I described the spawning ecology of the Bear Lake Bonneville cutthroat trout (BLBCT) in St. Charles Creek. I tracked cutthroat trout with used radio telemetry. I conducted redd counts to describe spawning conditions. Most cutthroat trout in the Big Arm strayed into the Bear River. Cutthroat trout migrations in the Little Arm and main fork were very limited (<4 km). Redd distributions showed very similar patterns between 1989, 2000 and 2001 with most redds being built in the lowest kilometer of stream. Artificial fish transportation changed the redd distribution in 2002. More redds were built in the main fork and redds were distributed throughout the stream. Redds built in the main fork were characterized by lower levels of fine sediment and higher water velocities as compared to the redds built on the Little Arm. The results of this research will be used to aid resource managers in developing a management plan for wild BLBCT.

In 1982, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a marketer of hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest, found itself in a new role which required it to acquire power resources needed to meet the demands of the region's utilities. In particular, it had to deal with the Washington Public Power Supply System's nuclear plant cost escalations. In response, BPA prepared its first independent regional power forecast. The forecast development process was intricate and multidimensional and involved a variety of interested parties. Application of the Multiple Perspective Concept uncovers strengths and weaknesses in this process by illuminating its technical, organizational and personal dimensions. Examination of the forecast from the technical perspective revealed an elaborate set of interlinked models used to develop baseline, high, and low forecasts. The organizational perspective revealed BPA to be in a transitional stage. Internally, ratemaking, forecasting, conservation, resource acquisition, and financial management swelled as new organizational functions. Interorganizationally, environmentalists, ratepayer groups, and the region's utilities all had strong interests in the decision regarding WPPSS plants. The personal perspective revealed that each of the Administrators heading BPA since the early 1980s defined the agency's approach to the resource planning problem differently, first as an engineering problem, then as a political problem, and, finally, as a business problem. Taken together, the Multiple Perspectives yielded the following conclusions about BPA's 1982 forecast. (1) BPA's range forecast constituted a major improvement over the point forecasts preceding it, but left important classes of uncertainty unexplored. (2) BPA's models were better suited to address rate and conservation issues important at the time of the 1982 forecast than their predecessors. The model of the national economy, however, remained a black box, potentially significant feedbacks were not represented, and the sheer size of the modeling system placed practical limits on its use. (3) A stronger method of dealing with forecast uncertainty is needed which utilizes a disaster-avoidance strategy and plans for high impact/low probability events. This method need not involve the use of large models, but should incorporate qualitative insights from persons normally outside the technical sphere.

This is a policy implementation case study. The case is the relocation of the Town of North Bonneville, Washington, by the U.S. Army Corps of engineers. Three questions are addressed in this study. One, did the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in relocating the Town, accomplish what was intended to be accomplished? Two, how and why were Federal policies applicable to the relocation of this town changed during the implementation process? Three, what can the North Bonneville experience contribute to existent knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of policy implementation? The principal precepts for policy implementation promoted by this study of the relocation of the Town of North Bonneville, Washington, are as follows: (1) Implementing agencies must recognize and consider what they have to do or may have to do to accomplish what they are intended to accomplish,not merely what they want to do or expect to do. Potential impediments to implementation that are unrecognized and unconsidered may fail to develop, but unless addressed problems cannot be solved. (2) Implementing agencies must expeditiously study and understand the policies that they are assigned to implement. Failure of understanding presents the appearance of ambiquity; indeed, even the clearest policy is effectively ambiquous if it is not understood. (3) Implementing agencies must promptly and plainly explain the policies they are charged with implementing to affected and interested persons or groups. Failure to explain leaves affected and interested persons or groups to form their own expectations of what the policy is, which expectations if erroneous may be difficult to dislodge. (4) Implementing agencies must attend that once a policy is stated and explained all subsequent actions are consistent with the policy as stated and that any action that may appear to constitute a deviation is adequately explained. Otherwise the credibility of the agency and of the policy being implemented by the agency is undermined.

