Fish Species in Sligo Creek – Montgomery Parks Monitoring Program

The map below shows the location on Sligo Creek’s mainstem of Montgomery Park’s SCSC314 survey site of annual monitoring of fish species.

The two accompanying graphs summarize the results of fish surveys carried out there over the past two decades. The SCSC314 Fish Scores Over Time graph traces this site’s FIBI (Fish Index of Biotic Integrity) scores since 2000. The identity and number of species that help make up each year’s FIBI score are shown in the Fish Species by Year in Sligo Creek Mainstem graph.

Though data was patchy in the first few years (and 2015 saw an unusual storm wreak havoc with the fish population), the past decade largely indicates a fairly steady, slowly diversifying fish population at this Sligo Creek site. Thus, while Sligo Creek is definitely a heavily urbanized stream with its share of challenges, it can still support diverse, healthy fish populations at some sites. With continued stewardship and advocacy, we hope to help expand both the number of such sites in the Creek, and the number of species present at each.

Map and graphics courtesy of Rachel Gauza, Dave Sigrist and Matt Harper of Montgomery Parks