North Fork Salmon River Watershed Habitat Assessment

The North Fork Salmon River is one of eight major tributaries in the Upper Salmon Basin and has five major tributary streams that are dominantly protected by Forest Service property. The Idaho PCSRF Board has been funding restoration projects in the North Fork Salmon River watershed for several years and has requested a strategic action plan and habitat assessment for the drainage. The North Fork Salmon River Watershed Habitat Assessment project will develop and provide a habitat restoration planning framework for the North Fork basin. An assessment of instream habitat conditions, identification of fish passage barriers, and a riparian habitat survey will provide an overall assessment of the North Fork watershed and identify where restoration/protection work should be focused to restore and protect habitat for Sp/Su Chinook Salmon and steelhead.



The scope of the assessment’s restoration recommendations (action plan) will focus on practicable and meaningful implementation concepts for enhancement and/or protection of native salmonid habitat and provide the information necessary to facilitate project design. The resulting plan will be used to identify, develop, and implement meaningful restoration projects in the North Fork Salmon River Watershed.

The North Fork drainage is fragmented by small acreage hobby farms and homes, which pose a challenge to the scale of projects that can be completed. The plan and assessment will help focus and develop future restoration projects and provide practical alternatives based on improving habitat for spawning and rearing conditions for ESA listed species. Assessment of geomorphic and riparian features of the watershed will allow stakeholders to better understand the physical processes that limit the quality and quantity of fish habitat in the context of land use in the basin.