Fish Creek Watershed Observatory

A Focal Watershed of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska

Understanding aquatic habitat and water resource responses to rapid and ongoing changes in both climate and land-use guides science in the Fish Creek Watershed Observatory (FCWO). Starting with river gauging and climate monitoring in 2001, aquatic habitat observations and research in and around the Fish Creek Watershed have gradually expanded in step with resource management needs in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A). Targeted lake and stream monitoring and fish habitat studies in the Greater Moose’s Tooth Unit, the Bear Tooth Unit, and the new Willow area are providing site specific data prior to and after establishment of new petroleum development. More broadly, watershed-scale interdisciplinary science in the FCWO merges geographic analysis and classification with climate and hydrologic modeling and biological inventories to understand scenarios of land-use and climate change to inform adaptive management. Data and scientific finding from the FCWO are additionally intended to serve as a model for other lands and waters of the NPR-A, as well as Arctic Alaska.