Conclusions 



Diverse fish and macroinvertebrate communities 

 were identified at many aquatic sites of the Slim 

 Buttes region, but the overall highest integrity sites 

 were in the South Fork Grand River basin. Most 

 stream sites visited in the Grand River basin had 

 higher than average landscape integrity reflected at 

 the local reach-scale with high biological integrity. 

 At this scale conservation work in the South Fork 

 Grand basin seems a logical choice, with excellent 

 restoration potential of the Jones Creek site 

 upstream from South Fork Grand # 1 . With the 

 exception of North Fork Moreau #2, the Moreau 

 basin sites exhibited less habitat integrity, more 

 disturbance and subsequently lower ranking fish 

 and macroinvertebrate communities. For a 

 Medium-Large Prairie River, the Little Missouri 

 River exhibits high quality fish and 

 macroinvertebrate communities. Diverse 

 communities with high biological integrity are highly 

 correlated with good riparian condition and high 

 habitat quality. Thus, effective riparian zone 

 management in the grazing of cattle will contribute 

 to intact vegetation buffers and less sediment in the 

 aquatic environment. Macroinvertebrate 

 communities ranked fewer sites as moderately 

 impaired, but the effectiveness of 

 macroinvertebrates in assessing prairie streams is 

 still under debate in Montana and has not been 

 addressed in South Dakota yet. 



Community results from the habitat, fish and 

 macroinvertebrate surveys combined to rank the 

 following sites from highest biological integrity to 

 lowest within their aquatic ecological classification 

 codes: 



Medium Prairie River (AES 8005): 1 ) Little 

 Missouri Montana site, 2) Little Missouri #2, 3) 

 Little Missouri@ Camp Crook, 4) South Fork 

 Moreau #3 



Northwestern Great Plains Prairie Stream 



(AES COOS): 1 ) South Fork Grand #2, 2) South 

 Fork Grand #1, 3) North Fork Moreau #2, 4) Jones 

 Creek #2, 5) Crooked Creek, 6) South Fork 

 Moreau #2, 7) Bull Creek 



Intermittent Prairie Stream (AES code D005): 

 1) North Fork Moreau #1,2) South Fork Moreau 

 #1; 3) Campbell Creek, 4) Spur Creek, 5) Hay 

 Creek, 6) Jones Creek # 1 



Intermittent Fishless Prairie Stream (AES 

 code E005): 1 ) Pine Spring Creek 



Northwestern Great Plains Perennial Spring 



(AES code S005): 1) Picnic Spring 



Jones Creek site #2, near the confluence with the 

 S. Fork Grand River, has high ecological potential 

 for recovery if hydrologic restoration occurs. 



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