Pine River Watershed Stressor Identification Report

Over the past few years, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has substantially increased the use of biological monitoring and assessment as a means to determine and report the condition of rivers and streams. The basic approach is to examine fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and related habitat conditions at sites throughout a major watershed. From the data, an Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) score can be developed, which provides a measure of overall community health. If biological impairments are found, then the next step is to identify stressors to the aquatic community. This report summarizes stressor identification work in the Pine River Watershed (PRW). The biologically impaired reaches, which are identified by their associated Assessment Unit Identification (AUID) number, are separated by aggregated Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-12 for this report.