2012 GSA BBASC work plan for adaptive management

Please accept this submittal of the Work Plan for Adaptive Management (Work Plan) from the Guadalupe, San Antonio, Mission, and Aransas Rivers and Mission, Copano, Aransas and San Antonio Bays Basin and Bay Area Stakeholders Committee (BBASC). The BBASC has offered a comprehensive list of study efforts and activities that will provide additional information for future environmental flow rulemaking as well as expand knowledge on the ecosystems of the rivers and bays within our basin. The BBASC Work Plan is prioritized in three tiers, with the Tier 1 recommendations listed in specific priority order. Study efforts and activities listed in Tier 2 are presented as a higher priority than those items listed in Tier 3; however, within the two tiers the efforts are not prioritized. The BBASC preferred to present prioritization in this manner to highlight the studies and activities it identified as most important in the immediate term without discouraging potential sponsoring or funding entities interested in advancing efforts within the other tiers. As you review the plan, notice the prioritized Tier 1 efforts recommended by the GSA BBASC address specific information and data gaps that were recognized by both the BBASC and the Basin and Bay Expert Science Team (BBEST) in the previously submitted environmental flow recommendation reports. The BBASC has identified as its top priority in the Work Plan the completion of an Instream Flow study (in accordance with the SB2 Instream Flow guidelines) for the Lower Guadalupe River. The committee identified the lack of site specific biological information linked to historical flow data on the Guadalupe River as a significant limitation in the development of environmental flow recommendations for the Guadalupe River. In addition, the committee recommended two additional flow gages�one on the San Antonio River and one on the Guadalupe. The committee recommended conducting a synoptic flow study before finalizing the location of a new gage below Victoria on the Guadalupe River. The committee also prioritized studies within the bay and estuary system that will advance the level of scientific information on rangia clams; life cycle of key faunal species, particularly some of the mobile species like white shrimp and blue crab; and additional salinity studies to obtain information to better correlate freshwater inflow to salinity throughout the bay and estuary system. The BBASC chose to devote a section of the Work Plan to addressing the importance of the Potential Strategies to Meet Environmental Flow standards as presented in Section 6 of its Environmental Flow Recommendation Report. Several of the recommended Work Plan elements will provide additional data and information to assess the application and benefit of specific strategies. The BBASC is acutely aware that new ideas and innovative approaches to allocation and management of water resources must be explored to balance diverse water uses and needs within the basin.