Maquoketa River Lyle Retz Park (MQ003)

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 survey site. Survey sites are compared to reference sites within the same ecoregion. A reference site represents natural stream qualities that are least disturbed by human activities within the watershed. Reference sites are grouped by ecoregion to establish a benchmark against which these survey streams are compared.