Red River & Newsome Creek are main tributaries to the South Fork Clearwater River and have historically been strongholds for steelhead, bull trout, and Chinook salmon. Past land management activities have severely degraded spawning and rearing habitat for these species. This project proposes to restore degraded habitats through a comprehensive restoration program focusing primarily on the mainstem channels, floodplains, riparian corridors, and other needs within these watershed drainages.

The Tribe proposes to address the primary limiting factors to abundance and productivity of the focal species. The Tribe and Forest Service have prioritized restoration projects to address these limiting factors based on the Clearwater Subbasin Plan (NPCC 2005), South Fork Clearwater River Landscape Assessment (USDA 1998), Newsome Creek Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale ((EAWS), USDA 2002), Red River Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale ((EAWS), USDA 2003), and the 2016 Clearwater Expert Panel process.

The resulting habitat improvements will increase survival for the following fish populations: Snake River Steelhead (O. mykiss) - ESA Threatened and Designated Critical Habitat, Snake River spring/summer Chinook (O. tshawytscha), bull trout (S. confluentus) - ESA Threatened and Designated Critical Habitat, Westslope cutthroat trout (O.c. lewisi), rainbow trout (O. mykiss), and Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata).

This project is part of the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest, Nez Perce Tribe, and BPA Watershed Restoration Partnership.  Since the project’s inception, we have shared project planning, costs, and implementation responsibilities.  This contract period's work will consist of replacing an undersized fish barrier culvert on Little Moose Creek (a tributary to Red River) and implementing a larger riparian planting effort in the  Lower Red River Meadow project area.  Work will continue on the Red River Corrals Conservation Easement (planning of future potential projects). We have also had interest from several other landowners within Red River to look at their meadow properties for potential restoration activities. We will be working towards partnerships with those landowners as their properties are key components to restoring river processes both within the Red River Watershed and South Fork Clearwater River subbasin.

Projects for 2020 that are entering the planning phase are: Newsome Phase II (covers up to seven miles of mainstem stream habitat complexity through LWD and boulder placement; Lower Red River LWD (up to 12 miles of river habitat complexity through addition of LWD); Red River private property restoration; Red River Corrals riparian planting; re-visiting Siegel Creek Culvert replacement; and road improvement projects within Red River and Newsome Creek Watersheds.