Rare or Unique Species: No rare species or communities documented 



Rare Features: Cottonwood stand with good recruitment and regeneration 



Introduced/Exotic Species: Green sunfish and common carp 



Overall Ecological Site Condition: Good 



Reach Summary: The 300 m reach consisted of 1 long riffle/pool/run complex with full flowing water 

 connectivity (Figure 16). The uppermost pool was 15-18m wide, ~50m long (averaged 0.75m deep) and 

 contained the most diverse fish species habitat, a riffle above this pool was the top of the reach (Figure 

 1 7). This pool was followed by a 1 50m deep run along the incised left bank. This stream reach has good 

 aquatic habitat and a fair diversity of microhabitats, leading to high fish species diversity ( 1 4 species, 1 1 

 native). Substrate of the upper pool was gravel and silt-dominated with some cobbles. Geomorphic 

 structures and overhanging banks provided the most habitat in this stream reach. The riparian channel 

 within the reach was vegetated on top, but down-cut and provided minimal shading. The incisement of the 

 outside bend with cottonwoods on the terrace at the top of the reach can be seen in Figure 1 7. The 

 upper terrace and fioodplain of the left bank has a nice stand of cottonwoods (Figure 1 8). 



Reach Riparian Ranking: BLM= 79% ( 1 9 of 24) EPA RBP= 86% ( 1 72 of 200) 



Reach Riparian Geomorphology: The geomorphology of this stream reach is a Rosgen F-4 with a 

 gentle-medium slope (<1%), moderate sinuosity, a riffle-pool configuration with substrate dominated by 

 gravel/pebbles and gravel/silt dominated pools. The reach was slightly incised (entrenchment ratio ~1 .5) 

 and averaged ~5 1 cm in depth and average wetted width of the reach was 1 1 .8m. Surrounding bank 

 materials are finer than the channel bed materials. 



Amphibian Community: No amphibians reported from this site. 



Fish Community: 14 fish species (1 1 native) were seined in the riffie/run/pool. Dominant species were 

 fathead minnows and sand shiners. Expected dominant fish species for this stream type would have 

 included fiathead chubs, sand shiners, western silvery and plains minnows and fewer fatheads. Although, 

 most fish species expected are present, thus a good O/E score, the presence of non-natives and 

 dominance of fatheads has caused a lowered IBI score and is ranked as slightly impaired. But overall a 

 good fish community. 



Fish Community Quality: IBI= 65.19 0/E= 10/1 1 or 92% of the expected fish community. 



Macroinvertebrate Community: This community consists of the Filtering Collector, Prairie Stream 

 and Large Prairie River assemblage of macroinvertebrates (#3, 9, 1 1, 37 Stagliano 2005). Over 80% of 

 the indicator species were present in this sample. 



Macroinvertebrate Community Quality: MT MMI= 63.4 0/E= >80% 



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