U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Stream Visual Assessment Manual Cane River, credit USFWS/Gary Peeples U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Conasauga River, credit USFWS Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................................1 What is a Stream? .............................................................................................................1 What Makes a Stream “Healthy”? .................................................................................1 Pollution Types and How Pollutants are Harmful ........................................................1 What is a “Reach”? ...........................................................................................................1 Using This Protocol..................................................................................................................2 Reach Identification ..........................................................................................................2 Context for Use of this Guide .................................................................................................2 Assessment ........................................................................................................................3 Scoring Details ..................................................................................................................4 Channel Conditions ...........................................................................................................4 Riparian Zone ....................................................................................................................5 Bank Stability ....................................................................................................................6 Water Appearance .............................................................................................................7 Nutrient Enrichment ........................................................................................................8 Macroinvertebrate habitat ...............................................................................................9 Hydrologic alterations ....................................................................................................12 Glossary ...................................................................................................................................13 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service What is a Stream? signify that there are likely a good Introduction A “stream” is created when water that many smaller pollutants dissolved This guide should help a casual stream flows from a higher surface begins to run in the water (check out “How downhill, joining with other overflowing Pollutants Harm Water Quality/ visitor both recognize and evaluate the water trickles to form bodies of water. The Science Behind Pollutants” for factors that affect a stream to interpret The source of the water is typically details). rain, melted snow, or water flowing the overall health of a stream, and the underground, near the surface. This n Living Organisms – The types of collection of water moves with gravity things that live in it! living creatures present can tell you as it flows downward, often joining other how healthy the water is. When the streams to form larger bodies of water, presence of something indicates the which often eventually flow into final aquatic destinations like lakes or oceans. health of its environment, it is called a biological indicator. n Nearby Influences – Streams are negatively affected by runoff and pollution from the surrounding watershed. Sources of runoff can be busy city streets, waste from neighborhoods or local shopping centers, or pet waste/manure from animal farms. Pollution Types and How Pollutants are Harmful A pollutant is anything that enters a water source and makes it impure or less safe to drink or use. There are two broad categories of types of pollution: Point source pollution and nonpoint source pollution. Deep River, credit USFWS A stream interacts with the environment it winds through, bumping against rocks, n Point source pollution comes from tree roots, and natural and manmade an identifiable source, such as a structures. These interactions affect the factory pipe dumping waste directly stream’s DNA, like its size, flow speed, into a stream, or runoff from an dirt level, what lives in the stream, etc. animal farm nearby. These interactions ultimately determine a stream’s health! n Nonpoint source pollution means that the origin of the pollutant What Makes a Stream “Healthy”? is unknown. Examples of this Many biological, physical, and chemical include food packages, cigarettes, processes interact in one stream. Since pesticides, grease, and other waste everything in the stream ecosystem is that litters the ground and can interconnected, any change to a factor harm water quality. of a stream—like the amount of soil or rainfall in the stream—can impact other What is a “Reach”? factors. When using this guide, you will be judging overall stream health based A healthy stream will look and function on the section of the stream you will differently depending on where it is in the be evaluating, which is referred to as country and the landscape. For example, the stream reach. A reach is simply a a mountain stream will be cooler and segment of a waterway that does a good flow faster than a stream near the coast. job representing what the rest of the However, there are several key things to waterway looks like. Choosing a good look for when judging the health of any reach is important because the scores you stream, regardless of where it is located: give your stream will be based entirely off what you observe within it. Be sure n Trash, oil, or other visible to choose a reach of at least about 30 pollutants – These are a dead feet (around 10 meters) that includes giveaway that a stream might be in the elements seen along the rest of the trouble. Bigger, visible pollutants stream. 1 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The Stream Visual Assessment Protocol what you find there is also encouraged Using This Protocol is intended to be a simple, detailed guide to help you keep good records and share that assesses the condition of a stream what you find with others. Context for in an easy-to-use way. It is suitable as a basic first estimate of stream condition. The active channel width can be Use of this Guide It can also be used to identify the need for determined by finding the place along more accurate assessment methods that your reach where it appears the stream is focus on a particular aspect of the aquatic at its widest when it is the most full. You system. can tell the maximum “flooding level” of a stream by looking at where the bank The SVAP should be usable nationwide. seems to hang over the stream, there Though regional differences matter when is erosion, or there is very little green grading a stream, this assessment has vegetation. been designed to measure factors that are the least sensitive to regional differences. Note that at the time you use this guide to grade a stream, the stream may not Assessment be at its highest water level. For this The overall assessment score is protocol, a visual estimate of the average determined by adding the values for each channel width is good enough. For the element, and dividing by the number of “assessment scores” section, assign a elements scored. For example, if your value for each of the seven elements scores add up to 76 and you assessed 12 based on your best judgment. If any elements, then the overall assessment element is not relevant to your site, value would be 6.3 (76 divided by 12 then do not score that section at all. Any equals 6.3). This value can then be used elements omitted will not be included in to make general statements about the the “overall assessment” calculation. environmental condition in and around the stream, and, if used more than once, Scoring Details can show how a stream changes over The following instructions will help you time. understand how to grade characteristics of the stream. All of the following Reach Identification characteristics include detailed items to This section asks you to record basic info look for that can tell you if the stream about the reach, including name, location, is in good, moderate, or poor condition. and surrounding land uses. Space is After reading each section, use the given provided for drawing a picture of the scale to give that characteristic a score reach, which may be useful for revisiting on your sheet that will be added up for a the site, or for pointing out problem final score. areas. Taking pictures of the reach and East Fork Headwaters, USFWS/Gary Peeples 2 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Fish and Wildlife Service Visual Assessment Manual Evaluator Name____________________________________________________________ Date______________________________________________________________________ Stream Name______________________________________________________________ Assessment Scores (1-10) Channel Conditions _______ Riparian Zone _______ Bank Stability _______ Water Appearance _______ Nutrient Enrichment _______ Macroinvertebrate habitat _______ Hydrologic alterations _______ Overall Score _______ (Sum of above, divided by 7 (or number of factors scored) <6.0 Poor 6.1 – 7.4 Fair 7.5 –8.9 Good >9.0 Excellent 3 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Natural channel; no Evidence of past channel Altered channel; <50% of Channel