Aquatic Health Indicators

Aquatic insects are an essential part of the watersheds in mountain lakes. They are habitat specific in their distribution and depend on specific water temperatures. Researchers use them as an indicator of climate warming.

Grinnell Glacier - Glacier National Park

In particular meltwater stoneflies and the glacier stoneflies are disappearing from the glaciers and snowpacks of Waterton Lakes and Glacier national parks. Research continues to discover what this means to aquatic health and what the populations of aquatic insects will look like in the future. We will discover which insects are most adaptable to the changing watersheds. 

Meltwater Stonefly

Climate Change

While the species distribution of aquatic life has changed in the past 100 years, there are bigger changes happening to the watershed. And this is climate change.

 

The Canadian Aquatic Bio-monitoring Network for the mountain parks is monitoring watersheds across the Rocky Mountains. Through monitoring like this we are getting a better picture of aquatic health for the Rocky Mountains as a whole and the health of specific streams and lakes.

Volunteers looking for aquatic invertebrates. Carthew Lakes - Waterton Lakes National Park

We are learning that climate changes is altering water temperatures and levels. This begins right at the start of the watershed with the disappearing glaciers and snow pack

Research is showing that brown trout and rainbow trout are the most adaptable to the changes in the water temperatures and water levels. In contrast there are very few streams and lakes suitable for the bull trout to live.

The Watershed Today

Today in our streams and lakes there are no westslope trout and bull trout live in only 2 streams.

Many Rainbow trout and book trout have hybridized, further reducing populations of bull trout. 

And in the high mountain lakes the mighty rainbow trout is now the top of the food chain, eating the once powerful invertebrates.

To encourage outdoor recreation in Waterton Lakes National Park, the lakes and streams were stocked with fish from the 1930's to the 1980's. 

The best fish for fishing were the rainbow trout and brook Trout. They are aggressive cold water fish who thrive in the mountain watersheds. 

The more aggressive rainbow and brook trout began to take over and push the bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout out of the waters. 

And so our waterways changed.

The People

Many people began to visit to the mountain oasis of Waterton Lakes, a cool escape from the heat of the prairies.

They liked to camp and fish or go to the restaurants, dance halls and swimming pools that were being built.

But else where oil was found along the edges of Cameron Creek. Others made money trapping for furs.

A Story of Change

Long, long ago…

In the cold waterts of the Rocky Mountains, many bull trout and cutthroat trout lived happily in the mountain streams.

And high up in the alpine stoneflies and caddisflies were the top of the food chain in the fishless lakes. 

Changing Waters

Grinnell Glacier, Montana

The story of water is a story of change. It’s solid ice, it’s flowing water, it’s an invisible gas. It trickles down the mountain slopes, flows down streams, rushes through rapids and eventually waves through the ocean. Water is constantly changing through time, through space, through place.

And yet in our lives water is a constant. It is the special lake we visit every summer. It helps create the identity of our home towns. Some even say the waters of Canada add to our national identity.

So how do we understand the changes in our watersheds? The waters are a constant in our lives but are continually changing. What do these changes mean?