Upper Columbia Basin Network integrated water quality annual report 2015: City of Rocks National Reserve (CIRO), Castle Rocks State Park (CRSP)
Starkey EN . 2016. Upper Columbia Basin Network integrated water quality annual report 2015: City of Rocks National Reserve (CIRO), Castle Rocks State Park (CRSP). Natural Resource Report. NPS/UCBN/NRR—2016/1272. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This annual report details the status of key indicators of water quality obtained from monitoring in City of Rocks National Reserve (CIRO) and Castle Rocks State Park (CRSP). North Fork, South Fork and Main Stem Circle Creeks flow through CIRO and Almo Creek flows through CRSP. Creeks in both CIRO and CRSP were previously sampled by the UCBN in 2009 and 2012 (see Starkey 2010, Starkey 2013). Data from the 2012 field sampling effort was collected following methods detailed in the UCBN integrated water quality monitoring protocol (Starkey et al. 2008). The UCBN Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Protocol was formally peer-reviewed and approved for implementation in August 2009. A new version has recently been published (August 2016) and can be found on the UCBN website at: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/ucbn/publications.cfm?tab=3. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected by the United States Forest Service- PACFISH/INFISH Biological Opinion (PIBO) according to their peer reviewed protocol during the UCBN’s monitoring of stream channel characteristics and riparian condition in 2012. The UCBN’s peer reviewed stream channel characteristics and riparian condition protocols can also be found on the UCBN’s website listed above. Water chemistry and macroinvertebrate results indicate that Circle and Almo Creeks are in fair to good condition. Water chemistry data indicate that conditions were within established thresholds. Benthic macroinvertebrate results generally indicated good water quality but give cause for continued monitoring. The status of water quality for North Fork, South Fork and Main Stem Circle Creeks and Almo Creek relative to state regulatory thresholds is given in the Table ES-1, ES-2, ES-3, and ES-4. UCBN water quality monitoring is conducted on a 3 year rotating panel. As a result, conditions in these streams will be re-evaluated in 2018.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Starkey, Eric
- Date of Issue
- 2016-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CIRO , NRSS , UCBN
- Keywords
- Macroinvertebrate, Monitoring, UCBN Water Quality Monitoring, Water Chemistry, Water Quality