Baseline assessments for fish, macroinvertebrates, and herpetofauna in the headwaters of Otter and Hanging Woman Creeks within the Tongue Powder CBNG Area

Abstract

This report summarizes the first year of activities on the Aquatic Baseline Assessment for Fish, Macroinvertebrates, and Herpetofauna in the Headwaters of Otter and Hanging Woman Creeks. Project goals include: 1) to survey and collect baseline information about the aquatic communities occurring in the Northwestern Great Plains Intermittent Stream ecological systems within unsurveyed portions of the headwaters of these two streams prior to CBNG development; and 2) to assess aquatic community integrity by identifying and interpreting key community indicators found at the sites using standardized protocols and biotic thresholds, and to compare these against reference condition standards at the watershed level and local reach scale. Habitat assessments, water quality measurements, herpotofauna, macroinvertebrate and/or fish surveys were performed at 20 predetermined lotic (stream channel) reaches (per conversation with J. Chaffin). These included sites on upper Otter and Hanging Woman Creeks, Trail and Bear Creeks and any tributaries containing suitable aquatic habitats. In total, we evaluated 87 stream reaches, of which 27 were dry reaches or ephemeral tributaries. Sixty stream reaches were seined or dip-netted for fish, of these, only 12 sites contained fish while 37 sites contained amphibians. Biological community integrity was calculated at 12 sites using Fish Integrated Biotic Indices (IBI's) and Observed/Expected Models (O/E), 20 sites were assessed with macroinvertebrate multi-metrics (MT MMI). The Northwestern Great Plains Intermittent Prairie Stream ecological system, which dominates this region, may not always contain fish, but is an important breeding and rearing areas for many species of amphibians and reptiles. acknowlEdgEmEntS v We would like to thank Jake Chaffin of the Bureau of Land Management-Miles City Field Office and the Interagency BLM Aquatic Task Group, headed by Bill Osthiemer of the BLM Wyoming for funding this project under agreement # L08AC13222. Report review and editing was provided by Bryce Maxell and Linda Vance. Fieldwork assistance was provided by Brent Cascadian, map production by Meghan Burns and report formatting by Coburn Currier (MTNHP). All photos in the report were taken by MTNHP personnel, unless otherwise noted.

2013 survey assessments and analysis of fish, macroinvertebrates and herpetofauna in the Otter Creek coal tracts area of Powder River County /

“…(Table 5), but native fish species still dominated the percentage of total individuals of reaches except at Otter Creek #16 (Figure 14). The highest percentage of native fish has been consistently reported at Otter JT for 2012 and 2013, while in the first year of the study it was Otter Creek #22 (Stagliano 2011). It is likely that the "higher" water years since 2011 have favored the intrusion of non-native fish further upstream into Otter Creek mainstem reaches.…”

“…Fish anomaly scores are significantly higher at the Impact Zone sites than reported at the other reaches. Fish Communities................................................................................................................................ Davis et al 2009;Maxell 2009;Petersen et al 2009Petersen et al , 2010Farag et al 2010;Stagliano 2011), large gaps still exist in basic baseline surveys for macroinvertebrates, fish, and herpetofauna in the Otter Creek basin. Fish communities have been documented to be seasonally variable in prairie streams (Bramblett and Fausch 1991, Lohr and Fausch 1997, Matthews 1998, thus sampling across all seasons in multiple years is a good strategy to document baseline community differences.…”

“…Highly variable seasonal discharge patterns are common for Otter Creek and other perennial prairie streams in Montana. Water availability in many small prairie streams that constitute the Intermittent Prairie Stream ecological system (Stagliano 2005) is highly variable, and these streams may have downstream connectivity early in the season for potential fish spawning and nursery areas (Matthews et al 1988, Bramblett et al 2005 or no fish colonization at all in dry years and become isolated pools important areas for amphibian breeding and rearing (Stagliano 2011). Identifying spatial and temporal baseline communities and conditions in streams of the coal tracts area (i.e., presence of fish, macroinvertebrate, and herpetofauna) prior to coal development is essential to understanding and potentially mitigating impacts to habitats and species during and after coal extraction.…”

“…Analysis of the sampled fish communities used Integrated Biotic Indices (IBI) designed for wadable prairie streams (Bramblett et. al 2005) and derived Observed/Expected (O/E) Fish Models (Stagliano 2011) to detect impairment in the biological integrity of the sites. Proper classification is important when determining biological integrity (Hawkins and Norris 2000) and expected species richness.…”

Baseline assessment and analysis of fish, macroinvertebrates and herpetofauna in the Otter Creek coal tracts area of Powder River County /

“…But this EA did not take into account the presence of Montana species of concern (SOC) or other ecologically sensitive native species assemblages. Despite numerous projects undertaken to document and monitor biological communities in the Powder and Tongue River watersheds in the wake of CBNG development (Confluence Consulting Inc. 2003, 2004Stagliano 2006;Davis et al 2009;Maxell 2009;Petersen et al 2009;Senecal 2009, Stagliano 2011, large gaps still exist in basic baseline surveys for riparian macroinvertebrate, fish, and herpetofauna in the Otter Creek basin. Fish communities have been documented to be seasonally variable in prairie streams (Bramblett and Fausch 1991), thus sampling across all seasons is a good strategy to document baseline community differences.…”