2018 FOCAL PROJECTS
SOUTH DAKOTA NATURE CONSERVANCY AND NRCS PRAIRIE STREAM RIPARIAN ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING STUDY (TNC & NRCS)
TNC contracted with MBS in 2018 to provide field and technical expertise on the prairie streams of western South Dakota in a study of riparian condition that incorporates hydrology, riparian vegetation assessments and the biological components of ephemeral to perennial streams in western SD. Many sites were choosen as revisits to sites that were assessed by Stagliano in 2006: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/45580#/summary
BLACK BUTTE MINE AQUATIC ASSESSMENTS (SANDFIRE RESOURCES BLACK BUTTE COPPER PROJECT)
MBS with our collaborators, Rhithron (Periphyton) and Peter Brown, Ph.D (Fish), will continue to collect and analyze fisheries/aquatic assessment data in 2018, as we did for their initial baseline assessments from 2014-2017. See 3 year summary report: http://www.tintinaresources.com/ In addition to the aquatic communities previously evaluated, the past 3 years we have collected rocky mountain sculpin for tissue analysis of baseline metals, CHL A (Energy Laboratories) and performed spawning redd counts in the fall. MBS's Aquatic Ecologist has provided scientifically-robust, biological data for other controversial projects, including Otter Creek Coal Tracts, Spring Creek/Big Metal Coal Mine Expansion, Absoluka Mine and Coal Bed Natural Gas monitoring in Wyoming and Montana (see Past Projects).
O'DELL CREEK EFFECTIVENESS MONITORING PROJECT (Northwestern Energy & River Design Group)
O’Dell Spring Creek on the Longhorn and Granger Ranches in the Madison River Watershed has undergone significant channel restoration activities over the past ~13 years (RDG). While fisheries and wetlands have been evaluated since restoration, aquatic insects, the base of the stream’s food chain, have not. In 2017 and 2018 Northwestern Energy began the Odell Creek Baseline Macroinvertebrate Monitoring program. This study established six long-term, baseline monitoring sites for sampling benthic macroinvertebrates associated with stream temperature gauges within or downstream of Phases 1, 2, 5, 6, 14B, 15 and a downstream control site. Initial results show that macroinveretebrate community health has improved at the older restored reaches to more closely resemble the control site.
Continued Projects From 2017:
MISSOURI AND MADISON RIVER LONG-TERM MACROINVERTEBRATE MONITORING STUDY, NORTHWESTERN ENERGY (NWE)
CLARK FORK RIVER LONG-TERM MACROINVERTEBRATE MONITORING STUDY, EPA-ASARCO-CH2M
Montana Biological Survey and Stag Benthics, SP