You’re flowing NORTH into Hudson’s Bay: you’re based in the Upper North Saskatchewan, which is part of the Nelson River Drainage Area.
The OVERALL health score of the
Upper North Saskatchewan
subwatershed
is Good
Enough data? Moderately sufficient
Originating in the Columbia Icefield, the Upper North Saskatchewan watershed supplies clean water for drinking, hydroelectricity, and agriculture. The river carves through the Rocky Mountains, supporting cold-water fish like mountain whitefish. The Stoney Nakoda and Cree have long traveled this river corridor, which later became a fur trade route for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Did you know? The North Saskatchewan River was once a key trade route connecting the Rocky Mountains to Hudson Bay!
JURISDICTION
Alberta
POPULATION CENTER(S)
Edmonton
WATERSHED SIZE
27,983 km² (0.3% of Canada)
How to interpret the scores
Very good | Good | Fair | Poor | Very poor | Data deficient | Not scored |
Our freshwater health scores are based on four key metrics: water quality, hydrology (flow), benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish populations. For each metric, we use standardized criteria—such as exceedance of federal and provincial water quality guidelines, long-term trends in river flow, tolerance values for invertebrates, and native fish species richness—to assess conditions across watersheds.
To make these scientific results easier to understand, we translate them into a simple 1 to 5 scale: 1 = VERY POOR and 5 = VERY GOOD
These scores provide an overall picture of freshwater health, helping both experts and the public quickly see where attention is needed.
It’s important to remember:
- We calculate scores at a national scale, using the best available data. While this provides a valuable snapshot, it may not capture every local nuance.
- For some regions and specific waterbody types (like northern areas or mud-bottom prairie rivers), certain metrics—like the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) for invertebrates—may not fully reflect local conditions. We’ve flagged these cases.
- Data sufficiency is a key consideration: Some watersheds have long-term, robust data. Others may be classified as “Data Deficient” due to many reasons besides lack of data, including monitoring that is incompatible with the FHA, inaccessible data, and the Covid pandemic. Learn more on our data sources page.
For more detail on how each score is calculated, including thresholds, trend analyses, and limitations, please visit our About the Indicators page or consult our Tech Doc for the full methodology.
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Datapoints
This analysis includes all the data we could access—whether from open platforms, agency reports, or historical records. Some datasets were readily available, while others came from hardcopy reports and handwritten notes that we digitized and formatted. We’re grateful to all data providers for sharing their data. Even so, this is only part of the picture. Learn more about data accessibility challenges.
109,175
120,248
1,470
12131
Water quality
The water quality score for the Upper North Saskatchewan watershed is Good (It was previously FAIR).
The overall water quality score assesses many parameters on how often they met water quality guidelines in the last 5 years, but to understand health, it’s important to understand what’s passed and failed and what’s missing. Then, we compare that with 5 years previous to help us determine how it’s changing.
Common water health tests
These are the most commonly monitored parameters that tell us about general water health and nutrients.
Ammonia | Very poor | 34% passed | |
Chloride | Very good | 97% passed | |
Dissolved oxygen | Poor | 58% passed | |
Nitrate | Very good | 100% passed | |
Nitrite | Very good | 100% passed | |
pH | Very good | 100% passed | |
Total nitrogen | Fair | 76% passed | |
Total Phosphorus | Very poor | 6% passed |
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Metals
Metals are important to monitor to determine contamination from pollution or natural sources.
Aluminum | Fair | 67% passed | |
Arsenic | Very good | 95% passed | |
Cadmium | Good | 94% passed | |
Copper | Good | 89% passed | |
Iron | Very poor | 42% passed previously VERY POOR | |
Lead | Very good | 98% passed | |
Mercury | Poor | 50% passed | |
Nickel | Very good | ||
Uranium | Very good | 100% passed | |
Zinc | Very good | 98% passed |
Pollutants
Pollutants are often expensive to test (requiring specialized equipment like mass spectrometers). Many of these are not tested (data-deficient) unless there’s a specific concern.
