Links - Watershed Monitoring
Categories on this page
Federal agencies
The National Aquatic Monitoring Center (the "Bug Lab") is a cooperative venture among the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and Utah State University. Our purpose is to encourage and foster scientifically sound watershed monitoring programs on public lands with our goals being to increase the consistency and quality of aquatic resource assessments and provide clear, accurate, and timely information to resource managers - http://www.usu.edu/buglab/
USDA Pacfish/Infish Biological Opinion (PIBO) related documents are posted on the web at http://www.fs.fed.us/biology/fishecology/emp/index.html
USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Stream Inventory and Data Analysis - This website serves to provide examples of stream survey data formats, show specific uses for data and provide tools for the analysis and display of stream survey information. http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/water/fhr/sida/index.htm
USDA Forest Service Fish and Aquatic Ecology Unit works with federal and state research organizations and universities to develop technology to address emerging resource issues. Once this technology is developed we disseminate this technology to aquatic resource specialists through, continuing education workshops, presentations, publications, and on-site visits. http://www.fs.fed.us/biology/fishecology/
USDA Forest Service - Integrated Inventory and Monitoring Team An agency-wide task team for developing effective inventory and monitoring programs. The team is comprised of National Forest System (NFS), Research and Development (R&D), and State and Private Forestry (S&PF) representatives from the Washington Office (WO), Research Station (Station), and Regional Office (RO) levels, as well as key external partners. http://www.fs.fed.us/emc/rig/iim/
The USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station is one of eight USDA Forest Service Research facilities. This Station's research is organized into seven programs conducted at ten locations: nine laboratories in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, and a Wood Utilization Center in Sitka, Alaska. Forestry research sites were established to evaluate and disseminate information and technology to improve management and use of natural resources. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/
USDA Forest Service Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab - conducts research on aquatic and terrestrial processes and the effects of natural and human-caused disturbances on aquatic ecosystems. This information is used to develop decision support tools to assist managers in selecting management alternatives that lead to diverse, resilient, and sustainable aquatic and associated terrestrial systems.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/index.htm
The USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) is a national program designed to determine the status, changes, and trends in indicators of forest condition on an annual basis. The FHM program uses data from ground plots and surveys, aerial surveys, and other biotic and abiotic data sources and develops analytical approaches to address forest health issues that affect the sustainability of forest ecosystems.
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/fhm/
USDA Natural Resource Information Systems Tools Module (NRIS Tools) develops and supports a collection of software tools that facilitate use of data from the Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) and other agency databases in support of the Forest Service mission. These tools include software to analyze and present information at multiple geographic scales, both within and across administrative and jurisdictional boundaries as maps, charts, tables, and other useful formats. http://fsweb.nris.fs.fed.us/tools/
State agencies
California North Coast Watershed Assessment Program (NCWAP) - http://www.ncwatershed.ca.gov/default.html
Oregon Plan Monitoring Strategy for Salmon and Watersheds -
http://www.oweb.state.or.us/monitoring/index.shtml
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Corvallis Research Lab
http://www.orst.edu/Dept/ODFW/
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Aquatic Inventories Project is a statewide freshwater and estuarine research program. The project assesses aquatic habitat, conducts fish presence/absence surveys, monitors fish populations, establishes salmonid watershed prioritization, monitors habitat restoration projects, and reconstructs historical salmonid life history. http://www.orst.edu/Dept/ODFW/freshwater/inventory/index.htm
Washington Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and Assessment Program (SSHIAP) is a partnership-based information system that characterizes freshwater and estuary habitat conditions and distribution of salmonid stocks in Washington at the 1:24,000 scale. http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/hab/sshiap/index.htm
Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board's mission is to support salmon recovery by funding habitat protection and restoration projects, and related programs and activities that produce sustainable and measurable benefit for the fish and their habitat. http://www.wa.gov/iac/salmonmain.html
Washington Salmon Recovery Homepage - http://www.governor.wa.gov/esa/
Washington Department of Ecology - Freshwater Monitoring - This agency conducts Washington statewide monitoring in river and stream waters quality, biological monitoring, lakes monitoring, nuisance aquatic plant monitoring, and provides evaluation and guidance services for volunteer monitoring groups. Monitoring information, including analytical and methods guidance documents, are at following web addresses:
