Research tracks restoration success for native fish in Bear Lake

How can restoration efforts around Bear Lake in Utah and Idaho support native species? That is what Tyler Coleman, a QCNR master’s student in Ecological Restoration, sought to answer as one of the Bear Lake Grant Recipients awarded in 2023. 

His project focused on how restoration efforts such as removing culverts connecting Bear Lake’s tributaries could affect the resilience and abundance of native fishes. In preparation for a planned culvert removal to reconnect upstream migration for Bonneville cutthroat trout in North Eden Creek, Coleman and his advisors Tim Walsworth and Phaedra Budy and Jim DeRito, Bear River program director, designed a preliminary monitoring plan, and conducted field observation and remote sensing on ten sites along North Eden Creek.

With this baseline measurement, the culverts can be removed and replaced with ones that are passable so migrating fish can more easily swim upstream to spawn. The goal for the project moving forward is for long-term monitoring and conducting surveys yearly to count the number of fish migrating from the lake to the creek to spawn. Researchers will be able to compare the conditions after restoration, which will allow them to measure whether the culvert removal and any future habitat work is successful for the upstream aquatic community and habitat.

Coleman presented this research along with several other teams at the Bear Lake Science Symposium held in Garden City, Utah. Hosted by the USU Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air and Bear Lake Watch, research teams consisting of researchers and graduate students gave brief “lightning talks” on findings and outcomes resulting from the Bear Lake Research Program. 

The grants were awarded as part of the Institute of Land, Water, and Air’s Bear Lake needs assessment project, an interdisciplinary research effort to help inform future management actions on Bear Lake and surrounding areas. A primary goal of the research program was to engage the community in better understanding key issues and challenges facing Bear Lake.

“It was a great opportunity to get ideas that we had into reality,” Coleman said.

The Bear Lake research grant allowed Coleman and his team to kickstart a project on North Eden Creek. The data they’ve gathered will support future undergraduate and graduate research.

One of the most beneficial parts of this experience, Coleman said, was getting hands-on experience in managing a project from start to finish, which was valuable for building his resume. 

“I got grant writing experience that I could put on my resume moving forward,” Coleman said, “and then I got the grant and it was great to go through the project planning process and then executing and now writing the report; that’s career-related experience.”

Other highlights from the symposium included a presentation on Eurasian Watermilfoil, research on a compilation of Bear Lake resources found in USU Special Collections in the Merrill-Cazier Library, and photography work documenting the grant projects’ research, the lake and nearby landscapes, and people whose life and work impact Bear Lake.

The research from the Bear Lake Grant projects will be posted on the Institute of Land, Water, and Air’s website.