellence in Riparian Management from the BLM and USFS.
• Routinely communicate committee activities and information to Division members through the Tributary, website and other appropriate means.
• Serve as liaison between the AFS, the Society for Range Management, The Wildlife Society, and other related scientific and professional organizations as appropriate, including AFS subunits.
• Maintain the committee's institutional memory by routinely posting and storing information on the Division website and updating the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee Procedures Manual.

The Riparian Challenge involves soliciting award nominations from the BLM and USFS, ranking nominations and selecting winners in 1-3 categories per agency to receive the Award of Excellence in Riparian Management, ordering award plaques, writing letters of appreciation to all participants from both agencies, and making the award presentations at the annual business meeting.

On October 30, 2001, letters were sent to three Washington, D.C. representatives from each agency (BLM and USFS) announcing the 2001 Riparian Challenge and asking them to have their field offices submit their entries to the Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee Chair by February 18, 2002.

The Committee Chair participated in monthly EXCOM conference calls and attended the Western Division Retreat in December 2001 in Portland, OR. In November and December, he recruited members to serve on the committee.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. resulted in extremely slow delivery times for the US mail. As a result, the formal announcements for the Riparian Challenge did not reach some of the addresses until shortly after Christmas. This resulted in an unusually short period of time for applicants to prepare nominations. Nonetheless, the Committee received 19 entries for the 2002 Riparian Challenge.

Committee members, using past judging criteria as a template, developed standardized judging criteria for the 2002 nominations. Four committee members independently judged each of the 19 applications (12 BLM and 7 USFS). Final scores from the four judges were averaged to select the winner for each agency.

A single award winner was selected from each agency. The Swiftwater and South River Field Offices, Roseburg District, were selected as the Best BLM Field Office(s) for their work in the Umpqua River Basin. The Coeur d'Alene River Ranger District was selected as best USFS Ranger District for their work in the Tepee Creek Watershed. Due to the limited number of nominations and the lack of a clear winner for each category, the awards for Best USFS National Forest, Best USFS Region and Best BLM Resource Area, and Best BLM State office were not be awarded in 2002.

Committee members prepared and mailed letters thanking each entrant for participating in the Riparian Challenge and announcing the winning entries. The Committee also prepared letters for the WD President to sign to both BLM and Forest Service headquarters announcing the winners. The Committee made arrangements for preparation of the award plaques. Dave Zafft will present representatives from the winning offices with the awards at the Annual Business Meeting Breakfast in Spokane, WA on April 30, 2002.

The Committee reviewed all the available materials documenting the history of the Riparian Committee. The information was used to prepare a Draft Riparian, Watersheds and Habitat Committee Procedures Manual. The manual, which will be completed by the end of the fiscal year, will include a revised committee mission, a detailed history of the Riparian Challenge, tasks, timelines and suggestions for conducting the Riparian Challenge, criteria for judging nominations, templates for preparation of the actual award plaques, a summary of all past committee activities with names of all past committee chairs and known committee members.

All committee documents not included in the Procedures Manual will be forwarded to Venice Beske, the Western Division Archivist.

Future Committee Plans:

• Prepare brief articles summarizing the 2002 Riparian Challenge for publication in The Tributary and Fisheries and posting on the Western Division website.
• Develop a riparian workshop and/or host a riparian related session at the 2003 annual meeting in San Diego, CA.
• Assist with the development of the program for the 2004 Western Division annual meeting in Utah, emphasizing riparian issues in fisheries management.
• Attempt to expand the Riparian Challenge to include other agencies and groups doing riparian work.

• August 9, 2001 letter regarding the Committee's name and Charge (from then President Bill Bradshaw to new Committee Chair, David Zafft  (MSWord document - right-click to download).