The Bonneville Basin encompasses an area that was covered by ancient Lake Bonneville and which today lies within the Great Basin province. The Bonneville Basin is distinguished geologically by its characteristic parallel north-south mountain ranges that are separated by broad, alluviated desert basins and valleys. Benches and other shoreline features of ancient Lake Bonneville prominently mark the steep, gravelly slopes of these ranges. Numerous artesian desert springs are present at the base of the mountains and in the valley floors that form various sizes of both isolated wetlands and wetland complexes. Many these wetlands are some of the most unique and currently some of the most threatened wetlands in the United States. Several aquatic species and communities have maintained an existence as relict populations and communities in these wetlands since the receding of Lake Bonneville over 10,000 years ago. For example, Hershler has described 58 previously undescribed species of hydrobiid snails, 22 of which are endemic to single locations. Like hydrobiid snails, numerous other species, such as the least chub, Iotichthys phlegethontis and the Columbia spotted frog, Rana luteioventris, depend on these wetlands for their continued existence, many of which are already imperiled. The continued decline and loss of these wetlands would further push many of these species toward endangerment and/or extinction. Several factors have already eliminated or altered many of these habitats including capping and filling,water depletions, agricultural practices, livestock grazing, and introduction of nonnative species. In recent years, the significant loss and degradation of wetlands resulting in sensitive species designations have provided impetus for resource agencies to develop and implement management plans to conserve and protect these vital ecosystems. One problem facing appropriate management is the lack of biological information for determining which wetlands should receive protection priorities based on the presence of viable, functioning characteristics. The purpose of this dissertation project was to obtain biological information needed to support defensible decisions concerning conservation, protection, acquisition, restoration, and mitigation of the artesian springs in the Bonneville Basin. The primary objectives of this project were to 1) Develop bioassessment procedures for artesian wetlands of the Bonneville Basin using macroinvertebrates and 2) Determine patterns of community composition and diversity for macroinvertebrates and metaphyton algae at multiple scales in Bonneville Basin artesian wetlands.

For many native, imperiled salmonid species, the prioritization of recovery and conservation efforts hinges upon the identification of a species most limiting life stage. The early life-history stage can be a limiting life stage for fish, and given the importance of the reproductive stage to overall persistence, there is a need to better understand the spawning ecology and early life history of many salmonids. The Logan River, in northern Utah, contains one of the largest metapopulations of imperiled Bonneville cutthroat trout (BCT) throughout the Bonneville Basin. Little research has evaluated the temporal and spatial distribution of BCT spawning nor quantified their early life-history survival. In the summer of 2008, I documented the spawning ecology of BCT and quantified their early life-history survival via egg-to-fry survival field experiments in four tributaries to the Logan River. I observed considerable variability in the timing, magnitude, and duration of spawning between study streams, in part as a function of a variable, multi-peaked hydrograph. I also conducted egg-to-fry survival experiments using incubation boxes and hatchery-fertilized, eyed cutthroat embryos and installed these boxes throughout my study streams. I found that survival was extremely variable within and among my study streams. For example, the variation I observed in survival appeared to be a function of fine sediment loads. Lastly, I observed that in the Logan River the timing of greatest intensity of both stream side and in-stream anthropogenic activities (e.g., livestock grazing, horseback riding) overlaps directly with the spawning and early life stages of BCT. Using my estimates of early survival, I revised a four-stage matrix population model for BCT in order to evaluate the hypothetical effects of anthropogenic impact on rearing areas. I determined that population growth rates are sensitive to perturbation at the egg-to-fry and fry to age-1 stages, and if even a small number of redds are destroyed through habitat degradation, a high degree of immigration of reproductively mature BCT is required to maintain the near-term persistence of this population. Future conservation efforts for BCT should be prioritized to protect areas where land-use activities are high during the sensitive spawning and early life-stage periods.

