Tongue River in Wyoming: a baseline fisheries assessment, Monarch to the state line

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6232920

Wesche, T A; Johnson, L S

A baseline study of fish populations was conducted in northeastern Wyoming's Tongue River and Goose Creek as part of a research project on the ecological effects of a large surface coal mine near Sheridan, Wyoming. The study area is a transition zone between the cold-water, torrential habitat in the Bighorn Mountains and the warm-water, quiet-zone habitat of the lower Tongue River. Fauna of the study area form one of the most diverse fisheries in Wyoming and include brown and rainbow trout, sauger, smallmouth bass, and black bullhead. Diversity generally increases in a downstream direction. Sauger and northern pike are extending their ranges from Montana into Wyoming to spawn; sauger in the study area are very fast-growing, probably due to the abundance of forage species. Studies should continue on the effect of the new Tongue River channel at the Big Horn Mine site in order to determine if recolonization is occurring. Spawning movements of sauger and northern pike in the Tongue River should be followed so that the effects of future mining along the Tongue River may be evaluated.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA); Wyoming Univ., Laramie (USA). Water Resources Research Inst.
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6232920
• Report Number(s): ANL/LRP-10; ON: DE81025033
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010900 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Environmental Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
294001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
520500* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BASELINE ECOLOGY
COAL MINING
DATA
ECOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FISHES
INFORMATION
LIFE CYCLE
MINING
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
POPULATION DENSITY
RIVERS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
SIZE
SPECIES DIVERSITY
STREAMS
SURFACE MINING
SURFACE WATERS
USA
VERTEBRATES
WYOMING