- River water quality: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/fw_riv/rv_main.html
- Lake water quality: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/fw_lakes/lk_main.html
- Aquatic plants: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/lakes/aquaticplants/index.html
- Stream biology: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/fw_benth/fwb_intr.html
Protocol and Data Links
The Northwest Biological Assessment Workgroup (NBAW) - The NBAW has an annual meetings to promote better understanding of the biotic communities in freshwater aquatic ecosystems of the northwest. The NBAW also sponsors a series of workshops on the taxonomy of Pacific Northwest freshwater benthic invertebrates. Workshops are to augment training for scientists actively working on benthic macroinvertebrate taxonomy, and to seek consensus on standard levels of taxonomic effort to be applied in biomonitoring studies. http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/offices/oea/aqbioass.html
Inventory and Monitoring of Salmon Habitat in the Pacific Northwest - Directory and Synthesis of Protocols for Management/Research and Volunteers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia - This document reflects an effort to establish a consistent format for the collection of salmonid habitat data across the Pacific Northwest. More specifically, our objectives were to: 1) provide a synthesis of the salmon habitat protocols applicable to the Pacific Northwest, 2) recommend a subset of these protocols for use by volunteers and management/research personnel across the region, 3) link these protocols with specific types of habitat projects, 4) establish a Quality Assurance/Quality Control framework for the data derived from the use of these protocols, and 5) to the degree possible, identify the format and destination where the data is routinely sent. http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/hab/sshiap/dataptcl.htm
The Interorganizational Resource Information Coordinating Council (IRICC) was established as a subcommittee to the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC). IRICC was charged with developing a seamless, current, and accessible information network to support ecosystem management in suppor of the Northwest Forest Plan, the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Federally Reserved Rights, and other applicable direction pursuant to ecosystem management in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington - http://www.iricc.org/overview.html
STREAM NOTES is produced quarterly by the Stream Systems Technology Center, Fort Collins, Colorado. Our primary aim is to exchange technical ideas and transfer technology among scientists working with wildland stream systems. http://www.stream.fs.fed.us/streamnt/sntoc.htm
Stream Riparian Bibliography - The joint efforts of the University of Washington, Center for Streamside Studies and the U.S. Forest Service, Stream Systems Technology Center, Rocky Mountain Research Station produced this comprehensive riparian bibliography through an extensive search of literature and electronic databases. Sources include journals, government documents, books, monographic series, and conference proceedings. http://www.cfr.washington.edu/riparian/
National Environmental Methods Index - The purpose of NEMI is to provide a mechanism to compare and contrast the performance and relative cost of analytical, test, and sampling methods for environmental monitoring. http://www.nemi.gov
GIS Coverages
5th and 6th Level watersheds have been compiled based on all available state and federal agency watersheds for Oregon and Washington and Northern California. Hydrologists from these agencies have agreed on these boundaries and reviewed the draft map for accuracy.
http://www.reo.gov/gis/projects/watersheds/index.htm
A transportation layer is being developed for Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
http://www.reo.gov/gis/projects/Roads/index.htm
State and federal collection permits
U.S. National Park Service Research Permit and Reporting System This website enables potential investigators to apply for permission to conduct natural resource or social science field work within a specific unit of the U.S. National Park System. http://science.nature.nps.gov/servlet/Prmt_PubIndex
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Section 10 permits -
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR3/Permits/ESAPermit.html
US Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) ESA permits
http://endangered.fws.gov/permits/index.html#forms
Models
The Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system is an application framework for knowledge-based decision support of ecological assessments at any geographic scale. The system integrates state-of-the-art geographic information system (GIS) as well as knowledge-based reasoning and decision modeling technologies in the Microsoft Windows® (hereafter, Windows) environment to provide decision support for a substantial portion of the adaptive management process of ecosystem management.
http://www.fsl.orst.edu/emds/
Ecosystem Diagnosis and Treatment (EDT) is a system for rating the quality, quantity, and diversity of habitat along a stream, relative to the needs of a focal species such as coho or chinook salmon. The methodology includes a conceptual framework for decision-making and a set of modeling tools with which to organize environmental information and rate the habitat elements with regard to the focal species. In effect, EDT describes how the fish would rate conditions in a stream based on our scientific understanding of their needs. EDT has been used extensively in the Pacific Northwest for a number of years in a variety of settings. http://edthome.org/