A vast area of the northeastern Great Basin of the western USA was inundated by a succession of Plio-Pleistocene lakes, including Lake Bonneville (28 ka to 12 ka). The Pilot Valley playa, located just east of the Utah-Nevada border near Wendover, Utah, within the eastern Basin and Range Province, represents an 8 to 16 km wide and ~50 km long remnant of these lakes. The playa corresponds to the upper surface of a closed basin that is delimited by two mountain ranges, which are mantled by recent alluvial fans over which the playa sediments have prograded. In order to investigate the interaction of Plio- Pleistocene lake sedimentation and alluvial fan development, high-resolution seismic reflection profiles have been acquired near the base of both the west-bounding and the east-bounding ranges. On the western side of the basin, the seismic profiles provide images of sub-horizontal playa sediments prograding over the inclined alluvial fans. Theboundary between the playa and fan sediments is marked by a prominent angular unconformity. Seismic images from the eastern side of the basin reveal a markedly different structural and stratigraphic style with down-to-the-basin normal faulting of relatively shallow Paleozoic bedrock overlain by alluvial fan deposits, which are in turn on-lapped by a thin veneer of playa sediments. The results contained herein reveal for the first time the stratigraphic relationships between Quaternary pluvial sediments as a shoreline depositional facies and the adjacent bounding fan deposits. Post-stack reprocessing of lower-resolution but deeper penetration seismic data located in an analogous basin to the southwest, provides a likely context for the Pilot Valley seismic data. The new geophysical images, when integrated with available geologic mapping and limited well control, aid in constraining how deep aquifers are locally recharged from an adjacent range. The results also clearly demonstrate the strong structural asymmetry of the range and playa system, which is consistent with a classic half-graben structure. Lastly, this study demonstrates the utility of the shallow seismic reflection method as a tool to provide high-resolution sub-surface images in the geophysically challenging environment of Basin and Range geology.

Ultra-high-resolution subsurface stratigraphy mapped from 3D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) can provide insights into the fine-scale heterogeneity of reservoirs and other geologic features. Analog models derived from 3D GPR aid in understanding reservoir compartmentalization that may be sub-seismic but still affect fluid flow. We integrate 2D profiles and 3D GPR volumes with measured stratigraphic sections from outcrop exposure to characterize the fine-scale stratigraphy of an ancient Lake Bonneville shoreline deposit (locally, circa 20 ka based on carbon-14 dating) in the Great Basin (northwestern Utah). The heterogeneity of the deposit is expressed as multiple discordant patterns, separated by unconformities that likely were influenced by fluctuating lake levels on the lake margin. Although the study site is only ~8,000 square meters in area, the detailed stratigraphic relationships can be scaled up to inform the characterization of larger sedimentary deposits with economic reservoir potential. The sands, gravels, and marls composing the stratigraphy were deposited during the transgressive phase of the pluvial lake, which preserved shoreline features such as spits and barrier bars. We interpret our site as a spit that extended out into the Pleistocene lake, at times connecting to a nearby persistently subaerially exposed island to form a tombolo. The deposited strata are well-exposed in a fortuitously located gravel quarry. The site provides an excellent natural laboratory for detailed 3D imaging due to the mostly flat ground surface (the quarry floor), low-clay, low-salinity, and low-moisture content of the site. The GPR data were acquired with a 200-MHz antenna (for 2D profiles) and a 400-MHz antenna (for 3D volumes). For the latter, the line spacing was about 0.3 meters with a trace spacing of 2.5 cm. The GPR dataset offers high-resolution images of clinoform sequence stratigraphy down to about 3 meters below the surface of the quarry. The vertical resolution (Rayleigh criterion) of the data is about 6 cm (for 3D volumes) and 13 cm (for 2D profiles). Migration collapsed diffractions and re-positioned dipping reflectors correctly. Deconvolution suppressed multiple reflections and tightened the waveforms. Using petroleum industry mapping software, amplitudes were binned into voxels to create precise 3D volumes, which facilitated more accurate geometrical interpretation (e.g., true dip direction of reflectors). Facies associations from stratigraphic sections measured just above the GPR acquisition level (quarry floor) help to describe and reconstruct the depositional history of the spit. The lithologic interpretation of the GPR reflectors is constrained by the correlation (or extrapolation) of the measured sections to the subsurface data volumes. Reflectivity is controlled by variations in porosity and matrix content (e.g., quartz vs. clays vs. calcite). Our study furnishes a model of transgressive deposits in a lacustrine environment and an analog for clastic sediments deposited on a larger scale in such environments.

