responsib i I i f-y of the majority of JFWAT staff was environmental surveillance 

 of construction, not research on environmental effects. 



Weeden and Klein (1971:481) stated: "As with so many other problems 

 of tundra management, the design of criteria for mining operations in gravel 

 lags far behind present need because detailed knowledge of fish populations 

 — where they are, when they migrate, where they spawn, their vulnerability 

 to added silt loadings of river waters, etc. — is lacking". By early 1975, 

 the state of knowledge had not progressed or expanded greatly. This fact, 

 coupled with the dependence on gravel for arctic and subarctic construc- 

 tion, stimulated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to initiate a project 

 to investigate the effects of gravel removal on floodplain systems. The 

 project objective was to provide a comprehensive information review and data 

 synthesis to form the basis for future mining of river and floodplain 

 gravels. The purpose of the project is to provide an information base that 

 will assist resource managers to formulate recommendations concerning oper- 

 ations that will minimize detrimental environmental effects of gravel re- 

 moval from arctic and subarctic streams. 



PHILOSOPHY 



Little is known about the natural changes which occur in riverine 

 systems in arctic and subarctic regions. Therefore, determining the effects 

 of resource exploitation in these regions is often difficult because of the 

 interplay of natural changes and man-induced disturbances. The basis for 

 this study was the assumption that gravel removal operations in a floodplain 

 cause change, the magnitude of change depending primarily on the floodplain 

 characteristics, the location of the site, and the method of gravel extrac- 

 tion. Since almost all riverine systems in arctic and subarctic regions have 

 evolved to the present through natural change and without man-induced dis- 

 turbances, all changes due to gravel removal identified in this study were 

 considered undesirable. To maintain a river system in its natural or near- 

 natural state was considered the essence of guidelines development and 

 provided the best conceptual base from which to minimize environmental 

 degradation. However, it is recognized that there may be situations where 



