Hemlock Draw

Habitat Assessment

Description	Sandy bottom, part of stream bed exposed; wooded uptsream and down with dense vegetation.
Width	2.7 meters
Water Appearance	Clear
Odor	smell of nitrates
Attachment Sites	6/20	Run area may be lacking; riffle not as wide as stream and its length is less than 2 times the stream width; gravel or large boulders and bedrock prevalent; some cobble present.
Embeddedness	2/20	Fine sediment surrounds and fills in more than 75% of the living spaces around and in between the gravel, cobble, and boulders.
Shelter For Fish	12/20	Snags, submerged logs, undercut banks, cobble and large rocks, or other stable habitat are found in over 30-50% of the site.
Channel Alteration	14/20	Some stream straightening, dredging, artificial embankments or dams present, usually in areas of bridge abutments; no evidence of recent channel alteration activity.
Sediment Deposition	2/20	Heavy deposits of fine material, increased bar development; more than 50% of bottom affected; pools almost absent due to substantial sediment deposition.
Channel Flow Status	7/20	Water fills 25-75% of the available channel and/or riffle substrates are mostly exposed.
Bank Vegetative Protection	LEFT:7/10; RIGHT:4/10	LEFT:70-90% of the streambank surfaces covered by natural vegetation, but one class of plants is not well-represented; some vegetation disruption evident; more than one-half of the potential plant stubble height remaining. RIGHT:50-70% of the streambank surfaces covered by vegetation; patches of bare soil or closely cropped vegetation common; less than one half of the potential plant stubble height remaining.
Condition of Banks	LEFT:5/10; RIGHT:3/10	Moderately unstable; up to 60% of banks in site have areas of erosion; high erosion potential during floods.
Riparian Vegetative Zone Width	LEFT:9/10; RIGHT:5/10	LEFT:Width of Riparian Zone is greater than 50 feet; no evidence of human activities within the riparian zone. RIGHT:Width of riparian zone is 20-35 feet.

Back to SSI!