Stream Ecological Integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Rocky Mountain Inventory & Monitoring Network 2008-2010 Stream Monitoring Report
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Stream Ecological Integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Rocky Mountain Inventory & Monitoring Network 2008-2010 Stream Monitoring Report Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/ROMN/NRTR—2014/881 ON THIS PAGE Billy Schweiger (NPS, ROMN) collects a water sample from the Clark Fork River, GRKO during a May 2008 sample event Photograph by: J. Burke, ROMN ON THE COVER Jason Smith (NPS, GRKO) collects a periphyton sample from the Clark Fork River, GRKO during a June 2008 sample event Photograph by: B. Schweiger, ROMN Stream Ecological Integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Rocky Mountain Inventory & Monitoring Network 2008-2010 Stream Monitoring Report Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/ROMN/NRTR—2014/881 Authors E. William Schweiger,1 Laura O’Gan,1 Donna Shorrock,1 and Mike Britten1 With contributions from: Phil Kaufmann,2 Jason Smith,3 Eric Mason,3 Isabel Ashton,4 Laura Atkinson,1 and Kristin Long1 1Rocky Mountain Network National Park Service Fort Collins, Colorado 2Office of Research and Development Western Ecology Division U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Corvallis, Oregon 3Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site National Park Service Deer Lodge, Montana 4Rocky Mountain National Park National Park Service Estes Park, Colorado Editor Nina Chambers Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative Jackson, Wyoming June 2014 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Fort Collins, Colorado The National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science office in Fort Collins, Colorado, publishes a range of reports that address natural resource topics. These reports are of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and others in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. The Natural Resource Technical Report Series is used to disseminate results of scientific studies in the physical, biological, and social sciences for both the advancement of science and the achievement of the National Park Service mission. The series provides contributors with a forum for displaying comprehensive data that are often deleted from journals because of page limitations contain NPS policy considerations or address sensitive issues of management applicability. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and designed and published in a professional manner. This report received formal peer review by subject-matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data, and whose background and expertise put them on par technically and scientifically with the authors of the information. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government. This report is available from theRocky Mountain Network website (http://www.nature.nps. gov/im/units/romn), and the Natural Resource Publications Management Web site (http:// www.nature.nps.gov/publications/nrpm/) on the Internet. To receive this report in a format optimized for screen readers, please email [email protected]. Please cite this publication as: Schweiger, E. W., L. O’Gan, D. Shorrock, and M. Britten. 2014. Stream ecological integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site: Rocky Mountain Inventory & Monitoring Network 2008-2010 stream monitoring report. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/ ROMN/NRTR—2014/881. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS 451/124876, June 2014 ii Stream Ecological Integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Contents Page Figures vii Tables ix Appendices xi Executive Summary . xiii GRKO SEI Summary Condition Table xv Acknowledgements xix Introduction . 1 The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program 1 Purpose of Report 1 Stream Ecological Integrity: Synthetic Index to General Condition 2 The Stream Resource at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site 3 Why Monitor the Clark Fork River? 3 Current Importance of the Clark Fork to GRKO and the Deer Lodge Valley 6 Historical Role of the Clark Fork River 6 Ecological Monitoring Considerations 7 Regulatory Considerations 7 NPS Policies 7 Clean Water Act 8 Interpreting ROMN Stream Ecological Integrity Monitoring Data 8 Legal/Regulatory Status of the Clark Fork at GRKO 8 Clark Fork Superfund Project 10 Climate Change 11 Aquatic and Riparian Invasive Species 12 Monitoring Objectives 12 Methods . 