A STREAM VISUAL ASSESSMENT PROTOCOL FOR CONSERVATIONISTS AND RIPARIAN LANDOWNERS

摘要

Most decisions concerning the management of riparian areas are made by landowners without the benefit of information about the ecological implications of different management alternatives. A simple stream ecological assessment method has been developed by the USDA-NRCS for its field conservation agents and partners. The assessment procedure is designed to be conducted with the landowner and to convey basic information on the ecological benefits and impacts of different resource conditions. The procedure can also be used by landowners independently. The protocol is based on comparing visual characteristics with narrative descriptions. The characteristics that are evaluated range from large-scale aspects such as channel morphology to small-scale aspects such as the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Testing of the procedure during development indicated reasonable precision and accuracy relative to more intensive assessment methods. Interest in the protocol has been high and there have been more than 10,000 downloads of the document file through the Internet.