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Restoration Of German Gulch Creek And A Vision For Fisheries Restoration In The Silver Bow Creek Watershed, Pat Munday, George Grant

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The German Gulch Watershed Restoration Project will benefit the Silver Bow Creek watershed, complement Superfund remedy and restoration, and enhance recreational opportunities for local residents. Midway between Butte and Anaconda, German Gulch Creek is a major tributary of Silver Bow Creek that was heavily placer mined about 100 years ago. Restoring and protecting natural resources in German Gulch is a key element in maximizing aquatic habitat and recreational opportunities in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin.

This restoration project has four objectives:

1. Insure connectivity between German Gulch Creek and Silver Bow Creek;
2. Restore and protect habitat for native Westslope cutthroat …

Water Quality Modeling For Watershed Management In The Clark Fork And Bitterroot River Basins, Michael Kasch, David Clark

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Water quality models are being used to predict nutrient concentrations in the Clark Fork and Bitterroot Rivers. The modeling will support the activities of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Tri-State Water Quality Council including Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies and the Clark Fork River Voluntary Nutrient Reduction Program (VNRP). The TMDL studies and the VNRP are meant to reduce nutrient pollution from point and nonpoint sources to these rivers. The models were built using public domain programs for rivers and watersheds.

A stream and river model, the Enhanced Stream Water Quality Model (QUAL2E), is being used …

20 Years Of Water Quality Status & Trends In The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Watershed, 1984-2004, John Babcock, Bruce Anderson, Gary Ingman, Vicki J. Watson

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

This paper summarizes a basin-wide trends analysis of water quality data collected in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed from 1984-2004. The subject data were collected by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (formerly MDHES) from 1984-1996 and by the Tri-State Water Quality Council from 1998 to the present. This study describes how nutrients, heavy metals and attached algae levels vary in time and space in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed. Nutrient constituents include total phosphorus, total nitrogen, soluble reactive phosphorus, and total soluble inorganic nitrogen. Heavy metal constituents include total recoverable fractions of copper and zinc. Attached algae biomass is …

Proposed Restoration Actions At The Clark Fork River Milltown Sediments Operable Unit, Doug Martin, Gary Decker, Pat Saffel

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Restoration options for the Clark Fork and Blackfoot River near Milltown Dam are becoming a reality following EPA’s December 2004 Record of Decision to remove the Milltown Dam. The State of Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program and Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in consultation with US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes, is preparing the floodplain and river channel designs that will be integrated with EPA’s remedial activities. The State’s May 2003 draft conceptual restoration design plan, which is based on natural channel design philosophy, received substantial public support. The State is now using 2004 …

Restoration Efforts On Lost Creek, Upper Clark Fork Basin, Mike Sanctuary, Eric Reiland, Aaron Penvose

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Lost Creek is a third order stream entering the upper Clark Fork River near Warm Springs, Montana. Lost Creek’s water quality and habitat issues include nutrient loading, excessive sedimentation, habitat and flow alterations, channelization, loss of woody riparian vegetation, and fish passage barriers. Among all tributaries, Lost Creek is the largest contributor of nitrogen to the upper Clark Fork River above Deer Lodge. The Tri-State Council’s Clark Fork River voluntary nutrient reduction program lists Lost Creek as the number one priority among non-point nutrient sources in the upper Clark Fork River basin. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is undertaking a …

Considering Natural Vegetation Development Processes In Restoration Planning For Western Montana Ecosystems, Thomas Parker, Sarah Flynn

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Revegetation is often part of restoration projects that involve rivers, streams, roads, unstable slopes, mine reclamation, and re-naturalization of agricultural lands. Because vegetation can develop without human intervention, understanding how plant communities develop naturally in different settings can help determine which revegetation methods, if any, are best for a particular restoration project. Some processes are inseparable from plant community development, including alluvial bar development in some river channels, hydroperiod in wetlands, ice and beaver action along rivers, source/transport/deposition zonation in translational landslides, organic matter accumulation in soils, and salt or nutrient accumulation near roads and industrial areas. Considering different vegetation …

Build It And They Will Come: Early Monitoring Results From Nevada Spring Creek Restoration, Ryen Anderson, Ron Pierce, Don Peters

