Welcome!

Welcome to the watershed condition monitoring program (also known as the Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program or AREMP) Report page. The purpose of the watershed condition monitoring program is to assess the status and trend of watershed attributes to determine if Northwest Forest Plan’s Aquatic Conservation Strategy is achieving its goals of maintaining and restoring watersheds.

Our monitoring effort determines watershed condition every five years for every 6th-field watershed (with > 25% federal ownership along the stream length) based on upslope and riparian data derived from GIS layers and satellite imagery. In-channel attributes are also measured each year in a subset of watersheds to supplement the watershed condition assessments and validate the models used to assess stream condition. Watershed condition assessments are done using decision-support models (see EMDS Overview). AREMP also tracks changes in watershed condition over time; and reports on the Forest Plan's effectiveness across the region.

The results reported here are for the approximately twenty 6th field sub-watersheds spread throughout the Northwest Forest Plan area sampled each year (hot link to map) to measure in-channel physical, biological, and chemical attributes. These watersheds are a subset of 250 watersheds randomly selected to provide in-channel data for assessing watershed conditions and to validate the models used to assess stream condition.

The links on the left side of this page provide the following information:

Documents

• AREMP Overview –a general description of the Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program.
  
• EMDS Overview – Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) is the software used to develop and run decision-support models for determining watershed conditions.
  
• Field Protocol - Detailed information on in-channel survey protocols.

Data

Summarized data are presented in spreadsheet form. We would be happy to fill requests for raw data or to provide data in a different format, such as in a MS Access database or attached to Geographic Information System (GIS) layers. The links will take you to the following types of data.

• Interpretation documents - An interpretive report for each physiographic province (areas with similar ecological characteristics) includes watershed condition assessments updated each year to include the lasted data from our in-channel sampling efforts. There is also a synopsis of survey methods, GIS analyses, a description of how we analyzed the data using a decision-support model, a sensitivity analysis of the attributes used in the decision support model, and an interpretation guide for model results and summary data.
  
• Watershed specific data - Watershed maps with links to summary data tables, raw data tables, GIS layers, and site-specific photos.