Trends in Stream Conditions on Lands Managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management within the Interior West

Human alteration of landscapes have negativity altered hydrologic processes in a manner that have altered the formation of stream habitat and affected the viability of the biota dependent on naturally functioning streams systems. As societies increasingly more water and other natural resources, the ability of managers to produce these goods will be based, in part, on their ability to maintain and restore watershed processes.  Being accountable to the goal of maintaining watershed process requires the ability track the status and trends of aquatic systems.  Within the Interior Columbia River Basin and over the last decade, the PACFISH INFISH Biological Opinion Effectiveness Monitoring Program (PIBO EMP) trying to answer the question; “Are key biological and physical components of aquatic and riparian communities being improved, degraded, or restored within the range of anadromous salmonids (Oncorhynchus sp.) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus)?”.  This program has sampled over 1300 stream reaches within the Basin.  Each of these reaches has been sampled twice so the PIBO EMP is in the position to describe the trend in stream habitat in response to changes in land management practices since the last 1990’s.  We will explore stream habitat trends over the last 10 years.