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1. INTRODUCTION <br />Flooded bottomlands located along the Green River are believed to be an important nursery habitat for <br />the endangered razorback sucker. The goal of the Habitat Restoration Program is to restore or enhance <br />natural floodplain functions that support recovery of endangered fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin <br />(as outlined in Final Conceptual Framework for the Habitat Restoration Program). <br />This document presents the results of sedimentation and erosion monitoring at eight restored floodplain <br />sites along the Green River near Vernal, Utah. Three of the bottomland sites, Bonanza Bridge, Stirrup, <br />and Old Charlie Diked were restored in the spring of 1997. Therefore, there are two years of monitoring <br />data (changes after the 1997 and 1998 runoff seasons). The remainder of the sites were restored in the <br />fall of 1997 or spring of 1998. These include the Horseshoe Bend, Baeser Bend, Above Brennan, <br />Johnson-4, and Leota 7/7a bottomlands. Only one year's worth of monitoring data are available for these <br />sites. <br />Project Goals and Objectives <br />The project goal was to quantify erosion and sedimentation at the restored bottomland sites. Results of <br />the monitoring studies will give the Recovery Program a better idea of how different floodplain restoration <br />site configurations work to provide fish passage to these valuable habitats, and how long they will <br />maintain their connectivity to the river. Ideally, these sites will provide adequate fish passage to the <br />floodplain habitats at more historic flood frequencies and durations and require little or no operation and <br />maintenance to keep these sites accessible to endangered fish species. This report addresses Recovery <br />Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (RIPRAP) objectives of restoring and managing <br />bottomland habitat and conducting site restoration. <br />• Specific objectives of this study were to: <br />• Provide as built surveys as baseline data for future erosion and sedimentation monitoring., <br />• Collect hydrographic data including river cross section surveys, bottomland cross section <br />surveys, inlet/outlet cross section surveys, and topographic mapping of the manipulated areas. <br />• Develop a photo documentation record to monitor changes at the restoration sites. <br />• Present quantitative and qualitative results of the erosion and sedimentation monitoring to help <br />identify best management practices for current and future floodplain restoration activities. <br />A more detailed discussion of the design objectives, river hydraulics and hydrology, specific site <br />configurations, and locations of these sites are presented in the "Green River Floodplain Habitat <br />Restoration Investigation, Bureau of Land Management Sites, and Ouray National Wildlife Refuge Sites <br />near Vernal, Utah, Final Report (FLO, 1997)." This report focuses on the specific results of the erosion <br />and sedimentation monitoring at each individual site. <br />• 1-1 <br />