Research Protocol for Cottonwood Ranch (2)

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This proposal implements monitoring and research on NPPD's Cottonwood Ranch property. The overall goal of this monitoring and research is to provide data necessary to evaluate channel rehabilitation practices. Specific questions focus on whether management actions cause the channel to widen, whether measurable changes in the channel structure occur downstream, whether these changes can be linked to the management action, and whether widened channels can be sustained by river processes. This protocol outlines how the research and system-level monitoring programs will combine to provide information about the effects of the demonstration project on the mechanics of river processes. Study design and data collection for the research program are described below. Also, components of General Monitoring within and immediately downstream of the Cottonwood Ranch Data are outlined and described in further detail in the Platte River General Monitoring Protocol. Management Action NPPD and the Management Oversight Committee for the Cottonwood Ranch Property have designed management methods to remove woody vegetation from islands and banks within the Cottonwood Ranch property. In addition to the vegetation removal, some abandoned channels will be excavated as pilot channels to convey river flows. The management activity is scheduled to begin in September or October 2000 after one visit to the research and monitoring transects has been completed under this protocol. Goals and Objectives for Monitoring and Research The monitoring and research program is designed to link the detection of geomorphologic response with a mechanism to investigate its cause. Two components of data collection allow the necessary temporal and spatial resolution: 1) A general monitoring component that focuses on the integrated effects of management within the Cottonwood Ranch property and associated impacts downstream and provides initial information to the long term monitoring program devised for adaptive management, and 2) an intensive research component that examines the combined management activity in order to understand direct affects on the local channel system. The general monitoring component focuses on collecting information from cross sections of the river and examining serial aerial photography. Measurements at these cross sections include channel topography, vegetation, bed and bank material grain size, and ground photography. These measurements will provide a baseline of information regarding the natural variability present in this reach of the river, the need for additional parameters, and specifically in the management reach, the potential for trend detection throughout the first increment of the program. The intensive research component will focus on collecting data sets with fine spatial resolution on three reaches of the middle channel undergoing riparian vegetation modification of the Platte River within the Cottonwood Ranch. Data collection will consist of detailed topographic surveying, bed and bank sediment sampling, observations of in-channel and bank vegetation, and ground photography. The three reaches were selected to represent the conditions of the river above the management area, in the management area, and below the management area. Results