Establishing an Aquatic Monitoring Program to Assess the Goals of the Illinois Conservation Reserve Program in the Kaskaskia River Basin

The goal of this monitoring program is to provide a characterization of Kaskaskia River basin stream reaches at a time when CREP program enrollments are opening within the basin. This program will provide a baseline from which change can be measured as the CREP program matures and thereby provide a means for evaluating any potential for increase in fish and mussel stocks. Within this context, study objectives are: 6 1.Evaluate chemical, physical and biological status of streams. This portion of the program will be used to determine current status and assess trends over time in stream biodiversity throughout the Kaskaskia River Basin accounting for regional and system-wide variation.2.Evaluate status of streams with sensitive species.This portion of the program will assess temporal trends in the characteristics of sensitive populations in areas of conservation concern. 3.Assess locations with concurrent monitoring programs for long-term trend evaluation.Information from these fixed locations will track temporal changes in biological communities as private lands program initiatives mature.