Briefing on the Collaboration Between the Texas A&M University Riverscape Ecology Lab and the San Antonio River Authority

Staff Report & Agenda Item Details

The San Antonio River Authority (River Authority) has developed a robust environmental monitoring program to help inform watershed management decisions. This program includes ambient and stormwater quality monitoring, fish, mussel, habitat, vegetation and avian surveys and, more recently, aquatic connectivity assessments. While much of this work is done by River Authority staff, collaborative efforts with universities and local, state and federal agencies have been invaluable to supplement internal efforts and significantly increased the agency’s understanding of environmental conditions throughout the watershed. This briefing will highlight the ongoing collaboration between the River Authority and the Riverscape Ecology Lab (REL) from Texas A&M University, one of the most beneficial environmental partnerships undertaken by the organization. The REL at Texas A&M University focuses on the conservation and sustainable management of freshwater fish diversity, understanding reasons for its decline, and informing methods for mitigating threats. These research interests blend nicely with the River Authority's mission to provide safe, clean and enjoyable creeks and rivers as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Laboratory’s (USACE EL) focus on solving environmental challenges. The highly interactive nature of collaborations among REL, the River Authority, and USACE EL (among others) highlight benefits of the Mission Reach restoration and forthcoming improvements to river navigation that will result from remediation of Otilla Dam. Examples include: Tracking fish movements in the Mission Reach to learn that fishes pass canoe chutes most when fish are in the river for longer and when flows are near base flows. The use of cutting-edge Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to map chutes and then combine this information with fish swimming experiments to predict future fish movements. Monitoring fish community change through time in the Mission Reach in comparison with the Medina River to learn how restored habitats match natural river habitats. Monitoring of fish diseases in the Mission Reach and Medina River to reveal consistent occurrence of diseases compared with other urban rivers. Collaborations with Utah State University and Texas State University to develop a mussel restoration framework that weights the quality of local habitat with the accessibility of distant habitats. Large-scale fish movement monitoring to assess, for the first time in Texas, fish response to remediation of a major dam (Otilla Dam). Each of these projects provide valuable information that will benefit the ecological health of the San Antonio River and its tributaries and ultimately advance the missions of each entity engaged in collaborations.