This reference was created to house geospatial data related to Aquatic Health and Climate Change: Long-term Monitoring starting in 2021. This project is the continuation of the Aquatic Health Pilot Project (2014-2019).

Service programs (Refuges, Fish and Aquatic Conservation, and Water Resources) are collaborating to implement a long-term aquatic monitoring program for evaluating effects of climate change at National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region (IR9). The goal is to evaluate evidence of climate change on physical and habitat variables, and potential associations with changes in fish assemblages in wadeable streams. The program relies on two site specific protocols (SSPs), one addressing habitat and fish surveys (this SSP) and another addressing temperature and stream flow. For habitat and fish, objectives are to: establish a survey reach within a stream at each of five NWRs across the range of ecoregions in IR9; describe habitat in each survey reach once every five years or less; describe fish assemblages in each survey reach once every five years or less; analyze for temporal changes in habitat and fish assemblages, and assess potential temporal associations between habitat and fish assemblages. Data collected at survey reach are based on a subset of protocols developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation Program (EMAP; Peck et al. 2006).