Blackfoot River and tributary temperatures 



Collecting watershed-wide water temperatures is a major element to a habitat 

 assessment and monitoring program (Figure 12). Temperatures studies during 2002 and 

 2003 involved: 1) baseline and long-term data collections at established sites throughout 

 the Blackfoot watershed; 2) assessing tributary restoration projects; 3) identifying thermal 

 regimes (natural and anthropogenic) favorable and unfavorable for trout; 4) monitoring 

 temperature triggers of the Drought Plan; and 5) relating other biological assessments 

 (movements, spawning, etc.) to thermal properties of the river system. Summaries of 

 temperature data are found throughout this report. All raw and summary data for all 

 monitoring sites are located in Appendix I. 



Blackfoot River 

 Tributary 



During 2002 and 2003, we collected 78 water temperature samples at 59 locations 

 in 38 tributaries, along with 13 

 samples at seven sites in the 

 Blackfoot River (Appendix I). 

 Figure 13 shows a portion of the 

 river data for critical summer 

 periods between 1997-2003. These 

 data outline the warming (Nevada 

 Creek) and cooling (eg. North 

 Fork) influences of key tributaries 

 and the general summer-time 

 thermal properties of the lower ~70 

 miles of the Blackfoot River. 



Figure 13. Maximum water temperatures for four locations of 

 the Blaci^foot River, July and August 1997-2003. 



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