Aquatic Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring of Streams on BLM-managed lands in Alaska

ABR is providing aquatic habitat sampling services for the BLM's Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program. The AIM program is intended to "provide a standardized process for the BLM to collect quantitative information on the status, condition, trend, amount, location, and spatial pattern of resources on the nation's public lands". During the summer of 2020 (May-September), ABR deployed two technicians and a field crew leader on 6 hitches to survey areas on lands managed by the BLM in Alaska. The field crew surveyed stream reaches from 90 sites. Field hitches occurred at Marion Creek, Seven Mile, Aniak, Galena, and Denali National Park. Within each stream reach (~150 meters in length), several perpendcular (to stream flow) transects were established to collect data on water quality, geomorphology, riparian habitat, and macroinvertebrate assemblages. The data were collected on handheld tablets and submitted to a national database for such surveys. 2020 was the second year of BLM funded aquatic AIM surveys and represented a 50% increase in field effort over 2018 AIM studies.