Ben N McGee

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release contains data from stream water, groundwater/springs, and sediment samples collected from legacy mine land (LML) sites in central Colorado. The sites were selected using a GIS-based approach that integrated regional geological and geochemical datasets with known mine features and satellite data identifying hydrothermal alteration (ASTER) to...

This data release includes GIS datasets supporting the Colorado Legacy Mine Lands Watershed Delineation and Scoring tool (WaDeS), a web mapping application available at https://geonarrative.usgs.gov/colmlwades/. Water chemistry data were compiled from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) STORET database...

This USGS data release evaluates the impact of historical mining sites on water quality using samples collected in late July 2021 from Big Creek tributaries Coin Creek, Smith Creek, and Monumental Creek in Valley County, Idaho. These data were collected to support a fisheries mining impact assessment in the Middle Fork Salmon River. Specific conductance, pH, and stream temperature were...

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release contains stream water chemistry and streamflow data collected in late August and early September, 2021 from 28 sites located throughout Colorado, USA. The sampled streams all drain high-elevation mountain watersheds in areas where the bedrock is hydrothermally altered and contains abundant sulfide minerals. Most sampled streams are...

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release is an assessment of aquatic habitat within the tributaries of the lower Middle Fork Salmon River. These datasets are primarily focused on physical stream habitat (2020-21 stream temperature data) and the presence or absence (2021 eDNA data) of fish that inhabit the basin. Many environmental stressors contribute to the declining range and...

This data release is a geochemical data set from the reanalysis of 23 rock and 85 sediment samples collected between 1966 and 1970 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for a series of studies investigating the mineral resources of the Idaho Primitive Area (Cater et al., 1973). The samples are from the upper Middle Fork Salmon River and the South Fork Salmon River, including the...

This data release includes sampling location data; field-collected stream attribute data; laboratory-analyzed chemistry concentrations (total mercury, methyl mercury) and isotopic composition (total mercury, carbon, and nitrogen) for stream biota (seston, periphyton, benthic insects, emerging adult insects, riparian spiders, and fish); density, body length, and taxonomic information for...

This dataset was collected to build on past and ongoing monitoring and research efforts within Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Specifically, the data were collected to test the hypothesis that reductions in canopy cover due to natural disturbances (i.e. wildfire and beetle kill) result in increases in water temperature, or the longitudinal thermal gradient of a stream...

The USGS examined mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish populations inhabiting impacted and reference streams as part of an investigation into the transport of trace metals in a watershed impacted by legacy mercury mining downstream from the Cinnabar mine site, Valley County, ID. Fish were sampled through an electrofishing survey utilizing a two-pass quantitative depletion approach where...

The Baca National Wildlife Refuge is located in the San Luis Valley of South-central Colorado on the western flank of the Sangre de Cristo massif, northwest of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Wildlife managers at the refuge are tasked with protecting two fish species of special concern, the Rio Grande Chub (Gila pandora) and the Rio Grande Sucker (Catostomus plebeius). The U.S...

This data set summarizes electrofishing effort, observations, and tissue sampling of aquatic vertebrates near Yellow Pine, Idaho. Sampling was conducted using a backpack electrofishing unit at two reference sites including Cane Creek and Sugar Creek, and at three mine impact sites including Sugar Creek and Cinnabar Creek. Juvenile Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) were present at all...

This data set characterizes the thermal regime in a number of Colorado and New Mexico streams that contain populations of Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii virginalis) or have been considered potential restoration areas for the fish. The majority of these streams had no previous record of continual temperature records. When compared to Colorado water temperature criteria...