Water samples and temperature readings are taken at Lizard Creek (LIZ003) near the Mount Fernie Provincial Campground as part of the Elk River Alliance's Community-based Water Monitoring program (CBWM) and Elk River Alliance's Hydrometric program. The CBWM program assesses aquatic habitat health at selected tributaries of the Elk River to fill in gaps in currently available watershed data and make these data accessible to the broader community. In 2020, ERA's CBWM program transitioned into a fully CABIN (Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network) based program, with macroinvertebrate sampling carried out annually during low-flow conditions.