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Nevada Spring Creek is a tributary to Nevada Creek, an impaired tributary of the Blackfoot River. Nevada Spring Creek has been the focus of several restoration projects from 1990-2004. The goal of restoration work was to restore habitat conditions suitable for native trout, specifically westslope cutthroat trout (Oncoryhnchus clarki lewisi) and to improve downstream water quality and reduce thermal stress in Nevada Creek and the Blackfoot River. Restoration of four miles of Nevada Spring Creek took place in several stages, and utilized a variety of methods including complete channel reconstruction, instream wood placement, gravel addition, shrub plantings, sod mat stacking, …

Comparison Of Historic & Proposed Channel Patterns At The Confluence Of The Clark Fork & Blackfoot Rivers Near Milltown, Montana, Karen Williams

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The planform, or pattern, of a river represents how channel form adjusts in a horizontal plane. Channel planform is a continuum ranging from straight to meandering to braided, and is a function of sediment load, sediment size, and channel slope. Meander geometry describes the length, amplitude, and radius of curvature of a meander bend of a river. These characteristics are related to the width and dominant discharge of the river.

Conceptual restoration plans for the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers through the Milltown area have been proposed by the State of Montana. These plans recommend a single thread channel, with …

The Blackfoot Community Project: Partnerships For Valley-Wide Land Conservation, Caroline Byrd, Steven Kloetzel

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the Blackfoot Challenge is purchasing up to 88,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company lands in the Blackfoot River Valley. According to a plan developed through extensive community involvement, the lands will then be transferred to public land management agencies including the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, MT Fish Wildlife and Parks and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (State lands). Other lands will be sold to private landowners with conservation easements. "The Blackfoot Community Project" is very ambitious in its scope and is one of the largest land deals ever …

Nitrate In The Waters Of The Clark Fork Basin--Special Focus On Butte's Summit Valley, John Lafave

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Summit Valley is a 60-square mile alluvium-filled intermontane basin located in southwest Montana. The valley is bounded on the south and east by the Continental Divide, is home to the city of Butte, and is drained by Blacktail and Silver-Bow Creeks. Alluvium, derived from the granitic rocks that frame the valley, and fractured bedrock along the valley margin yield sufficient water for domestic purposes.

Reconnaissance ground-water sampling in the Summit Valley revealed elevated nitrate concentrations (greater than 2.0 mg/L) in the alluvial and bedrock aquifers. A review of the valley’s recent and historic ground-water analyses shows that 64 percent …

Fishery & Watershed Restoration Efforts In The Ninemile Watershed: Potential, Progress, And Opportunity, Scott Spaulding

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Fire, landscape-scale management projects and proposals, and regulatory drivers (TMDL) present a unique opportunity for aquatic restoration in the Ninemile drainage. The Ninemile drainage is an important fish production tributary to the middle Clark Fork. Yet is has an extensive legacy of both public and private management that has reduced and limits native fish production. Currently, Westslope cutthroat trout are distributed throughout many tributary watersheds and the upper mainstem Ninemile, but bull trout are only incidental. Non-native salmonids are also established in portions of the watershed. Channel, floodplain, and water temperature modifications from agriculture and valley development (lower 2/3 of …

Watershed Planning In The Pend Oreille River Basin In Washington, Bryony Stasney

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Pend Oreille River watershed in northeastern Washington State is also referred to as Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 62. WRIA 62 encompasses about 1,300 square miles but only represents about five percent of the total Pend Oreille River drainage basin. The Pend Oreille River, one of the major sub-basins of the Columbia River, drains the Clark Fork – Pend Oreille watershed which spans about 26,000 square miles and includes the fourth and fifth largest lakes in the United States: Flathead Lake in Montana and Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, respectively.

