An integrative biological assessment of sites in the Custer National Forest, Ashland Ranger District
English: Title: An integrative biological assessment of sites in the Custer National Forest, Ashland Ranger District : a report to the Custer National Forest, Ashland Ranger District Identifier: 988D8519-153C-486D-90C0-C0EE82A8579B (find matches) Year: 2006 (2000s) Authors: Stagliano, David M; Mincemoyer, Scott; Maxell, Bryce; Custer National Forest (Mont. and S. D. ); Montana National Heritage Program; Montana Natural Resource Information System Subjects: Water quality biological assessment Publisher: (Helena, Mont. ) : Montana Natural Heritage Program : Natural Resource Information System, Montana State Library Contributing Library: Montana State Library View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: Streams flowing west & northwest to the Tongue River include Ash, Beaver Creek, Charcoal Creek, Stocker Branch, Liscom Butte, while those flowing east. Cow Creek, Tooley, Brian Springs, are tributaries to Otter Creek which flows into the Tongue River (-20 river miles downstream) at the town of Ashland. The Bloom Creek Site flows into the Powder River. Most stream sites surveyed ranged from 1^^ to 2""^ order streams, except Otter and Beaver Creek which were 3^^ & 4* order streams with an "island" of National Forest ownership and a state section access point within a mostly privately owned reach. Selected sites were evaluated quickly to determine if water was present and aquatic habitats exist. A 100-meter reach of stream or at least 40x average wetted width (Barbour et al. 1999) was designated as the sampling site. All of the following procedures were performed within this study reach. METHODS Habitat Evaluation. The evaluation of habitat quality is critical to the assessment of ecological integrity; biological diversity and stream habitat integrity have been shown to be closely linked (Raven 1998). We expected most measures of stream community integrity to be positively correlated with higher quality habitat parameters. Physical habitat characterization was evaluated with BLM's Habitat Assessment Field Data Sheet (Vinson and Hawkins, Buglag website, 2002) and EPA's Rapid Habitat Assessment Form (Barbour et al. 1999)(Fig.l). The BLM visual-based assessment method examines physical parameters such as stream morphology, channel incisement, bare ground and substrate characterization, as well as a rating scale for the condition of the riparian area, vegetation quality, and overall reach condition. The BLM assessment is based on 6 parameters (scored 1-worst to 4-best for a best possible reach score of 24). Figure 1. Recording on-site habitat data, transect line in the background (Photo by Don Sasse). The EPA Habitat Assessement is based on 10 habitat variables (instream fish cover, epifaunal substrate, pool substrate characterization, pool variability, channel alteration, sediment deposition, channel sinuosity, channel flow status, bank condition, bank vegetative protection, riparian vegetated zone width) and was completed for each sampled reach. Hereafter this site rating scale will be known as the (EPA HQI) and the best possible score is 200. Since the HQI integrates habitat metrics that range from stream channel incisement and widening to the immediate condition of the riparian area, it is a good measure of the overall reach habitat condition that Text Appearing After Image: ' Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.