2002-061-00: Proposals

Show new navigation

On

RSS Feed for updates to Project 2002-061-00 - Potlatch River Watershed Restoration

Follow this via RSS feed. Help setting up RSS feeds? Go to main Proposals page

Proposals

A Proposal is an application to continue existing work or start new work. While historically the Program solicited for all types of projects at once, starting in fiscal year 2009, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and BPA are reviewing and soliciting for projects that are similar in nature and intent. These "categorical" reviews started with Wildlife projects and continue with Research, Monitoring, & Evaluation (RME) and Artificial Production (Hatchery) projects.

View 2007-2009 Proposal

Project 2002-061-00 - Potlatch River Watershed Restoration

Viewing 1 of 1 Proposals Customize


	Proposal Number	Proposal Version	Type	State	Project	Title	Description	Creator	Percent Complete	Proposal Budget Limit	Create Date	Last Updated	Primary Contact	Proponent	Purpose	Emphasis	Solicitation	Portfolio	Biop Fish Accord
		Proposal Version 1	Existing Project	Pending BPA Response				Ken Stinson


	GEOREV-2002-061-00	Proposal Version 1	Existing Project	Pending BPA Response	2002-061-00	Potlatch River Watershed Restoration	This proposal seeks to restore wild Snake River Steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River through coordinated implementation of restoration practices on private, state and federal lands, coordination of interagency watershed planning efforts, continuation of watershed and fisheries monitoring, and implemention of outreach programs to landowners and the general public. 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/strategies of the Clearwater Subbasin Management Plan. The primary goal of this proposal, and the associated Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan (Potlatch Plan), is to identify and implement restoration and protection strategies that help restore wild steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population in the Potlatch River watershed. This proposal identifies three principal objectives to address the primary limiting factors affecting steelhead distribution, productivity and production within the Potlatch River watershed. This proposal seeks to increase fish passage to suitable habitat, provide suitable habitat for steelhead spawning and/or rearing and improve stream flows to support steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. These objectives are addressed through coordinated prioritization, planning, funding, monitoring and implementation of restoration projects within priority tributaries of the Potlatch River on private, state and federal lands. Effective restoration activities to improve passage, habitat and stream flows for wild steelhead assists with the simultaneous fulfillment of fisheries restoration and protection goals of federal, state and local agencies as well as private landowners who seek to improve conditions on their lands to enhance steelhead habitat. Restoration efforts are undertaken by the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District (Latah SWCD) through non-regulatory mechanisms. The 377,776-acre Potlatch River watershed is located in north-central Idaho and is the largest tributary in the lower Clearwater River. The restoration of the Potlatch River system is critical to the recovery of wild steelhead in the Clearwater River drainage. The Latah SWCD will continue to implement the prioritization and implementation approaches outlined in the Potlatch Plan. The restoration approach can be grouped into four categories: assessment, project planning, project implementation and project monitoring/adaptation. The Latah SWCD will continue to evaluate habitat conditions through field assessments undertaken by Latah SWCD staff, other agency monitoring programs (e.g, Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG)) and professional opinions of federal, tribal, state and local agency staff who work directly within the Clearwater and Potlatch River drainages. In addition, Latah SWCD planning staff will continue to seek the opinions and insights of local landowners and land managers with regard to current and historical conditions of the Potlatch River and tributaries. Latah SWCD will continue outreach activities with private landowners and public land managers to determine opportunities for future restoration activities throughout the priority tributaries of the Potlatch River. The collaborative approach over the past decade will be continued through this new funding cycle. There are several recently formed collaborative processes designed to review and propose restoration projects that should prove to be effective and efficient restoration approaches to addressing the three principal objectives of this proposal: increase passage, improve habitat and improve flow. The collaborative successes of the past several years will be the models from which new project proposals will be designed. For example, the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) and City of Troy have formally requested Latah SWCD’s support to coordinate the development of project proposals soliciting funding support to address restoration projects of mutual interest to these public entities and Latah SWCD. This partnership has been very successful with regard