Colorado & New Mexico Water Resources

Tasseled-cap processed Landsat 8 OLI image from August 26th, 2019. “Greenness” is displayed on a color ramp where red represents low greenness and blue represents high greenness. Costilla Creek, which feeds into Costilla reservoir at the bottom of the image, stands out in blue in the. These blue areas are likely wetland locations, as wetlands typically retain green vegetation into late summer.

Keywords: Wetlands Mapping, Cutthroat Trout, Abby Eurich, Byron Schuldt, Kathryn Tafoya, Toryn Walton

Mapping Wetland and Riparian Areas to Support Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Habitat Restoration

Over the last century, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki virginalisi; RGCT) population has declined significantly due to habitat loss, competition, and hybridization with non-native trout species; the species currently occupies roughly 11% of its historic habitat. Conservation efforts led by governmental and private actors have succeeded in increasing RGCT populations since the early 2000s. Vermejo Park Ranch, a privately owned 560,000-acre property, partnered with US Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to begin the largest native trout restoration initiative in North America. Since 2002, these efforts have included wetland and riparian area restoration and RGCT reintroduction. Current restoration efforts focus on restoring the Costilla Creek Watershed to provide cool water temperatures, improve water quality, and create the necessary habitat requirements for the trout species. To guide these restoration efforts, the Colorado – Fort Collins NASA DEVELOP team produced maps to locate and characterize wetland and riparian areas in the Costilla Creek watershed. The team utilized NASA data from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper in conjunction with Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument, Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar, and additional ancillary data for May 2016 to October 2019. In order to produce probability maps of wetland presence, the team used the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM) incorporating predictor variables generated from topographic indices, spectral indices, and radar. The resulting maps allowed Vermejo Ranch and CPW to determine the extent of possible RGCT habitat and identify where habitat restoration efforts are needed.

Location
Colorado - Fort Collins
Term
Spring 2020
Partner(s)
Colorado Parks & Wildlife
Vermejo Park Range
NASA Earth Observations
Landsat 5 TM
Landsat 8 OLI
Sentinel-1 C-SAR
Sentinel-2 MSI
Team
Byron Schuldt (Project Lead)
Abby Eurich
Toryn Walton
Kathryn Tafoya
Advisor(s)
Dr. Paul Evangelista (Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory)
Dr. Catherine Jarnevich (United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center)
Tony Vorster (Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory)
Nicholas Young (Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory)