| Aggradation |
The geologic process of deposition of material eroded and transported from other areas that raises streambeds and flood plains. |
| Allocation |
To designate a certain amount of fish to a user group. |
| Anadromous |
Fish that mature and spend much of their adult life in the ocean, returning to fresh water for reproduction; salmon and steelhead are examples. |
| Aquatic |
Growing, living in, or taking place in water. Used to indicate habitat, vegetation, and organisms in freshwater. |
| Assessment |
An evaluation of an area looking at all of it's characteristics, for example: wildlife resources, fisheries resources, miles of existing road, vegetation and amount of existing timber harvest. |
| Baffles |
Wood, concrete, or metal mounted in a series on the floor and/or wall of a culvert or fishpass to reduce the water flow. This often helps the fish move upstream easier. |
| Barrier |
A vertical falls, steep cascade, or high velocity chute in a stream channel that prevents migration of anadromous species |
| Bedload |
The part of the stream bed movement not in suspension, on or near the stream bottom. The particles of this material have a density or grain size that prevents movement far above or for a long distance out of contact with the streambed under natural flow conditions. |
| Bedwidth |
The width of the streambed. |
| Best Management Practices |
Land management methods, measures or practices selected by an agency to meet its nonpoint source control needs. BMPs include, but are not limited to structural and nonstructural controls and operation and maintenance procedures. BMPs can be applied before, during and after pollution-producing activities to reduce or eliminate the introduction of pollutants into receiving waters. BMPs are selected on the basis of site-specific conditions that reflect natural background conditions and political, social, economic, and technical feasibility. |
| Channel type |
A means of distinguishing parts of a stream system into segments that have consistent physical and biological characteristics. Examples include alluvial fans, floodplains and high gradient channels. |
| Conductivity |
The ability of water to conduct electricity. |
| Conifer |
A broad classification of trees, mostly evergreens, that bear cones and have needle-shaped or scale-like leaves; spruce, hemlock, cedar are examples of conifers. |
| Conservation education |
Teaching people about the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife, fish and other natural resources such as forests, soil, and water. |
| Creel census |
As in creel survey, an onsite survey designed to estimate fishing effort and fish harvest from a sample of anglers. |
| Cumulative |
Incremental and additive impact of many individual actions
added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable
future actions. |
| Culvert |
A conduit or passageway under a road, trail, or other obstruction. A culvert differs from a bridge in that it is usually constructed entirely below the elevation of the traveled way. |
| Dissolved Oxygen |
The amount of free (not chemically combined) oxygen in water. |
| Ecosystem |
A complete, interacting system of organisms considered together with their environment (for example; a marsh, a watershed, or a lake). |
| Electroshocking |
Using electricity to capture fish. The electroshocking devise is used either from boats or as a backpack in streams. Fish are attracted to an electric field placed in water and are temporarily stunned, allow capture for identification of the fish species. |
| Enhancement |
To improve, reinforce, enrich or strengthen the existing condition of a resource. |
| Enrichment |
To enhance or make more fertile. |
| Environment |
The complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival . |
| Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) |
An evaluation and public review of a project within an area, to determine if it will have significant negative impacts to that area. |
| Escapement |
Fish that escape from all causes of mortality (natural or human-caused) to return to streams to spawn. |
| Estuary |
An ecological system at the mouth of a stream where fresh water and salt water mix, and where salt marshes and inter tidal mudflats are present. |
| Fish Passage |
The ability of both adult and juvenile fish to move both up and down stream. |
| Fishpasses |
A structure placed in a stream channel to help fish bypass a barrier so they can continue migration or movement upstream. Also called a fish ladder or steeppass. |
| Fish timing windows |
The time frame when work can be performed within the high
water mark of a stream channel, often done in consultation
with Alaska Department of Natural Resources |
| Flocculant |
Accumulation of precipitated or suspended materials into small masses. The iron flocculant in a stream is a rusty-brown colored mass. |
| Flume |
A channel for transporting water. A fish pass flume is made out of aluminum or metal. |
| Fyke net |
A modified (entrapping) hoop net with one or two wings that guide fish into the net mouth. Used in area of little or no water current. |
| Girdle |
To remove a ring of bark from a tree to kill the tree. In the case of thinning killing the tree removes competition from the trees you are trying to make larger, for example removing numerous alders around a conifer tree. |
| GPS |
Global Positioning System - A navigational system using satellite signals to fix the location of a receiver on or above the earth's surface. |
| Gradient |
The slope of a stream. For example, 1-2% is considered
a low gradient stream, greater than 6% is considered
a high gradient stream. An instrument called a clinometer
is often used to determined gradient. |
| Habitat |
The physical, chemical, and biological features of the environment where an organism (e.g. fish, wildlife, plants) lives. |
| Incision |
Incision depth - The vertical distance between the first major slope break above the bankfull stage and the channel bottom at the thalweg (path of a stream's or river's deepest water). |
| Integrated |
Looking at all the resources in a given area, for example: wildlife resources, fisheries resources, road resources, forest types, recreation opportunities. |
| Interpretation |
A teaching technique that combines factual with stimulating explanatory information: natural resource interpretation program |
| Lake fertilization |
Increasing the primary productivity of the lake by adding nitrogen or phosphorus as needed |
| Minnow Trap |
A cage-like trap placed in streams to capture fish.