In accordance with Washington’s Watershed Planning Act (Chapter 90.82 …

Metal-Specific Effects On Stream Macroinvertebrates--Physiological And Ecological Approaches, Daniel Cain, James Carter, D. B. Buchwalter, Samuel Luoma

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The success of remediation of mining wastes in the upper Clark Fork River (CFR) will be measured by mitigation of metal exposures and reduction of risk to biological communities. Dissolved Cu concentrations at most sites in the upper 90 km of the CFR have declined during the period 1993-2002. Annual trends in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage data indicate that in-stream ecological conditions have improved, also. Despite the general similarity in those patterns, correlation in year-to-year Cu exposure and changes in the benthos within sites is weak. These simple relationships are probably confounded by other factors acting on the benthos. Additionally, interpretation …

Fish Passage Assessment & Barrier Removal To Improve Connectivity On The Lolo National Forest, Jennifer Copenhaver, Brian Riggers

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The goal of the Lolo National Forest Fisheries Program is to conserve and restore native fish habitat and populations. An integral part of this goal is to build a strong program focused on removing barriers and restoring connectivity for fluvial westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout. Culverts used for stream crossings create temporary, partial, or seasonal barriers to fish passage, while others may preclude movement of fishes year-round. They can deny access to seasonally critical habitats, fragment populations, and suppress the recovery of populations following disturbance. Along with being fish passage barriers, undersized culverts can also lead to chronic stream …

Placing River Restoration Projects In A Watershed Context: The Jocko River On The Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, Seth Makepeace

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Part of the Lower Flathead River basin of western Montana, The Jocko River’s 235,000 acre Jocko Watershed initiates in makes up 18% of headwater areas on the Flathead Indian Reservation and joins the lower Flathead River on the Reservation. The Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes are pursuing a variety of watershed restoration strategies, supported in part by a damage award to the Tribes to compensate for their loss of traditional uses of the upper Clark Fork River which was damaged by historical mining. Watershed-scale restoration efforts are ongoing, and are in part supported by a damage award to the Tribes …

Flathead River Basin Plan For The Northwest Power And Conservation Council, Lynn Ducharme, Brian Marotz

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) have completed the Flathead River Subbasin Plan in cooperation with the Northwest Power Planning Council. This plan uses existing information to establish goals for protecting and restoring fish and wildlife populations and their habitats in the Flathead River Basin.

The Northwest Power Planning Council was created in 1980 by Congress to give the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington a voice in how the region plans for its energy needs, while at the same time mitigating the effects of the hydropower system on fish and …

Effects Of Mine Remediation Over Large Spatial And Temporal Scales, Michelle Hornberger, Samuel Luoma, M. L. Johnson, Marcel Holyoak

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

A 15-year dataset from the Clark Fork River (CFR) was used to examine the influence of mine waste remediation on Cu concentrations in resident biota (Hydropsyche) and bed sediment. Copper concentrations declined in Hydropsyche and bed sediment after the onset of remediation in the upper 30 Km of the CFR (Reach A). Detection of remediation response downstream at 85 Km (Reach B) and 130 - 190 Km (Reach C) was confounded by the significant positive relationship between bioaccumulation and stream discharge. To date, temporal patterns associated with remediation cannot be detected in Reach B or C. In order to understand …

Stream Connectivity In The Clark Fork Watershed: Balancing Fish Passage, Sport Fisheries, And Native Fish Conservation, Ladd Knotek

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Montana’s wild trout fisheries and native aquatic communities depend on connectivity of aquatic habitats. For fish, connectivity (the means to move freely between streams or stream reaches) allows spawning migrations, seasonal movements and complex life history strategies to persist. However, management strategies that prioritize conservation of native fish populations (including genetic integrity) require a balance between connectivity, selective movement and, in some instances, isolation. In western Montana rivers, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, the predominant introduced sport fish), as well as migratory forms of native bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi), require connectivity between rivers and …

Ground-Water Pumping & Streamflow Depletion In The Upper Clark Fork Basin, Eloise Kendy

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

In 1995, the Montana legislature deemed the upper Clark Fork and its tributaries over-appropriated, and statutorily closed the basin to new water rights above Milltown Dam. The statute, however, makes an exception for ground water. In response to the closure, and prompted by the recent drought, agricultural water users have turned increasingly to ground-water wells and sprinkler systems as more reliable and efficient irrigation methods than traditional flood irrigation from surface-water diversions. The increased crop production made possible by these changes increases water consumption from the basin. New residential and commercial water users likewise may withdraw additional ground water from …

More Water Under The Bridge: Improving Instream Flows In The Upper Clark Fork River Watershed, Stan Bradshaw, Bruce Farling, Dennis Workman, Ron Shields

