Protocol implementation plan for stream channel monitoring in the Northern Great Plains Network: Narrative version 1.0

Thornbrugh, Darren; Ashton, Isabel; Jarding, Angela; Mills, Justin; Paintner-Green, Kara

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network includes thirteen park units located in five northern Great Plains states across six ecoregions. In collaboration with these parks, NGPN will monitor stream channel characteristics at nine park units. This stream channel monitoring effort includes fluvial resources at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Niobrara National Scenic River, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Fort Laramie National Historical Site, Missouri National Recreational River, Wind Cave National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This Protocol Implementation Plan for Stream Channel Monitoring in the NGPN outlines how monitoring data will be collected, managed, and reported for NGPN Stream Channel Monitoring (SCM). This protocol implementation plan is developed from standard data collection, field sampling methods, and standard operating procedures currently in use by the NPS Southeast Coast Network from their Monitoring wadeable stream habitat conditions in Southeast Coast Network parks: Protocol narrative. NGPN chose to follow the sampling design, sampling schedule, and geographic sampling reach locations from Water Quality Monitoring Protocol for Wadeable Streams and Rivers in the Northern Great Plains Network: Narrative version 1.0, to better integrate multiple vital signs (i.e. water quality monitoring and stream channel monitoring) and monitoring of water resources for NGPN parks. Coordinated field site locations, frequency, and sampling schedules following the NGPN water quality monitoring protocol may provide a more integrated assessment of ecological conditions of water resources in the NGPN. In some cases, this may provide insight into underlying causes that allow for interpretation of environmental changes in stream channel characteristics at the reach scale, and of core water quality parameters in the context of stream flow data. The goal of the Protocol Implementation Plan for Stream Channel Monitoring in the NGPN is to provide information to park managers about baseline stream and river channel characteristics, and identify the long-term trends, variability, and potential environmental stressors for stream and river geomorphology in the network parks. Early identification of changes in baseline stream and river channel characteristics, along with an understanding of normal variability, is vital to recognizing potential ecological problems in parks’ fluvial resources. Numerous factors can affect water resources at large scales as well as at the park scale. Changes in climate, watershed processes, groundwater withdrawals, and visitor use all have the potential to threaten stream geomorphology. Stream Channel Monitoring in the NGPN focuses on changes in geomorphology and channel characteristics that are particularly problematic for park managers because they can affect habitat, park infrastructure, and archaeological and paleontological resources. The Protocol Implementation Plan for Stream Channel Monitoring in the NGPN will monitor fixed stream reaches at nine parks, with each reach sampled every three years for stream geomorphic dimensions and habitat features, and every nine years for watershed characteristics.

Protocol implementation plan for stream channel monitoring in the Northern Great Plains Network: Narrative version 1.0

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