North Fork of the CDA drainge environmental issue and elevation maps

       I chose the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene for my project. The north fork of the CDA drainage flows into Coeur d'Alene lake. This drainage has a large mine that is located on the upper drainage of the river has had mining operations on it. These mines were producing large amounts of mining by products that were being put into the river. These mining deposits were of toxic chemicals and caused the population of native cutthroat trout in the river to almost go extinct. The mining deposits then ran downstream and flowed into lake Coeur d'Alene, which then flows into the Spokane River. The Spokane river has a naturally occurring population of redband trout and now these fish are longer safe to eat of the river because of their high levels of toxins from the mining deposits.The mines have since been cleaned up, but there is a still the occuring problem of the sediments that are left over in the bottom of Coeur d'Alene lake, which when the lake turns over every spring, an occurring biological process that allows the lower levels of the lake to be re-oxygenated, these sediments are then transported downstream into the Spokane drainage. Fish eat the invertebrate and other prey species that are ingesting these sediments from the debris that these sediments are attached to. This then causes problems to fish since they are ingesting these toxins. Other factors have been related to these mining deposits, such as; changes in the stream quality, increased sediment levels, and other factors as well.

Proposed Airport Expansion

Working with ArcMap for the first time is a very trying experience. If you are not familiar with the system than there are lots of areas that ArcMap can become increasingly frustrating. It has a whole variety of buttons and sequences that if things are not just the right way the map that you are trying to accomplish will not work they way you want it to. Once this "secret" sequence is input though things will magically appear on the screen.
      ArcMap, although frustrating, is a very interesting program and can be utilized for a variety of different types of data and functions. These different applications make it a versatile tool for the engineer, biologist, and even a urban planner. The ability to take a large scale of data and input it into the program to create different layouts with in the map allows the user to make a use of a large amount of data in a small scale map. The system also uses different interfaces that make it easy for those that are trying to create different data points throughout a map and show there relevance to the reader.
     After using ArcMap for one assignment it became very clear that using the program is not the most user friendly scenario. Since the program constantly upgrades every year, if not every 6 months, the commands change and also the placement of buttons that operate the main functions also change as well. Luckily, there was a few students that had some experience with the program and they were able to help the rest of us out. Without the help of the knowledgeable students, along with Dr. D, completing the task we were asked to complete would have been a daunting task. The tutorial that was provided in the lesson, even though it was a step by step process, did have some steps that weren't clear and provided many students with sticking points until they could be resolved.
    I think ArcMap uses a variety of things that will be helpful in the future and in my career, fisheries biology. While using the program I could map the headwaters of a stream and also the different contour lines associated with the stream to show the elevational changes.  In my graduate project I think I can use ArcMap to show the different aquifer inlet points along the Spokane river to show where I did my sampling and why.

Spokane River Gaining/Losing Reaches Map

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z_8zEnf-HcfI.kAaxxWN9VjNA

          The map that I created shows the gaining and losing reaches on the Spokane River. The Spokane aquifer creates these gaining/losing reaches with ground water. In gaining reaches the water actually flows into the stream from the underwater, and sometimes above water, inputs that are from the aquifer. In losing reaches the river actually flows into the aquifer and recharges it. In gaining reaches the water is at a temperature of 50 degrees F, plus or minus two to three degrees. This creates a cold water refugia during the summer months when the surface and ambient temperatures warm the river to above 70 degrees in the summer months. Since flows are controlled by the two dams that the Avista Power Corporation owns the flows are primarily delegated by them. These flows can be less than optimal for cold water species, such as redband trout that reside in the Spokane River. I am a Masters student at Eastern Washington University and my thesis will be on these gaining/losing reaches and wether or not as temperature increase, the there will be a higher density of fish at the gaining sites compared to the losing sites.
         After using the Google maps program there are certain plus and minus while using the system. On the plus sites if the area you are looking at is in a residential area the information that Google map provides makes the system very easy to use, but on the other hand if you are using the system in a less populated are or wilderness area you definitely can not use this system to map out your area. Google earth would be a better application for someone trying to show more of a wilderness area, but google earth will not allow you to make markers like on Google maps. One day Im sure Google will make a application that will allow you to do both. Until then, both the programs can be used to show the map your trying to accomplish. Google earth uses GPS coordinates, while Google maps uses the actually physical address or areas surrounding address.

GIS 323 Assignment #1

 This map is of the Spokane River and the Spokane Aquifer. The colored sections denote the gaining and losing reaches, with the blue showing the gaining reaches and the red the losing reaches. The gaining reaches can be defined as sections where the Spokane aquifer actually flows into the Spokane river. The losing reaches is where the river flows back into the aquifer and recharges the aquifer. My thesis will be on the Spokane River and the influence the Spokane aquifer has on the redband trout population densities throughout the summer.

The second map is of Steptoe Butte in Washington. Steptoe butte was donated by my family to the state in 1946. Virgil McCroskey was my great, great, great grandfather and donated the 120 acres that make up Steptoe Butte park and the park was increased to 150 acres of the land surrounding the butte. Steptoe Butte is a significant landmark in the Palouse area and is a quartzite mountain that stands above the farmlands that surround the Palouse. Steptoe butte is currently recognized as a National Natural Landmark because of its unique geological significance.



This is a map of the Elwha River watershed. The Elwha river shed is a major site of environmemntal issue because there has to been two major dam's removed in the past 8 years. This damn removal project is the largest to date so far in the United States and will be a major monitoring environmental project for the federal and state governments. This watershed used to have all 7 of the pacific salmon species and once the dams were put in the salmon were no longer able to travel to their natal spawning grounds since no fish ladders where installed in the initial build of the two dams. Since the damn removal there have been a number of documented salmon that have returned past the dam removal sites. This allows for a hopeful future for the Elwha watershed and gives more insight into future dam removal.