Yellow River Yellow River SF - Yellow River Unit- Ion

Sites that score between 71 - 100 are considered excellent. Fish (excluding tolerant species) are fairly abundant or abundant. A high number of native species are present, including many long-lived, habitat specialist, and sensitive species. Sensitive fish species and species of intermediate pollution tolerance are numerically dominant. The three most abundant fish species typically comprise 50% or less of the total number of fish. Top carnivores are usually present in appropriate numbers and multiple life stages. Habitat specialists, such as benthic invertivore and simple lithophilous spawning fish are present at near optimal levels. Fish condition is good; typically less than 1% of total fish exhibit external anomalies associated with disease or stress.

This location has been classified as a Reference Site. Reference sites represent natural stream qualities that are least disturbed by human activities within the watershed. These sites are then grouped by ecoregion to establish a benchmark against which other streams in the same ecoregion are compared.