.gamma.-hexachloro-cyclohexane | Very good | 100% passed | |
2,4-D | Good | 91% passed | |
Acenaphthene | Very good |
| |
Acridine | Very good | 100% passed | |
Aldrin | Very poor | 0% passed | |
Anthracene | Poor | 50% passed | |
Atrazine | Very good | 100% passed | |
Bentazone | Data deficient |
| |
Benz[a]anthracene | Poor | 47% passed | |
Benzo[a]pyrene | Fair | 70% passed | |
benzyl.butyl.phtalate | Data deficient |
| |
bisphenol.a | Data deficient |
| |
Bromoxynil | Very good | 100% passed | |
Chlordane | Data deficient |
|
ddt | Data deficient |
| |
Dicamba | Very good | 100% passed previously VERY GOOD | |
Dieldrin | Very poor | 0% passed previously VERY POOR | |
dimethyl.phthalate | Data deficient | previously DATA DEFICIENT | |
Fluoranthene | Poor | 47% passed previously POOR | |
Fluorene | Very good | 100% passed previously VERY GOOD | |
Glyphosate | Very good | 100% passed previously VERY GOOD | |
MCPA | Very good | 100% passed previously VERY GOOD | |
Mirex | Data deficient | | |
Naphthalene | Very good | 100% passed | |
Naphthalene | Very good |
| |
Pyrene | Poor | 47% passed previously POOR | |
Quinoline | Data deficient | | |
Total PCBs | Data deficient | | |
Toxaphene | Data deficient | |
about our analysis
The overall water quality score is based on how frequently key water quality parameters exceed established guidelines. Individual parameters provide insight into specific concerns, but water quality is complex, and further investigation is encouraged before drawing conclusions about the factors influencing the scores. Here, we’re showing you the percentage of samples within the recommended thresholds over the past five years (2018–2023). These results are compared to the five years preceding (2014–2018) to assess trends. You can visit our glossary page in our Tech Doc for descriptions of each parameter and our standards page to understand the thresholds used in this region.
How's it flowing?
Exploring how flow has changed over time
The Upper North Saskatchewan subwatershed scored Good.
For some watersheds, there’s been only a minor change, while others have seen shifts including increases and decreases. The Upper North Saskatchewan watershed trend is: ↑ Minor increase in flow.
We wanted to dive deeper than the score into how flow has changed over time. We took the daily average flow for the Upper North Saskatchewan watershed from the past 30 years (1994-2023) and compared it to the previous 30 years (1964-1993).
Total daily flow
Upper North Saskatchewan subwatershed’s average daily flow from 1994-2023 compared to 1964-1993. (N=2)
How much has it changed?
The magnitude of change (%) for Upper North Saskatchewan subwatershed’s total daily flow – 1994-2013 compared to 1964-1993. (N=2))
about our analysis
We used flow data from HYDAT for this watershed, focusing on stations with long-term records—at least 50 years of data and a minimum of 6 months of valid daily flow data per year. This approach ensures inclusion of stations in colder regions, where rivers may freeze part of the year. We then calculated average daily flows across two 30-year periods: 1964–1993 and 1994–2023. By comparing these periods, we smoothed out short-term events like floods or droughts to better understand long-term changes in flow patterns. Learn more about our hydrology calculations in our Tech Doc.
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most common benthic invertebrate taxa observed
Small minnow mayflies (Baetidae)
The score for benthic invertebrates for the Upper North Saskatchewan watershed is Not scored.
Benthic (meaning bottom-dwelling) macroinvertebrates are small aquatic animals and the aquatic larval stages of insects. They include dragonfly and stonefly larvae, snails, worms, and beetles. These creatures make up the backbone of the ecosystem and, since they live there full time, are a great way to understand its health!
This watershed was not scored.
We determined that it would be inappropriate to score some watersheds with the assessment criteria. This included northern regions and some parts of central Canada where they have mud-bottomed rivers.
