8019

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8019
• Author: Montana Department of Fish, W., and Parks.
• Title: Kootenai River Fisheries Investigations, Final Completion Report.
• USFW Year: 1983.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the efforts of several people and
agencies without which this study would have been impossible. Dr. Jack
Stanford, University of Montana Biological Station provided work space
and specialized equipment. The U.S. Geological Service provided published
and unpublished flow, temperature and chemical data. Tom Bonde, Seattle
District, Corps of Engineers, provided his expertise, knowledge of pre-
impoundment aquatic insect populations and some sampling equipment.

Dr. Loren Bahls, Montana Department of Health and Environmental
Sciences, identified algal species and did the periphyton community structure
analysis. Burwell Gooch, Montana Department of Administration, ran the
computer program for species diversity indices. My husband, William
Perry, assisted with field work, enumeration, and volumetric analysis
of most insect samples. He also did much of the work on periphyton and
particulate organic carbon analysis.

Thanks are also due the many employees of Montana Department of
Fish, Wildlife and Parks who assisted in various tasks ranging from data
collection to analysis to manuscript preparation. Special thanks are
due to the federally-funded CETA and YACC programs for providing much
labor for sorting and picking aquatic insect samples.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this aquatic insect study was to measure the quantity
and quality of insects in the Kootenai River below Libby Dam. Specific
objectives were: 1) determine standing crop, composition and specific
diversity of aquatic insects at three locations in ~ootenai River and
a control in Fisher River; and 2) determine effects of river regulation
on insect drift rates, strandinq of insects on dewatered substrate and
re-population of these dewatered areas.

These data were to be compared to applicable information collected
by Bonde and Bush (1975) on pre-impoundment aquatic insect populations
and to data collected by May (1972) at stations on the Fisher River.

METHODS

Sampling of benthic invertebrates was begun in October, 1979 at
four sampling stations; three sites on the Kootenai River downstream
from Libby Dam and a control site on the Fisher River (Figure 1).
Locations of the four stations are shown on Figure 1 and were as follows:

Station name

Distance from
Libby Dam

3 km
18 km

Location

Dunn Creek
Elkhorn

Pipe Creek
Fisher River

35 km

Near the mouth of Dunn Creek
Elkhorn Trailer Court - about 2
km below reregulation dam site.
Near the mouth of Pipe Creek
1 km upstream from mouth of Fisher
River.

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