Project 2008-604-00:Lower Clearwater and Potlatch Watersheds Habitat Improvements, Contract 76913 REL 20:2008-604-00 EXP LOWER CLEARWATER/POTLATCH WATERSHED

Instream Habitat

Project ID	BPA_2008-604-00_76913 REL 20
Recovery Domains	-
Start Date	07/01/2020
End Date	06/30/2021
Status	Completed
Last Edited	11/10/2021

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Description

Project 2008-604-00:

https://www.cbfish.org/Project.mvc/Display/2008-604-00

This project is intended to implement habitat restoration activities in the Potlatch River Basin as identified in The Accord. The 377,776-acre Potlatch River watershed is located in north-central Idaho and is the largest tributary in the lower Clearwater River. The Potlatch River is critical to wild Snake River steelhead. This project seeks to restore wild Snake River Steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River through coordinated implementation of best management practices on private timber, agricultural and range lands, coordination of interagency watershed planning efforts, and continuation of watershed monitoring and evaluation. This proposal is consistent with the NWPCC Fish and Wildlife Program’s goal to develop habitat-based programs designed to rebuild healthy, naturally producing fish and wildlife populations by protecting, mitigating, and restoring habitats. This project is consistent with the objectives and strategies of the Clearwater Subbasin Management Plan.

Contract 76913 REL 20:

https://www.cbfish.org/Contract.mvc/Summary/76913 REL 20

This project is intended to implement habitat restoration activities in the Potlatch River Basin as identified in The Accord. The 377,776-acre Potlatch River watershed is located in north-central Idaho and is the largest tributary in the lower Clearwater River. The Potlatch River is critical to wild Snake River steelhead. This project seeks to restore wild Snake River Steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River through coordinated implementation of best management practices on private timber, agricultural and range lands, coordination of interagency watershed planning efforts, and continuation of watershed monitoring and evaluation. This proposal is consistent with the NWPCC Fish and Wildlife Program’s goal to develop habitat-based programs designed to rebuild healthy, naturally producing fish and wildlife populations by protecting, mitigating, and restoring habitats. This project is consistent with the objectives and strategies of the Clearwater Subbasin Management Plan.

This project is intended to implement the Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan. The Plan has identified and prioritized limiting factors and restoration strategies critical to steelhead spawning and rearing within each subwatershed. Priority tributaries for restoration work include: East and West Fork Potlatch River, Big Bear, Little Bear, Pine, Cedar, and Corral creeks. The mainstem Potlatch River is also a priority restoration area. Projects will address limiting factors including removing migration barriers, increasing instream habitat complexity, reducing stream temperature and sediment load, increasing base flows, and reducing high spring run conditions. Implementation efforts will include but are not limited to repair, removal or replacement of old culverts and bridges, stream and floodplain reconnection, reservoir flow augmentation, installation of large woody debr

Worksites

BPA - BPA_2008-604-00_76913 REL 20-ws-570414: D: 29. Increase Aquatic and/or Floodplain Complexity

Worksite Identifier: BPA - BPA_2008-604-00_76913 REL 20-ws-570414: D: 29. Increase Aquatic and/or Floodplain Complexity
Start Date: 07/01/2020
End Date: 05/26/2021

Area Description

EF Potlatch-Stowers - LWD, EF Potlatch-Stowers

Additional Detail

Work Statement Element 152892:

https://www.cbfish.org/WorkStatementElement.mvc/Summary/152892

This milestone funds remaining construction work which will have started during the previous contract, in June 2020. The Stowers project area occurs within a privately owned meadow with 1.0 mile of the East Fork Potlatch River near Bovill Idaho in North Central Idaho. The goal of the Stowers project is to improve instream habitat for adult and juvenile steelhead, promote floodplain connectivity, and initiate development of a riparian forest buffer. This will be accomplished by adding instream large woody debris (LWD) to increase habitat complexity, reconnecting floodplains to create valuable lateral habitat, planting native trees, and narrowing and stabilizing an existing cattle crossing. This project will include the following project elements: Installation of large and small LWD complexes using large trees harvested onsite with minimal anchoring; Construction of one larger downstream structure to encourage backwater lateral habitat and collect racking material; Installation of bank roughening wood on an outside meander; Narrowing and stabilizing the existing over-widened cattle crossing; Extensive planting plan to include a variety of native conifers, deciduous trees and shrubs; native grasses and forbs; Willow waddles will enhance the bank roughening riparian habitat where needed.

The East Fork Potlatch River is listed as a Tier 1 stream within the Draft Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan - 2019 Amendment (Potlatch Plan), which guides the selection and prioritization of Latah SWCD steelhead habitat projects. The Potlatch Plan is in the process of being updated by the Potlatch Implementation Group. Agency members include: Latah SWCD, IOSC, IDFG, IDEQ, IDL, NMFS, BPA, and USFS. This project is listed in the 2018-2022 action plan of the Potlatch Plan and will address habitat complexity as the primary limiting factor and water temperature as the secondary limiting factor.

The Stowers section of the East Fork Potlatch River contain a wild population of ESA Snake River Run Steelhead known as the lower Clearwater population group. Adults and juvenile steelhead are or may be present in this section of the river.

The Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) Research being conducted on the East Fork Potlatch is showing rearing habitat to be limited based on the age classes we see migrating out of the East Fork. Typically we see steelhead smolt around two years of age. In the East Fork Potlatch, the IMW detects fish movement at the 0-1 year age mark, yet we do not see these fish again until they are detected at Lower Granite Dam one full year later. The IMW is indicating that there may not be enough suitable habitat present to allow for two years of rearing before they smolt to the ocean. The East Fork Potlatch has undergone severe hydrologic alterations over the last century. The largest impacts from riparian canopy removal and removal of all habitat creating features within the river, which is typically large trees. With the removal of habitat creating features, The East Fork Potlatch river through Stowers’s can be described as a incised, low complexity plane bed channel bottom with poor habitat complexity. The addition of wood will allow for juvenile distribution into new rearing habitats that will produce more channel complexity, floodplain interaction, spawning gravel distribution and adult migration cover as they migrate up to spawn.

The scope of the project is to add large trees into the channel to promote channel aggradation, floodplain reconnection, spawning habitat, and rearing habitat for steelhead. All life stages of steelhead, juvenile to adult, will benefit from the large wood placement actions.

Location Information

Basin:
Subbasin:
Watershed:
Subwatershed:

State:
Recovery Domain:
Latitude: 46.84396
Longitude: -116.38183

ESU

No ESU data was found for this worksite.

Map

Photos

Metrics

C.0 Salmonid Habitat Restoration and AcquisitionY (Y/N)
- . . C.4 Instream Habitat ProjectY (Y/N)
  - . . . . C.4.a Instream Habitat Funding 103,764.42
  - . . . . C.4.d.1 Channel structure placementY (Y/N)
    - . . . . . . C.4.d.3 Miles of stream treated through channel structure placement 1.00