With the recent listings of Chinook salmon, bull trout, and other salmonids under the Endangered Species Act, the quality of streams and fish habitat has become a primary concern in the Pacific Northwest. In an effort to increase the survival of these listed salmonids, resource managers have accelerated extensive (and often expensive) programs to restore aquatic habitat degraded by various land use activities. Often these efforts take place without benefit of a template of stream channel conditions to target conditions the restoration plan attempt to emulate. Natural resource management agencies and regulators need some reliable means to evaluate the status and trends in the physical condition of stream channels and associated aquatic habitats. Given the dynamic nature of channel form, it can be difficult to distinguish natural variability in watershed processes from those changes associated with human activities. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the concept of 'regional indices of channel morphology: for typical stream types found in Washington, and to determine if they can provide a useful diagnostic and predictive tool to help evaluate existing and potential channel characteristics.'

"April 2001." "Prepared for: EPA Region 10, Surface Water Branch, Seattle, WA." EPA Project officer: Stephen C. Ralph. Includes bibliographical references.