THE GREAT RIVERS NEWS
,™
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA/620/N-05/002 Vol. 1 No. 2
April 2005
eNVIRONMBNTAU MONITORJNq ANIi ASS6SSM6NT
PROGRAM
J
EMAP-GRE Technical Committee Meeting
The first meeting of the EMAP-GRE
Technical Committee was held in Cin-
cinnati, OH on March 28-30. It proved
to be a rare opportunity for Midwest-
ern river scientists to gather, talk, and
learn from each other's experiences.
The Technical Committee is com-
posed of experts on river biota, hydrol-
ogy, and ecological indicators, and
advises the EMAP-GRE Senior Advi-
sory Committee. Many Technical
Committee members are EPA re-
gional scientists and science liaisons
who are bridging the information gap
between state resource managers and
EMAP-GRE research. Over 30 envi-
ronmental scientists gathered to re-
view EMAP-GRE progress to date and
to craft plans for the future of field
sampling, data analyses, and report
production. Discussion covered a
range of topics from using DMA to
identify fish species and populations
to utilizing river hydrographs to better
explain differences in littoral fish and
macroinvertebrate habitat. Plans
were laid to form "Indicator Working
Groups" in areas such as water qual-
ity, fish, macroinvertebrates, and river
zooplankton to guide development of
ecological indicators and provide ex-
pertise to state, local, and tribal
Ongoing Biological Assessment of Large Rivers
An EPA Regional Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment Program
(REMAP) study of tributaries to Great
Rivers ("Large Rivers") is continuing
through 2006. This project will de-
velop, demonstrate, and promote the
EMAP approach to monitoring and
assessment in selected Large River
tributaries to the Great Rivers. This
project will enable researchers to
estimate, with known statistical confi-
dence, the current status, geographic
extent and distribution of Large River
resources within EPA Region V. It will
also allow researchers to examine the
among-and within-watershed variabil-
ity of land use patterns that may influ-
ence the condition of Large Rivers
and, ultimately, of the Great Rivers
themselves.
The Large River tributaries to the Up-
per Mississippi and Ohio Rivers within
Region V are an important ecological
resource and constitute a significant
water quality management challenge
for the states and Region. The
influence of large tributaries to the
overall quality and condition of the
Great Rivers is relatively unknown.
The landscape component of EMAP-
GRE includes complete coverage of
the watersheds within the study area,
and is intended to provide significant
information on the vulnerability of
aquatic systems to contributions from
those watersheds. Predicting loads
and impacts from these watersheds
as they affect aquatic biota within the
GRE study area can be improved by
extending the scale of the study to
include direct assessments of those
watersheds.
We plan to use basic measures offish
assemblage abundance and condition
such as species richness; proportions
of sensitive, tolerant, rare or threat-
ened species; invasive species; and
organism condition indicators such as
the frequency of occurrence of de-
formities, fin erosion, lesions, and
tumors (DELT) to describe fish as-
semblage condition.
resource managers with the goal of
better protecting and restoring the
Great Rivers of central United States.
A map of the large river basins in the Region V REMAP
project and some trophy fish collected in 2004.
The Great Rivers Newsletter is periodic publication of the EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Divi-
sion in Duluth, MN. The newsletter is designed to disseminate timely information about the
EMAP-GRE project among EPA investigators; state, federal, and tribal collaborators; and other
stakeholders. Contact Mark Pearson, editor (pearson.mark@epa.gov; 218-529-5205) to obtain
copies of the newsletter. The newsletter and other EMAP information can be found on this
website : www.epa.gov/emap/greatriver
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Page 2
THE GREAT RIVERS NEWS
LETTER
Fish To Be Collected on Upper Missouri River in 2005
In 2005, USGS scientists from
North Dakota and Texas will col-
lect fish from the Garrison Reach
of the Upper Missouri River for the
EMAP-GRE program. The Garri-
son Reach stretches about 100
miles from Garrison Dam to near
Bismarck, ND. While water, sedi-
ment, and invertebrates were col-
lected throughout the Upper Mis-
souri River in 2004, electrofishing
had to be carefully considered
because of the presence of the
endangered pallid sturgeon. A
review of electrofishing proce-
dures and sites with the U.S Fish
and Wildlife Service, and the
North Dakota and Montana Game
and Fish Departments concluded
that EMAP sampling on the Garri-
son Reach posed little risk to stur-
geon. However, no fishing would
be allowed from Fort Peck Dam in
Montana to Lake Sakakawea. Fish
assemblage data for the Upper
Missouri River are important for
developing useful indicators of
biological condition. Concentra-
tions of contaminants in fish tis-
sues and general fish health also
will be measured. The EMAP pro-
gram greatly appreciates the work
of USGS scientists in North Da-
kota to coordinate this sampling.
Fishing will begin with training in
mid-August, and sampling the 14
sites will take about 3 weeks.
The Missouri River basin. The red shaded area is the Garri-
son Reach and will be sampled for fish in 2005. The other
shaded areas were sampled in 2004.
EMAP-GRE Updates and Important Information
EMAP-GRE Data in Use
Recently collected (2004) EMAP-
GRE data are already being pre-
sented at a variety of scientific
meetings across the Great Rivers
region.
A presentation titled
"Zooplankton as Potential Indica-
tors of Biotic Condition in Large
Rivers" by K.A. Medley, J.E.
Havel, and J.D. Jack will be
made at a joint meeting of the
North American Benthological
Society and the American Geo-
physical Union in New Orleans,
LA, May 23-27, 2005. Presenta-
tions will also be made at the
Missouri River Natural Resources
Conference in Pierre, SD, May
22-25, 2005. Terri Jicha (US
EPA), Kathleen Rowland, Suz-
anne Femmer, Brenda Wood-
ward (USGS), and Jason Crites
(Missouri Dept. of Conservation)
will present a program overview,
field data from the upper and
lower Missouri River, and fish
community work, respectively.
Sample Crew Training
Set for June 2005
The 2005 EMAP-GRE training
will be held on June 14-16 at St
Charles, MO. The classroom
portion (half-day on the 14th) will
be held at the Holiday Inn River-
port. The field portion will be held
at the Blanchette Landing in St
Charles on the afternoon of the
14th and 15th, and if needed, the
16th. This will be an opportunity
to mix and mingle among crews
to see how other folks have ap-
proached the logistics and solved
sampling problems. A block of
rooms have been reserved at the
Holiday Inn Riverport (314 )298
3400. Please make your reserva-
tions ASAP. Crews that are driv-
ing down should bring boats, if
possible. We look forward to see-
ing you all as we prepare for an-
other successful EMAP-GRE
field season.
IM Update
Current status of field data en-
tered into the EMAP-GRE Sur-
face Water Information Manage-
ment (SWIM) database for the
2004 field season stands at 89%,
with 100% entry expected in
May. The next steps include an
extensive verification of entered
data by the collecting crew
leader, and a validation exercise
by indicator leaders. Laboratory
data entry is expected between
May and September 2005 for the
2004 samples.
2002 EMAP Symposium
Papers Available
A special issue of Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment Vol
103, No. 1-3, April, 2005 high-
lights the EPA EMAP Symposium
held in Kanas City, MO in 2002.
Several papers from members of
the EMAP-GRE team were in-
cluded in this publication
Riparian training session from 2004 field season.
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