15 Sample Design 15 Sample Events 15 Field Data 16 Site Layout 17 Auxiliary Data 17 Water Physiochemistry and Streamflow 17 Biological 19 Habitat 20 Quality Assurance and Quality Control 20 Contents iii Contents (continued) Page Signal to Noise Ratio 20 Analyses 21 Status 21 Water and Sediment Physiochemistry 21 Physical Habitat 22 Biology 23 Trend 23 Water Physiochemistry 24 Assessment: Reference Condition, Thresholds and Interpretation 25 Reference Condition 25 Assessment Points 26 ROMN Assessment Process at GRKO 28 Summary 31 Results and Discussion . 33 Sample Sites and Events 33 Water and Sediment Physiochemistry 33 Summary 33 Measures, Criteria, and Assessment Points 34 Quality Assurance and Quality Control 37 In situ Parameters 37 Major Constituents 38 Nutrients 39 Metals in Water 40 Metals in Sediment 41 Special Case: Water Temperature 42 Select Trends in Water Physiochemistry 46 Physical Habitat 48 Summary 48 Habitat Metrics and Assessment Points 48 Quality Assurance and Quality Control 51 Habitat Volume 51 Habitat Complexity 52 Cover for Stream Biota 53 Substrate 54 Relative Bed Stability 56 iv Stream Ecological Integrity at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Contents (continued) Page Floodplain Interaction 57 Hydrologic Regime (Habitat-Based) 58 Riparian Vegetation Cover 59 Human Disturbance 59 Hydrology: Stream Flow 63 Biology 63 Summary 63 Biological Metrics and Assessment Points 64 Quality Assurance and Quality Control 65 Macroinvertebrates 65 Periphyton (Diatoms) 71 Aquatic Invasive Species 75 Confidence 77 Summary and Conclusions . .77 Water Physiochemistry 78 Habitat 78 Biology 78 Management Implications 79 Climate Change 79 Future Work 80 Literature Cited . .81 Contents v Figures Page Figure 1. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in relation to other parks in the ROMN 2 Figure 2. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site showing the SEI sample site and USGS stream gauge location in Deer Lodge The green squares show transect locations sampled during a full sample event, the red star gives the location of sentinel sample events and the blue triangle shows the USGS gauge Inset shows the upper Clark Fork River watershed from the Blackfoot River near Missoula 4 Figure 3. Oblique view (looking North) of the Clark Fork River at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site (red border) and the town of Deer Lodge, MT Background imagery is early fall 2010 (courtesy Google Earth) Note the park boundary shown is an unofficial ‘fence line’ boundary The green squares show transect locations sampled during a full sample event, the red star gives the location of sentinel sample events and the blue triangle shows the USGS gauge The Deer Lodge water treatment ponds are visible in the upper portion of the ranch Stream flow is from the foreground of the image The inset shows the upper Clark Fork region with Anaconda, Butte, and the Milltown ponds (source of contaminated sediments) in the foreground 5 Figure 4. The Clark Fork River in GRKO during a 2008 SEI sentinel water and sediment sampling event Stream flow is from the foreground of the image 5 Figure 5. Robert Warren on Clark Fork River Bridge, ca 1936 GRKO PHOTO #16054, Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS Historic Archives 6 Figure 6. Clark Fork Operable Unit GRKO is located next to the town of Deer Lodge Map courtesy of EPA (2009b) 10 Figure 7. ROMN SEI sample reach in oblique profile Stream flow is from the top to bottom of the figure Cross-sections, sub-sample locations, riparian plot, and thalweg profile all shown Inset pictures show select details for substrate, channel and riparian sampling 18 Figure 8. MT DEQ, EPA, and STAR monitoring sites in the Middle Rockies ecoregion within Montana as used in comparison to select ROMN SEI results for GRKO Sites are classified as reference, degraded or unknown (by the programs responsible for each site) with green showing reference sites, red degraded sites, and orange unknown (“test”) sites Inset shows all sites across the state with symbology based on the source program of each site Note that additional sites in the ecoregion but outside of Montana are not shown here were used for select habitat and chemistry parameters 19 Figure 9. Daily stream temperature by water year for Clark Fork River at GRKO bridge crossing: (top) 2008-2009, (middle) 2009-2010, and (lower) 2010-2011 44 Figure 11. Mean date of last (left panel) or first freeze (right panel) for water years, 2001-2010 at Deer Lodge USGS gauge Historic and current periods are largely arbitrary Current is defined by the beginning of ROMN SEI monitoring in 2007 and historic is considered to be 2001 to 2006 45 Figure 10. Mean seven-day