South Fork Catfish Creek IA 01-TRK-130

Assessment Comments

1990 stream use assessment in Dubuque County.

Basis for Assessment

Used a review of the field sheet from the August 1990 DNR stream use assessment in Dubuque County to continue to assess support of the Class B(LR) aquatic life uses as FST due to (1) presence of a majority of the expected fish taxa (6 of 9) for streams in the Driftless Area ecoregion (52) and (2) indications on field sheet of exceptionally high quality aquatic habitats, with very diverse substrates, numerous pool/riffle sequences, and no apparent impacts to the physical characteristics of this stream.  The fish community diversity reported (6 species from 3 families) is relatively low for this ecoregion, but this low diversity is likely due to the difficulty of sampling (seining) over coarse substrates.  The data upon which this assessment is based are more than 5 years old.  Additional monitoring is needed to update this assessment.  Sampling with more effective gear types would likely increase the number of fish taxa and upgrade the assessment of support of the Class B(LR) uses from FST to FS.