CHaMP is designed as a Columbia River basin-wide habitat status and trends monitoring program built around a single protocol with a programmatic approach to data collection and management (RM&E Workgroup 2010). CHaMP will result in the collection and analysis of systematic habitat status and trends information that will be used to assess basin-wide habitat conditions. When coupled with biological response indicators, this status and trends information will be used to evaluate habitat management strategies. This program will be integrated with ongoing Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Program (PNAMP) recovery planning efforts and will be part of the collaborative process across Columbia Basin fish management agencies and tribes and other state and federal agencies that are monitoring anadromous salmonids and/or their habitat. The implementation of CHaMP will characterize stream responses to watershed restoration and/or management actions in at least one population within each steelhead and spring Chinook Major Population Group (MPG) which have, or will have, “fish-in” and “fish-out” monitoring (identified in RPA 50.6), thereby meeting the requirements of RPA 56.3, RPA 57, and RPA 3. CHaMP was designed to deliver trends in habitat indicators and requires that monitoring occurs for three cycles of a sampling panel (see section 1.6), at least 9 years.

Lemhi’s primary objective was to estimate habitat condition for the Lemhi subbasin, and estimate the habitat condition in each of 18 priority drainages (see strata list). The Lemhi status and trends sampling design consisted of 45 unique sites sampled over three years (the standard CHaMP design) and was supplemented with 72 sites funded by the ISEMP program.  The Steelhead (Snake River Basin DPS) - Lemhi River and  the Chinook Salmon (Snake River Spring/Summer-run ESU) - Lemhi River were the populations of interest.  The original rationale was to allocate annual sites across the smaller tributaries to get a broad coverage of the diversity of habitat types, and use more rotating panel sites in the larger tributaries.

2013 Sample Design Update Notes:

​4 sites were added to the 2013 Lemhi IMW design that were sampled as 'MOCK' sites in 2012.  This did not affect the status and trend sampling design and no additional GRTS sites were drawn.

​

2012 Sample Design Notes:

The original rationale was to allocate annual sites across the smaller tributaries to get a broad coverage of the diversity of habitat types, and use more rotating panel sites in the larger tributaries .  In 2012, this rationale was shifted and annual sites were increased in Hayden and the Lemhi mainstem.  The Withington drainage was removed from the survey due to landowner rejections.  A few sites were shifted among panels, but no new sites were drawn using the GRTS spsurvey function.  Site changes included:

• Rotating panel 1 - Hayden-Private only had 1 site in the block, so the first 'Extra' site in Hayden-Private (CBW05583-479663) was moved to Rotating Panel 1.
• Rotating panel 2 -Lemhi Mainstem site CBW005583-026031 was moved to the annual panel.
• Rotating panel 1- Hayden site CBW005583-028079 was moved to the annual panel, making two annual Hayden sites
• Rotating panel 1 - Hayden Creek CBW005583-029103 was moved to the annual panel making three annual Hayden sites

Rejected annual sites are listed below--these sites were left in their original panels but were replaced as needed with new sites in 2012

• Lee Creek CBW005583-385487 annual, but access denied.
• Little Eightmile CBW005583-510383 annual but access denied
• Wimpy CBW005583-007007 annual, but access denied. This site is a legacy site sampled as part of the first GRTS design.
• Withington CBW005583-079711annual but access denied.

  ​

2011 Sample Design Notes:

The Lemhi mainstem and each of the priority drainages were considered separate strata in the design process.  Two priority drainages, Little Springs and Big Springs, were not represented in the CBW master sample, so the GRTS algorithm (in the R library ‘spsurvey’) was used to select sites from a 1:24K Hydrography for these two drainages.   Ownership was also used for strata on champmonitoring.org but was not used in the GRTS site selection process. To best support the need for oversample sites, a block of 'Extra' sites for each priority watershed was generated that supported the oversample needs of all panels.  This was done when there were too few sites to allocated as oversamples to individual panels.  

The general design structure was an annual panel and three panels set up on a three year cycle.  Fifteen unique sites will be “annual”; remainder will be allocated to the 3-yr. panels, 1/3 per year, for a total of 49 sites sampled per year (15 annual; 34 rotating panel).  

The R code describes how each stratum’s sample was selected, incorporating relevant legacy sites for that stratum.

Master sample GRTS Input file: Lemhi_MS_20110616.txt

Legacy sample GRTS Input file: Lemhi_Legacy_20110615.txt

Final design file: Design file: Lemhi.design.6.17.2011.csv

R code: Lemhi Design.6.15.r

Strat.panel function version: Stevens.strat.panel6.r

Design Documentation Files: