A draft implementation plan for the Yankee Fork Restoration Project (YFRP) was submitted summer 2008 to the Northwest Power Planning Council and distributed to the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP).  The ISRP review found that the plan does not meet scientific criteria and cited three major areas of critical deficiency in the Yankee Fork Restoration Project implementation plan.  These deficiencies are missing proposal components: fish population and habitat studies; establish and justify quantitative biological objectives; outline Monitoring and Evaluation; and to address mercury and selenium contamination within the Yankee Fork system; resolution of land access and a conservation easement.  

The project will fund a Yankee Fork Tributary Assessment to fill the habitat data gaps identified by ISRP. The Tributary assessment will incorporate all data pertaining Yankee Fork: reports, photos, etc, to guide the prioritization of restoration reaches. Funding is set aside to help the completion and if there are additional studies needed, the YFRP will participate in cost sharing. When the tributary assessment is complete, it will aid in the guidance of the final Yankee Fork implementation plan that will be submitted to the ISRP and Northwest Power Planning Council.

The Yankee Fork Restoration Project contract for 2010 will continue to collect water quality information on the Yankee Fork Salmon River; data collection will be used as baseline data prior to restoration of the dredge tailings. This includes using the Booms and sondes off of the three bridges, Flat Rock, Bonanza and Jordan Creek to collect continuous water quality: ph, conductivity, temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. New for the this year will be to collect water quality from Rankin Creek, West Fork Yankee Fork and upper Yankee Fork using sondes, the sampling logistics are part of the planning phase first of the year.  This data collection begins March and goes through November, and is dependent upon the stream conditions base flows, run-off, and storm events.  Temperature data will continue to be collected on the YF and references reaches within the Upper Salmon River Basin.  The project installs thermal data loggers beginning in April and retrieving them in November. Additionally, the project will continue to collect discharges measurements, stage readings (manually and digitally--with pressure transducers).  The pressure transducers will gather continuous water levels throughout the field season. There will be additional installation of these devices on West Fork Yankee Fork, Jordan Creek, Rankin Creek, Upper YF and mouth of YF with the continued monitoring from Pole Camp Campground.

The new additions for this contract year are: completing a water quality report for 2006-2009; disseminating the data to BPA, IDF&G, USFS; fish/habitat data base; and a habitat inventory.  There are two parts to the habitat survey:  first, the Rosgen method collecting cross section, longitudinal profiles, pebble counts, riparian vegetation, photos, discharge measurements;  second, a river metabolism study that will consist of gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration to be completed 2010-2011. This study would identify carbon production rates and use within stream ecosystems and should provide direct estimate of the riverine food base. Because the Tribes does not have an easement with the private landowners the first year will consist of gathering reference reach inventory, if and when we acquire an access agreement we then can go into the dredge section and complete the riparian habitat survey in the second year (2011). We plan to gather other biological/habitat data by accessing the dredge sections through public accesses and stay within the legal high water mark.  

Additionally, the project will be working on a narrative to complete other restoration actions within the entire Yankee Fork Salmon River, outside the dredge sections.  We are currently working with the private landowners to acquire an agreement, but this may take some time to accomplish, therefore, we are looking to complete other implementation actions throughout the YFSR. This narrative will be viewed and approved by the ISRP before implementation.