In northern regions, there are fewer types and quantities of benthic invertebrates because of naturally harsh, cold conditions! The scoring system that works for more Southern areas does not work well in the North because the species found there are naturally tolerant to cold and extreme conditions. In the Central region, mud bottomed rivers in productive landscapes have more tolerant species, too. For both regions, this can lead to misleading scores, making healthy ecosystems appear unhealthy. Therefore, we chose not to score benthic invertebrates in the northern tolerance zones and some central tolerance zones (you’ll see “Not scored”. Learn more in our Tech Doc). We hope to change how we score these regions in the future. We still crunched data, and if we had records, we still spotlighted the most abundant species found there.
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The most frequently reported taxa is the Small minnow mayflies (Baetidae), with 37% of all samples containing them.
About Small minnow mayflies (Baetidae)
Baetidae (or small minnow mayflies) are some of the smallest mayfly species living in Canadian freshwaters. Baetidae species have a range of pollution tolerances and thrive in diverse environments. Their streamlined bodies and minnow-like shape make them strong swimmers, and they are frequently used as models for fly-fishing lures.
about our analysis
We assessed benthic macroinvertebrate health using the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI), which measures how tolerant invertebrate communities are to pollution. We used data from CABIN, the Royal Ontario Museum, Conservation Authorities, and regional programs, focusing on samples identified to at least the family level. For most sub-watersheds, we calculated an average HBI score and assigned a health rating from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good). However, in some regions—such as the North and certain Prairie rivers—HBI is not considered an appropriate tool due to ecological differences or data limitations. In these cases, we marked the sub-watershed as Not Scored. You can learn more about how we evaluated benthics on our Guidelines and Tolerances page and our Tech Doc.
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Most frequently reported fish:
Brook Stickleback
The fish score for the Upper North Saskatchewan is Good.*
Fish, like invertebrates, are an important way to understand water health, since they live in the water full-time.
* Scores are based on the change in species richness (read more in ‘About our Analysis’ below), which isn’t as useful in determining a health score as we’d like. We plan to work with experts to make the fish measurement more useful in the future. Factors like understanding monitoring purpose, waterbody size, and more will help us avoid things like sampling bias affecting scores (for example, sampling for one fish or for a species of interest will skew scores).
Here are all the reported fish species for Upper North Saskatchewan watershed during the past 10 years, listed by most frequently recorded to least**: brook stickleback, fathead minnow, bull trout (Vulnerable), white sucker, lake chub, brook trout, walleye, longnose dace, mountain whitefish, finescale dace, cutthroat trout, emerald shiner, trout-perch, northern redbelly dace, longnose sucker, goldeye, northern pearl dace, brown trout, northern pike, lake sturgeon (Vulnerable), mountain sucker, mooneye, spoonhead sculpin, shorthead redhorse, spottail shiner, burbot, river shiner, quillback, sauger, silver redhorse, iowa darter, alaskan stickleback
**This list is of those fish species monitored, not as an accurate representation of fish in this watershed, since it may be a combination of both general and targeted monitoring. For example, if you see an endangered species, it’s because it’s being monitored, not that it’s abundant. We encourage you to visit the original data sources to understand the purpose of the monitoring data.
about our analysis
The fish health score is based on trends in native fish species richness, which can reflect overall ecosystem health. Fish monitoring in Canada often relies on presence/absence data, limiting detailed community-level assessments. Still, tracking species richness over time provides valuable insights. In addition to the scores, we present the trend in native species richness over the past ten years (2014–2023) and compare it to the preceding decade (2004–2013) to assess changes. Watersheds are classified into three categories: Good (no significant decline), Fair (a significant decline in either median or total species richness), and Poor (a significant decline in both). Read more in our Tech Doc.
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Dive deeper
Other resources
We recognize that these Reports are a zoomed out way to understand watershed health. You may have additional questions about your local waterbody. We encourage you to find out more about the local conservation work and testing happening in your region. Some regions produce report cards for individual waterbodies, but often this is dependent on resources.
Many regions have opportunities to take action to collect water quality data and get involved in restoration and education opportunities. Learn more about how you might get involved.
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