| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
Study included the lower portions of three creeks: Burton Creek., Caribou Creek, and Snow Creek. The creeks provide water supply for most of the Burton community and surrounding area. Bull trout, rainbow trout, and kokanee inhabit all three creeks. Monitoring included benthic macro-invertebrate assessment, water and sediment quality assessment, and continual stream temperature monitoring. CABIN model assessments conducted from 2009 to 2012 revealed that each creek was classified as unstressed or potentially stressed. The potentially stressed condition occurred for three of the four years monitored and indicates that there may be influences causing only mild divergence to benthic community health from reference condition. There were some benthic invertebrate community indications that conditions may be gradually declining with time: _ Changes in benthic community composition were similar for Burton and Snow creeks in that each exhibited decreases in total number of macroinvertebrate families (taxa) and increases in total number of organisms with time. _ Caribou Creek also had decreases in total number of macroinvertebrate families (taxa) and increases in total number of organisms with time. Additionally, this site had a declining percent Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (%EPT), which are taxa that require cool, clean water; and an increasing percent Chironomidae, which are more disturbance tolerant taxa. Non-metal water quality data were collected annually from each creek including monthly collection from Caribou Creek. Overall, results indicate few guideline exceedances. Turbidity was one parameter that indicated potential aquatic life and drinking water concerns. Metal water/sediment quality data were collected from Caribou Creek only. Arsenic, cadmium and iron exceeded guidelines for aquatic life in some years. Stream temperature conditions at Caribou Creek were slightly different from Burton and Snow creeks, with higher mid-summer values. This difference is likely due to differences in streamflow or riparian conditions. Streamflow and temperature should be monitored at Caribou Creek. |