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The challenge of improving instream flows in Montana is complicated because of society’s increasing and shifting demands for water; Montana’s first-in-time, first-in-right water-use system; the slow pace of water rights adjudication; and the recent trend in the state towards a warmer and drier climate. Improving instream flows in the upper Clark Fork watershed has by necessity become an exercise in pragmatism, requiring methodical and incremental strategies, including:

1. providing incentives for existing water users to apply new technology and conserve;
2. being innovative when managing existing water-storage systems;
3. collecting site-specific data to better inform decisions; and,
4. promoting ownership in improving instream flows …

Riparian Evaluation System (Ripes): Remedial Design Tool For Cleanup Of The Clark Fork River, Paul Hansen, William Thompson, Dennis Neuman

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

In 2004, the US Environmental Protection Agency released the Record of Decision (ROD) document which specifies the approach to the cleanup of one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites - Montana’s Clark Fork River. Cleanup strategies include removal of some wastes, in-place treatment of other wastes, and stream-bank stabilization. A Riparian Evaluation System (RipES) was developed as a data predicated remedial design tool designed to identify and categorize polygons based on landscape stability and plant community dysfunction within the Clark Fork River Operable Unit. The system contains the following elements: definitions for three types of stream-bank polygons, and descriptions of …

Science And Progress On Clark Fork Headwaters Superfund Projects, Kimberley Machardy, James Kuipers

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Clark Fork River Basin Superfund projects span three major cleanup sites (Butte-Silver Bow, Anaconda-Opportunity Ponds and Milltown-Clark Fork River) and over fifteen different operable units. A large number of science based technologies have been applied, and in some cases developed, to address the different types of contamination and mitigation challenges present in the basin. Surface reclamation techniques including soils and revegetation science, engineered cover designs, and urban interface have all been advanced by their application to source control and disturbed area reclamation. Streambank and riparian area remediation and restoration using extensive amendments and removal and replacement have been specifically …

Silver Bow Creek Watershed Restoration Planning And Lessons Learned, Carol Fox, Greg Mullen, Jim Lovell, Carol Endicott, David Marshall

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Silver Bow Creek watershed in southwest Montana encompasses approximately 474 square miles and forms a portion of the headwaters the Clark Fork River, tributary to the Columbia River. Decades of mining in the basin have resulted in extensive injuries to natural resources and loss of associated recreational opportunities. These injuries include mild to severe contamination of water and soil resources and massive physical alterations to stream channels, floodplains, and surrounding landscapes. Adding to these challenges is a variety of land uses and human activities within the watershed, including a relatively large, urban population as well as rural lands that …

Successful Watershed Partnerships, Diane Williams

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

While funders are seeking larger-scale collaborations and partnering on a watershed scale, many groups and individuals often resist such arrangements due to concerns over autonomy and self-protection. There are many ways to successfully partner with all types of entities – be it government, non-profit organizations, local groups, and/or landowners – and reap many benefits while avoiding common pitfalls.

Whether through more formal contractual agreements and sub-granting, or through less formal collaborations including advisory groups and committees, the accomplishments of the Council over the past 10 years throughout the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed would have been impossible without the ability to …

Environment And Community Connections In The Basin, Chris Brick, Tracy Stone-Manning, Karen Knudsen

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

The Coalition’s 2005 “State of the Clark Fork” report (available online) summarizes social, economic, and environmental indicators within the Clark Fork Basin, with the goal of examining connections between watershed health and community health. Population growth is one of the most obvious changes in the watershed over the past ten years, and it has been a double-edged sword. On the positive side, an influx of people has brought more economic opportunity, more amenities, and more diversity in some parts of the basin. The costs include more traffic, more pollution, more crime, loss of farmland and wildlife habitat, and less affordable …

2005 State Of The River Report, Vicki J. Watson

Clark Fork Symposium Archives

Evaluating the State of the Clark Fork Basin requires that we periodically:

1. Assess its condition & compare that to our goals for the basin;
2. Determine whether the basin’s condition is getting better or worse;
3. Evaluate our plans & on-the-ground actions for effectiveness; and
4. Consider challenges that face us in meeting our goals.

Condition and Trends

The basin’s condition in 2000 (when the last State of the Basin report was made) is compared to its condition in 2005 based on assessments made by MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFISH database) and MT Department of Environmental Quality (Water Quality Assessment Database). Both …