Biological Monitoring in the Whitewater River Watershed National Monitoring Program Project

This report summarizes information on fish, benthic macroinvertebrate, and habitat assessments conducted for the Whitewater Watershed Project during the period June-August 2004, 2005, and 2006. Data collected during these three field seasons and herein described represent three related, but separate, studies. These studies are a continuation and expansion of work begun in 1994 to collect baseline information on the biological and physical integrity of streams within the watershed. During 2004, stream sites within the Whitewater Watershed that were assessed for their physical and biological characteristics in 1998 were reassessed for comparison to the 1998 findings. During 2005, an intensive, longitudinal survey of the physical and biological characteristics of the South Branch Whitewater River was undertaken. During 2006, filling of stream pools by fine sediments was assessed at stream sites in the Whitewater River and Garvin Brook watersheds. This report is separated into three chapters, with each chapter detailing the procedures and findings for a single field season. Each chapter is written to stand alone as a separate report, if necessary, so methodologies and certain other items common to all years' studies appear in each chapter.