Spa Creek Watershed Assessment
Ecosystem Solutions and the Spa Creek Conservancy are teaming on a project to begin a watershed assessment of the Spa Creek watershed located in Annapolis, Maryland. Watershed assessments are a valuable tool to citizens, landuse managers, and natural resource professionals for planning, research and restoration purposes, to mention a few. There are many components to a watershed assessment. These can include: water quality, habitat (in-stream and riparian), fish, and benthic macroinvertebrates. In using these parameters, one can tell the relative health of a stream. While each component on its own has value, when used together, a full scale watershed assessment can be a powerful tool to inform people of the health of the ecosystem surrounding them and how their actions can have a profound effect on that environment. In addition, by collecting these type of data, conservation and landuse planning professionals can help prioritize and plan restoration efforts in the most impacted areas. A baseline of conditions is always important to have to be able to show how actions (planned or otherwise, positive or negative) are having an impact on the watershed.
Watershed Data Collection
Scientists at Ecosystem Solutions have conducted field assessments at several sites within the Spa Creek watershed. These sites include:
- Spa Creek mainstem at the Chesapeake Children’s Museum
- Spa Creek mainstem upstream of Spa Road culvert
- Spa Creek mainstem downstream of Cherry Grove restoration site
- Spa Creek mainstem at Lincoln Road church
- Spa Creek, Truxton Park (2 sites for fish sampling)
Data collected at these sites include:
- Benthic macroinvertebrates
- Habitat
- Fish
- In-situ water quality
Not all of these parameters are collected at each site.
Data were collected at these sites using the Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocols (EPA RBP) (Barbour 1999). Benthic macroinvertebrates (organisms that live on the bottom of the stream and do not have a back bone) were collected using either the riffle/run method or 20 jab method (Click here to see a short movie) depending on the availability of stable riffle habitat.
Instream and riparian habitat were assessed using the parameters described for low gradient streams. It is important to know the location of your sites when carrying out habitat assessments because the topography can affects the hydrology of a stream. The Spa Creek sites are located in the Coastal Plain physiographic region of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This area is characterized by gentle to flat topography with relatively porous soils, appropriate for the use of low gradient stream habitat assessment. In-situ water quality was collected at each site using a water quality multi-parameter probe. This type of instrument measures temperature, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, conductivity (or the measure of the waters ability to conduct electricity, e.g. the amount of charged particles in the water) and salinity. Finally, scientists at ESI collected data on fish populations at two sites. This was accomplished using a modified protocol from the EPA RBP.
To ensure that our data would be comparable with data collected across the state of Maryland, we used methods described in the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS) protocols. A common method employed by the MBSS is electrofishing. Click here to see a short movie of how this was done. This is a safe method used by shocking the water column, stunning the fish and collecting them in a bucket. Organisms were then identified and measured and returned to the stream.
Accomplishments and Results to Date
To date, scientists with Ecosystem Solutions have collected all field data. Initial results for fish sampling include:
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| Chain pickerel |
Golden shiner |
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Brown bullhead catfish |
We are currently analyzing benthic macroinvertebrate samples using microscopy, identifying organisms to the family taxonomic level and enumerating the first 100. We will use these data, as well as the fish data to calculate several metrics or indicators to determine the relative health of the stream. Following analysis of organismal data we will analyze water quality and habitat data. All of these data will then be put into a report in conjunction with past data collected at the sites for a full scale report of Spa Creek watershed sites sampled to date.
Learn more about our restoration and assessment programs.