Construction of the Pacific Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie (also known as the Pacific Intertie) began in 1964, following the culmination of a series of interrelated negotiations which included: 1) the planning for the construction and operation of the Pacific Intertie; 2) the passage of federal legislation that put limits on the export of electricity from the regions where it was generated; and 3) the full ratification of the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada. By 1970, with construction complete, the Pacific Intertie allowed for the movement of more than 4,000,000 kilowatts of power among the electrical systems of British Columbia and eleven Western states, including 243 rural electrical cooperatives, municipal systems, and other public agencies. It had essentially become the backbone of the largest electrical grid in the Western world. In addition to widening the marketing area available to power producers throughout the grid, the Pacific Intertie also integrated the operations of the nation's largest hydropower system (Bonneville Power Administration), the largest privately owned electrical system (Pacific Gas & Electric), and the largest municipal power system (L.A. Department of Water and Power) in the country.

Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus), an endemic species to the Columbia River Basin, U.S.A, has experienced staggering decreases in returns to spawning territories in recent decades. As lamprey are threatened severely by a lack of passage at mainstem dams, lamprey specific passage structures have been designed and constructed to address the problem. The Cascades Island Lamprey Passage Structure (LPS) at Bonneville Dam is the longest and steepest structure of its type, following the addition of an exit pipe which allows lampreys to travel from the tailrace of the dam to the forebay. The intent of this study was to assess lamprey use of the structure and whether the structure hinders lamprey migration to subsequent dams. The study was carried out during the 2013 migration season. The study used three different treatment groups of lampreys released on five dates spanning the migration season (n=75 lamprey). Two of these groups (n=50), with different tagging methods, were released directly into the LPS to assess passage success, travel time, and tagging effect. The third group (n=25) was released into the forebay to test whether the structure impedes migration upstream. Fish were monitored via receiver arrays on the LPS and at dams on the river system. Overall passage efficiency was 74% (37 of 50 used the CI LPS successfully). Mean travel time to navigate the structure was 12 h. Fish size had no significant effect on travel time in the LPS. Water temperature had a significant effect on travel time in the LPS. There was no statistically significant effect of tagging on passage efficiency or travel time. The groups that used the LPS performed slightly better migrating upstream to the next dam than the group that bypassed the structure, but the difference was not significant. The groups that used the LPS traveled to more subsequent dams upstream than did the group that bypassed the LPS. It can be concluded that lamprey passed the structure successfully. Temperature (proxy for seasonality) had an effect on travel time in the LPS; however fish size and tagging had no effect. The LPS does not affect the ability of migrating lampreys to continue migration to subsequent dams. Such findings have important implications for management of lamprey in the region.

The Windy Ridge mega-landslide in Wayne and Sevier Counties originated in Lates tPleistocene time as established by 14C ages on basal organic-rich clay and peat sediment from bogs that developed on the slide. The contact depth between bog and landslide was estimated using high-resolution seismic reflection to find the thickest sediment. Four bogs were cored at their depocenters, and organic material at the slide contact was used for age determinations. The oldest bog sediments ages are 10,600 ± 46, 10,556 ± 34, 12,511 ± 134, and 12,886 ± 91 calibrated years BP. Ages represent two sliding events. First, at the transition from interglacial to younger Dryas glaciation, coeval with the transgression of the Gilbert stand of Lake Bonneville. Younger ages suggest a second slide at ~10,550 cal ka BP. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, and pollen contain a detailed sedimentary record of climate changes since the younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC). The Windy Ridge Mega-Landslide, together with other proxies in the region, provide strong support for a wet period during the transition from late interglacial to glacial conditions at the onset of YDC. Pollen records of this time span are rare in Utah, where local climate variation is complex and illustrates the strength of using landslide bogs as paleoclimate proxies.