Often disinfected salmon roe is used as bait. Disinfected
salmon roe is used to prevent transferring diseases from
one stream system to another. |
| pH |
A measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution that is a number on a scale on which a value of 7 represents neutrality. The lower numbers indicate increasing acidity and higher numbers increasing alkalinity. |
| Photosynthesis |
Production of organic substances from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of light; transformation of radiant energy (sunlight) in to chemical energy. |
| Phyto and zooplankton |
Phytoplankton - Small microscopic plants in the water column of a lake or ocean.
Zooplankton - Small microscopic animals in the water column of a lake or ocean. |
| Prescription |
Direction for protecting a given resource through various mitigations. |
| Primary production |
Results from photosynthesis by green plants. This includes production from algae and aquatic plants, and from non-aquatic sources such as leaf litter. |
| Resident fish |
Fish that are not migratory and complete their entire
life cycle in fresh water. |
| Restoration |
The long-term placement of land back into its natural condition or state of productivity. |
| Retrofit |
To improve an existing structure (fishpass) by adding
parts, modifying, or rebuilding it. This often improves the
ability of the structure to pass fish upstream. |
| Riparian |
The area including a stream channel, lake or estuary bed, the water itself, and the plants that grow in the water and on the land next to the water. |
| Road Storage |
Stabilizing and making a road maintenance free by removing all culverts and constructing water bars (digging a trench across the road to remove water from the road surface). This prevents erosion from the road and sedimentation of streams. Storage prohibits vehicle access onto the stored section of road. |
| Salmon roe |
Salmon eggs |
| Snorkel survey |
Swimming on top the water in streams counting fish, such as steelhead, using a face mask and snorkel. |
| Standards and Guidelines |
Forest Plan direction for how a given resource will be managed and protected, for example fish resources, riparian area resources, etc. |
| Stewardship |
Caring for the land and its resources to pass healthy ecosystems to future generations. |
| Stream Class |
A categorization of stream channels based on their fish
production values. There are four stream classes on the
Tongass National
Forest; anadromous fish, resident fish, no fish - with
ability to transport sediment, no fish - no ability to
transport sediment |
| Subsistence |
The customary and traditional uses by rural Alaska residents of wild, renewable resources for direct personal or family consumption as food, shelter, fuel, clothing, tools, or transportation; for the making and selling of handicraft articles out of the non-edible by-products of fish and wildlife resources taken for personal or family consumption; for barter, or sharing for personal or family consumption; and for customary trade. |
| Substrate |
The mineral and/or organic material that forms the bed of the stream. |
| Sustainability |
The ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes and functions, biological diversity, and productivity over time. |
| Tongass Forest Plan |
A publicly reviewed document which describes how management of the Tongass National Forest will take place. |
| Tributary |
A stream that flows into a larger stream or other body of water. |
| Undersized |
Of less than normal or sufficient size. |
| Velocity |
The speed of water within a stream or river over a given period of time. |
| Watershed |
The area that contributes water to a drainage or stream. A portion of the forest in which all surface water drains to a common point. Watersheds can range from tens of acres that drain a single small intermittent stream to many thousands of acres for a stream that drains hundreds of connected intermittent and perennial streams. |
| Weir |
A barrier constructed across a stream to catch or retain fish. Often a picket fence weir is used. |
