Elk River Watershed

Elk River Alliance's Community-Based Water Monitoring (CBWM) program covers the spatial extent of the Elk River Watershed, located within the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. In 2020, this program assessed a total of 10 sites across 5 major tributaries: Lizard Creek, Alexander Creek, Coal Creek, Boivin Creek, and Morrissey Creek. The tributary assessments were performed successfully using the full CABIN method (Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network) which is a nationally recognized stream assessment protocol. CABIN assessments in 2020 indicated most sites to be in relatively good condition (similar benthic community structure to similar reference sites), with the exception of the lower Coal Creek sampling site (COL001) and the Morrissey Creek sampling site (MOR001). According to the CABIN assessment model, both of these sites were stressed and diverging from the designated reference conditions.