The overall goal of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes is the recovery of Chinook salmon and Steelhead within the Salmon River Basin and the Columbia River Basin with the approach to protect, enhance, and restore habitats to sustain and recover native aquatic and terrestrial species diversity and abundance with emphasis on the recovery and delisting of Endangered Species Act listed species. The goal is to enhance these species populations to healthy levels that support Tribal Treaty and public harvest goals.  The Tribes interest is the protection and restoration of natural ecological functions and habitats. The Yankee Fork Restoration Project’s implementation objectives are to 1) reconnect historic channel and floodplain interaction, re-establish dynamic channel and floodplain interactions where they have been disconnected through  anthropogenic disturbances; 2) Floodplain enhancement and instream complexity, Re-establish channel dynamics and floodplain interactions by improving floodplain patch size, creating or improving side channel habitats, planting appropriate vegetation, placing large wood for fish cover and complexity, and constructing instream structures; 3) Adaptive Management, Monitor rehabilitated areas, and modify past rehabilitation actions to improve and/or diversify habitats and processes to maximize fish benefits.
The Tribes fish and wildlife programs will work synergistically to improve habitat conditions and improve fish abundance.  The Yankee Fork Inter-Disciplinary team along with the Tribes, has determined the short and long term goals of the Yankee Fork: short term goals involve restoration actions through 2018 (utilizing the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Accord funds), which include implementing projects from the Tributary Assessment and Reach Assessments that identified the Dredged sections of Yankee Fork (Bonanza reach and Pole Flat reach) the most impacted and altered, therefore having the greatest potential for habitat restoration. The team is working on other funding sources to supplement the costs of the larger projects within the YFSR; we have applied to other grants such as the IDEQ 319, Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund, and Native American US Fish and Wildlife grants.
The Yankee Fork Restoration Project, as a part of the larger Yankee Fork Interdisciplinary team, has implemented four projects within the Yankee Fork drainage.  In 2012, Pond Series 3 Side Channel has filled in ponds to create .6 miles of side channel near Cearly Creek; 2013, the team created an additional side channel at Pond Series 2, improving year around flow; 2014, the Preachers Cove project installed LWD, boulders, and added spawning gravels  to add instream complexity to the straight and narrow near mile river 8; and in 2015-2016 the West Fork Yankee Fork confluence project relocated the confluence to its historic location, the river now has access to its historic floodplain and created three side channels. The project will continue to work with the Yankee Fork Inter-Disciplinary team (BOR, TU, USFS, SBT, USFW, and others) to update the “working" Yankee Fork Master Plan; prioritizing the enhancement of in-stream diversity, floodplain function, re-connecting tributaries, etc. The team has an opportunity to continue implementing a projects through 2018. For 2017, the team is planning on implementing the Pond Series One and Preachers Cove Plus. As a team, we are successfully moving forward with restoration actions within the Yankee Fork Salmon River; the Tribes have a long time understanding and previous commitments within the Yankee Fork drainage and look forward to continue working and having traditional and cultural significance increase within this drainage and throughout the Salmon River and Columbia River Basin.
The project will continue baseline data collection consisting of water quality data, physical and biological surveying. We will continue to collect data in the YFSR with the use of Sondes, temperature thermographs, discharge data-utilizing the USGS gauging station, and monitor fish activity/macro-invertebrate collections within rehabilitated/CHaMP sites. Water quality monitoring will include long term deployment of multi-parameter water quality monitors (Sondes) at three or more sites: Flat Rock, Bonanza Bridge, and West Fork Yankee Fork. The data collection of continuous water quality will begin April and continue through November. The sondes will measure: pH, conductivity, temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen and is dependent upon the stream conditions and storm events.  Temperature data will be collected throughout the Yankee Fork and tributaries. The project installs water thermal data loggers beginning in April and retrieves them in November as conditions permit, and will be collecting data throughout the year, at various sites, commencing in February 2017 and continuing through January 2018. We will continue working with USGS to maintain the gauging station (13296200 Yankee Fork above Salmon River Confluence near Clayton, ID).  In 2011 a USGS gauging station was placed on the lower end of the Yankee Fork Salmon River; the USGS will maintain this station while publishing the data on the USGS website. Additionally, will be working with Biomark, Inc. to monitor fish utilizing the 2012 Pond Series 3 Side Channel implemented site.