Biological Monitoring in Kentucky’s Restored Streams
Bethany Mulhall
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
Kentucky Wetland and Stream Mitigation Program
Frankfort, KY
Authors: Bethany Mulhall and KY ILF Program Staff
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) sponsors the Kentucky Wetland and Stream Mitigation Program. The program, established in 2002 under Kentucky statute, has approximately 100 active projects, with 45 of those in monitoring or long-term management. Project monitoring has commonly focused on geomorphic, hydrologic, vegetative, and habitat parameters, with a less common focus on the response of aquatic organisms, primarily aquatic macroinvertebrates, and fish taxa. While biotic indices currently exist to examine communities, the values are often too coarse to determine detailed community response in stream restoration, especially when specific questions are asked.
Our program seeks to employ more robust sampling techniques to account for physical and biological changes in restored stream reaches. The methods are adapted from US Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) protocol to determine success of stream restoration projects via fish and macroinvertebrate community response. Historically, the Kentucky Index of Biotic Integrity (KIBI) for both fish and macroinvertebrates was used to quantitatively determine ecological response post-restoration. The modified USGS protocol includes a multitude of variables including riparian vegetation, land use, instream cover types, microhabitat type and spacing, water depth and velocities, sediment type, bankfull area, floodplain connectivity, water surface slope, and others. These metrics are then correlated to biotic assemblages observed during pre-and-post restoration condition.
In 2019, a pilot study using the modified USGS protocol began with seven pre-restoration stream sites. To-date, the study has grown to include twelve sites, some of which have post-restoration data. This work seeks to determine if associations can be made between habitats and aquatic taxa. This talk will present initial findings, as well as lessons learned during the sample method development and implementation. The method seeks to answer the questions: “Can we optimize restoration designs for aquatic habitat” and “Which habitat types influence fish and macroinvertebrate communities”? The protocols and data described will potentially allow practitioners to gather more information on biotic response to stream restoration in Kentucky.
About Bethany Mulhall
Bethany is an environmental scientist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources under the Wetland and Stream Fees In-Lieu-Of Mitigation Program (FILO). She has 14 years’ experience in the natural resource management field with 13 years directly related to aquatic resource restoration. She has spent majority of her career coordinating monitoring and maintenance of FILO restoration projects. She communicates with various project stakeholders including state and federal agencies, consultants, contractors, and private landowners. She holds a BA in Biology from Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY and MS in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY.