Lake of the Woods Watershed Stressor Identification Report

monitor and assess surface water quality in each of the state's 80 major watersheds. A key component of this approach is Intensive Watershed Monitoring (IWM), which includes biological (i.e., fish and macroinvertebrate) monitoring to evaluate overall stream health. Between 2012 and 2014, the MPCA conducted biological monitoring at several stations throughout the Lake of the Woods Watershed (LOWW). This report identifies the main causes, or "stressors", that are likely contributing to the biological impairments in the watershed. Five candidate causes were examined as potential stressors in the report: loss of longitudinal connectivity, insufficient base flow, insufficient physical habitat, high suspended sediment, and low dissolved oxygen. Causal analysis was performed to determine and evaluate connections between each candidate cause and the biological impairments. Table 1 lists the stressors identified for each of the biologically impaired reaches in the LOWW.