Natural cover means what type of natural hiding places for fish exist in the stream. The riparian area is the area near your stream which can flood and from which leaves and other organic debris can wash into the stream. In some places, the riparian area may be just a few yards wide, in others, it may be hundreds of feet across. A good way to store this type of information is to take photographs of the area around your stream from your site. Streamside vegetation is the vegetation on the banks and in the riparian corridor.
Deciduous trees loose their leaves each year.
They are trees if they are over 15' tall, shrubs if they are under 15' tall. The remaining questions in this section ask you to determine what impact human activity is having on your site. This type of information can be stored easily in photographs. The amount of sunlight which reaches the stream is critical to the type of vegetation and plant life which can survive at your site. Your stream may not look like this.