Building the Toolbox – and Using the Tools – to Prioritize Streams for Restoration and Protection
Citation:
Macneale, K. AND R. Hill. Building the Toolbox – and Using the Tools – to Prioritize Streams for Restoration and Protection. 11th National Water Quality Monitoring Conference – Working Together for Clean Water, Denver, Colorado, March 25 - 29, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
In many areas of the US, information regarding the biological condition of streams widely available. In these areas, the task of prioritizing sites for possible restoration or preservation can be difficult especially if hundreds or thousands of sites need to be assessed. Geospatial summaries of watershed information can provide important context to help managers organize and make sense of the streams in their management area. Here, we present an example that combines the US EPA’s indexes of local catchment and watershed integrity (ICI and IWI, respectively) with a Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) developed for the Puget Sound, WA. The combined data can be plotted to show how BCG classes change within the context of ICI and IWI. These plots show that the BCG generally declines with declining ICI and IWI. Streams with high BCG and high ICI/IWI values may represent good candidates for preservation. However, exceptions to the general relationship may provide important clues for managers. For example, sites with low-to-moderate BCG values and high ICI/IWI may indicate local stressors on the biological condition that cannot be measured geospatially. Such sites may be good candidates for local stressor identification and restoration and that such restoration would be supported by high-quality catchment and watershed conditions. In this presentation, describe the key features of this plot with local examples that can be interpreted by Kate Macneale of Water and Land Resources Division of King County, WA. Kate will also discuss other factors that local managers may take into consideration with the context provided by the ICI and IWI.
Description:
In this presentation, we bring combine the US EPA's indexes of local catchment and watershed integrity (ICI and IWI) with a Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) developed for the Puget Sound, WA. The BCG is an indicator of the ecological condition of streams based on macroinvertebrates collected from the field. In contrast, the ICI and IWI are indicators of integrity based on geospatial summaries of landscape stressors. By combining these indicators, we hoped to provide context to managers on how they might prioritize sites for restoration or preservation. We plotted the ICI and IWI for each site against each other and colored sites by their BCG class. We found that BCG values generall declined with declining ICI and IWI values. Sites with high BCG and high ICI/IWI values may be good candidates for preservation. However, exceptions to this rule could provide important insight into where local stressors that cannot be measured with a GIS may be impairing the biological condition of a stream. The presentation will highlight several case study sites that can provide insight into how these tools can be used to provide important context for managers faced with prioritizing hundreds or thousands of sites for specific management activities.