Watershed health — Mid-Columbia update

We investigated the health of stream habitats in the Mid-Columbia Status and Trends Region in 2011 and 2015. From these study years, the region showed streams to be in mostly good biological condition, but also showed more stream distance as rated poor for collected indicators.

Image of small stream with woody debri across

Use the map to navigate our reports by Status and Trends Region.

Click the map to see other regional reports!

Regional summary

Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity scores in the Mid-Columbia Region show that a majority of streams are in good biological condition.
The most prevalent indicators for streams in the Mid-Columbia Region were higher phosphorous concentrations, a higher proportion of sand/fines, and low canopy cover.

Biological condition

Invertebrate biological condition of streams did not change substantially from 2011 to 2015 in the Mid-Columbia Region. For both rounds of sampling, most streams had good B-IBI ratings. The proportion of streams in poor condition decreased, and those in fair condition increased. These are positive trends that will require more data to validate.

Majority of stream length percentage were good for 2011 & 2015. — We used B-IBI ratings from 2011 and 2015 to obtain the percentage of stream kilometers in good, fair, and poor conditions for the Mid-Columbia Region. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Physical and chemical indicators

Comparing 2011 to 2015, every indicator increased the percentage of stream kilometers in poor condition. In 2015, bed stability and the proportion of sand or fine substrate were reported in poor condition for greater that 50 percent of the streams in the Mid-Columbia Region. Additionally, fish cover, wood volume, and phosphorus levels were in poor condition for greater than 40 percent of total stream kilometers in 2015.

To interact with this graph and learn more about these physiochemical indicators, hold your mouse over each bar.

This interactive graph shows the percentage of stream kilometers assessed with poor physiochemical conditions in the Mid Columbia Region for 2011 and 2015. The x-axis represents the percentage of river extent in poor condition. Error bars show 95 percent confidence intervals.

Flip through our field photos!

A small fish with barbels in a clear container

This black bullhead was found at Holmes Creek.

A crewmember measures the length of this adult westslope cutthroat trout from Blowout Creek.

A yellow fish with triangular head in a clear container

A longnose dace from the Teanaway River indicates a healthy stream.

A crewmember wearing a backpack electrofisher in a stream

Crews electrofish in streams to understand fish assemblages.

A frog with black eye stripes in a crewmembers hands

This Cascades frog was found at at Middle Creek.

A person standing in a stream holding a clip board

Crewmembers record visual habitat parameters such as fish cover in streams and the percentage of bank covered by vegetation.

A horse near the edge of a stream looks at person standing in the stream

A visitor joins a crew member as they measure the channel width at Mercer Creek.

A shallow stream with multiple logs in the channel

Pieces of large woody debris and overhanging vegetation provide fish cover at Wilson Creek.

Two people in a raft on the side of a wide river

The crew collects data via raft on the Yakima River.

We found this rainbow trout in the Teanaway River.

A closeup view of the head of a yellow fish

A closeup of this sculpin shows chromatophores, its color-changing cells.

We found this Pacific treefrog at Oak Creek.

A person holding a measuring rod across a creek

Crewmembers measure channel widths at sunny Diamond Fork Creek.

A person with a measuring rod looking at a large piece of wood in a stream

Crewmember takes wetted depths at a human-made log jam on the west fork of the Teanaway River.