The watershed restoration work elements described in this project area, the South Fork Salmon River (SFSR), Big Creek (BC) and Little Salmon River (LSR) watersheds, follow the watershed restoration approach adopted by the Nez Perce Tribe Watershed Division (NPT-WD). The mission of the NPT-WD is to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems using a holistic approach encompassing entire watersheds from ridge-top to ridge-top throughout the Nez Perce Tribe Ceded Territory. This restoration work has its roots in exercising Tribal sovereignty and protecting rights reserved under the Nez Perce Treaty of 1855 with the United States Federal Government. Specifically, our mission is to:
•Be a leader in holistic aquatic ecosystem restoration;
•Ensure and facilitate the protection of currently healthy and properly functioning aquatic ecosystems;
•Aggressively restore degraded aquatic ecosystems by any and all means necessary;
•Ensure our efforts focus on restoring the functions that support healthy ecosystems, such as natural stream flows, appropriate sediment loads, floodplain connectivity, and appropriately vegetated riparian corridors;
•Develop clear and quantitatively defined goals and standards for healthy aquatic ecosystems, as well as the protocols to monitor the success and status of recovery efforts and facilitate adaptive management strategies;
•Coordinate and collaborate with appropriate individuals and/or entities with land management authority to ensure plans and activities are protective and respectful of aquatic ecosystems;
•Provide educational opportunities and outreach materials for all age groups, other agencies, and the public on environmental issues and ethics;
•Maintain a workforce which possesses the highest level of integrity and professionalism, and is well organized, passionate, creative, and connected to the land and resources, and;
•Work within and implement the integrated management strategies of the Department of Fisheries Resource Management.
The NPT-WD is working in partnership with the Payette and Boise National Forests; Valley and Idaho Counties; Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality; Idaho's Department of Fish and Game; Idaho's Office of Species Conservation; NOAA; USFWS; and private landowners to achieve restoration goals.

PROJECT GOAL:
The primary goal of this project is to restore the aquatic ecosystems of the LSR, BC and the SFSR watersheds, addressing all limiting factors, so that the physical habitat within these watersheds no longer limits recovery of ESA Threatened summer Chinook and steelhead populations. Habitat improvement projects proposed by the NPT in partnership with the Boise and Payette National Forests (Forests), aim to increase the productivity and viability of these threatened fish.

PROJECT SUMMARY:
The Tribe proposes a suite of restoration projects to address the primary factors limiting the abundance and productivity of these focal fish species. The Tribe and Forests prioritized projects based on the Salmon Subbasin Plan, NMFS Draft Recovery Plan, current watershed surveys, and the Expert Panel process.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
•    Objective 1:  Reduce chronic and acute fine sediment inputs by decreasing road densities, improving roads, and eliminating fords on streams with focal species.
•    Objective 2:  Eliminate all anthropogenic fish passage barriers and replace them with Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) structures.
•    Objective 3:  Protect and restore riparian habitats and their critical ecological functions through conservation easements, planting native riparian vegetation, invasive vegetation control, livestock fencing, and decommissioning redundant fishing access trails.
•    Objective 4:  Mitigate the impacts of historic and proposed mining by participating in mine reclamation to improve water quality and by submitting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) comments that promote healthy conditions for focal species.


PROJECT METHODS:
1) Reduce road related sediment to streams;
The NPT-WD will continue to survey roads in the SFSR, BC and LSR watersheds to plan and prioritize road decommissioning work.  We use these road surveys to locate and map roads, quantify the extent to which these roads are negatively impacting habitat of ESA-listed fishes, and prioritize restoration efforts. The NPT-WD surveys roads using the Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) protocol. This protocol requires collecting individual road segment data based on locations where flow is directed off of the road.  Surveyors document key attributes such as road surface material, flow path vegetation, and length of each road segment.  The GRAIP model then uses these surveyed attributes, the base erosion rate, and gradient to estimate road-to-stream sediment delivery.
For road improvements and decommissioning we prioritized areas with ESA-listed fish species that would ecologically benefit from road recontouring based on sediment delivery, subwatershed road densities, road mileage in Riparian Conservation Areas (RCAs), stream crossings, road mileage in landslide prone areas, abundance of landslides surveyed, and road mileage in Idaho Roadless Areas (IRAs).  

2) Eliminate fish passage barriers;
The NPT-WD partnered with Payette NF and Boise NF staff to create a survey protocol that will direct AOP restoration priorities.  The survey protocol includes measuring representative stream characteristics adjacent to each passage barrier, such as wetted stream width, maximum pool depth, and average stream gradient.  The protocol directs surveys to continue both upstream and downstream from each culvert, until reaching the limit of time constraints or suitable habitat (e.g., channel gradient consistently exceeding 15% or narrower than 0.5 m and shallower than 0.2 m).  Other data recorded include photographs of the stream channel and culvert, as well as any relevant notes on the culvert, habitat suitability, and natural barriers.  Where fish species presence is unknown in suitable habitat, surveys include collecting fish data

3) Protect and restore riparian habitat;
We propose a suite of actions to protect and restore riparian habitat throughout the SFSR, BC, and LSR watersheds.  First, we will continue to pursue conservation easements for parcels of private land that provide critical aquatic and riparian habitat for ESA-listed salmonids.  Second, we will plant native riparian vegetation in areas that have been impacted by roads, grazing, mining, etc.  Third, we will continue to treat nonnative vegetation with mechanical suppression and herbicide.  Last, we will build riparian exclusion fencing to prevent anthropogenic degradation of critical riparian resources.  These proposed activities will collectively protect and restore proper function to riparian habitat throughout the SFSR, BC, and LSR watersheds.

4) Mitigate the impact of proposed and historic mining to improve water quality;
We will use a few approaches to address degraded water quality from historic and proposed mining activities.  First, we will continue to actively engage in the NEPA process and submit substantive comments on proposed mining activities.  Second, we will continue conversations with the EPA to discuss mining reclamation actions that could improve water quality near the historic Cinnabar mine.  Third, we will continue to survey any existing mine sites for ongoing water quality degradation.