Bear Creek IA 03-SSK-958

Assessment Comments

1997 bioassessment: 17 spp., 4 fams.; 1997 Biocriteria: Fish IBI=37 (fair), BM-IBI=82 (excellent).

Basis for Assessment

Used results of the the September 1997 DNR bioassessment conducted in the South Skunk River greenbelt area NE of Ames to update the assessment of support of the Class B(LR) aquatic life uses developed for the 1996 report (=FST).   Used results of the bioassessment to continue to assess support of the Class B(LR) uses as FST due to (1) presence of a relatively diverse fish community (17 species from 4 families) for streams in the Des Moines Lobe ecoregion, (2) presence of a majority of the expected fish taxa (8 of 11) for streams in this region (both catfishes and sunfishes were absent), and (3) lack of violations of Class B(LR) WQ criteria in the sampled collected during the bioassessment.