Root River

THE TERRAIN IS VERY UNSAFE. THIS SITE CAN NOT BE ACCESSED WITHOUT PROPER GUIDANCE. The terrain is snow covered with approx., 1 meter of snowpack. The left and right banks snow escarpments are hard packed, and unstable. The water is flowing under left bank and has created an overflow approx. a meter wide. The area is unsafe for anyone to enter unless you are trained in snow and ice readiness, survival, ad safety awareness and working near water in winter. ONLY GO WITH KIKI. She is certified.
To access the site was difficult. There were buds on the trees.

The site is currently inaccessible for water monitoring due to deep snow accumulation.

The water was steady, lots of natural debris(leaves ) All of the leaves have fallen from right bank. The Japanese knotweed is just changing color to deep mustard yellow. Ask Elaine who installs garbage cans in town. this site is disgusting, with condoms, and empties. The rocks are slippery and the leaves covering the rocks and the river are slippery and hard to gauge where the water is.

The sample site had to be moved because the water is hidden under many leaves. The walk down the rocks to the sample site is steep and slippery. You can not see the water through the leaves so the monitoring site had to be moved over a few metres.

The water looked clear , but has started to have some leaves arrive. The forests on banks left and right have begun to change color. There is so much garbage here and now broken glass. This area could use a litter cleanup asap. The rip rap along the left bank can be difficult to navigate down to the sampling location.

Foam present on surface. The rip rap were slippery on the walk down to sample site.

The rip rap is slippery and unstable. The water is low so more rocks to climb on.

Foam present. There is brown algae on the substrate. I agree with suggestion to move the site next spring to right bank. The sample site should be moved past the confluence of the rivers when they are mixed.
There is a variety of invasive species at the site- Japanese Knotweed is large. The site was clear of overgrown vegetation- watch your step down to sample site- Some of the rip rap is not stable

Everything is pretty clear in the stream to assess water quality, however, a tree has fallen on the trail so drive carefully otherwise cars will get scratched.

The water level is lower than last visit. People are around for fishing.