to securing funding to eliminate significant passage barriers to steelhead migration in the Little Bear Creek and East Fork Potlatch River tributaries. Informal collaboration and formal cooperative working relationships will continue throughout this proposed five-year schedule. Large restoration projects are under consideration from non-BPA funding sources and are independent of this proposal. Implementation funding highlighted within this proposal will be used principally as matching funds for larger restoration proposals to various state and federal agencies as has occurred in the past. Funding contained within this proposal will support the work of Latah SWCD staff as they solicit and identify specific projects, initiate conservation planning activities with both private and public landowner/managers and undertake initial project design work needed for funding requests and initial project permitting. With this baseline of project preparation, Latah SWCD will be able to continue their successful process of successfully proposing large scale restoration projects to various state and federal agencies as well as private and non-profit organizations. With increasingly limited budgets, the capacity to coordinate and leverage funding will become critical to non-regulatory restoration activities throughout the Columbia Basin. This proposal will continue to implement restoration techniques that have been shown to be effective and efficient over the past years. An objective of this proposal is to increase steelhead passage to high quality habitat. One of the primary limitations to full access to high quality habitat within the Potlatch River is improperly placed or sized road culverts. This proposal will seek to inventory and prioritize road crossing in steelhead priority tributaries that limit passage. Priorities will be given to Little Bear Creek following the removal of the abandoned dam owned by the City of Troy and the East Fork Potlatch River where high quality steelhead habitat is located within a heavily forested watershed owned by the US Forest Service, State of Idaho and one industrial forest landowner. The second objective of this proposal is to provide suitable steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. Project sites that have the potential to significantly improve steelhead habitat will be reviewed for the most significant limiting factors. Some of the most limiting factors within the Potlatch River with respect to habitat condition include a lack of riparian vegetation, high sediment loads and high stream temperatures. Implementation funding within this proposal will be used to leverage additional state and federal funds needed to undertake restoration projects beyond the capacity of this project’s budget. The third objective addresses low summer flows throughout many of the priority tributaries within the Potlatch River. The primary investment currently underway on private, state and federal lands is meadow and riparian restoration in the upper tributaries of the Potlatch River watershed. The projects are being designed to bring highly degraded forest meadow systems to a more functional system with enhanced floodplain connectivity and riparian area restorations. Many of the projects are undertaking channel realignments in those areas where the original high quality stream had become disconnected due to channel straightening back in the early 1900s. These practices will be employed with the understanding that a meadow restoration will enhance water retention and extend flows further into summer months. In an effort to monitor project effectiveness, Latah SWCD staff will continue to implement monitoring programs to assess changes in natural resource conditions that can be attributed to recently implemented projects. This monitoring program is designed to provide feedback to project staff to assist with the determination of the most effective and efficient ways to meet the project objective of improved steelhead habitat. Individual methods are outlined in the draft Latah SWCD Monitoring Plan and Procedures. Project monitoring techniques are directed at riparian vegetation monitoring (including photo documentation), groundwater monitoring to assess effects of meadow restoration projects, surface water monitoring, and habitat monitoring. Given the brief timeframe within which most the restoration projects were initiated for this project (2007 and later), past monitoring efforts serve as a good source of baseline information for future comparisons. Monitoring will continue throughout this project and changes will, over time, be noted and reported. In an effort to understand changes to the Potlatch River hydrograph, funding is proposed to continue supporting the US Geological Survey streamflow monitoring program at the mouth of the Potlatch River. This project is in a unique position to eventually understand how steelhead within the Potlatch River respond to conservation practices due to the IDFG’s Potlatch River Steelhead Monitoring and Evaluation project. The Potlatch River is a NOAA intensively monitored watershed (IMW). The information generated from IDF&G’s monitoring will be critical to understanding the Potlatch River steelhead population production and productivity. Restoration efforts are directed to tributaries that have the greatest potential for population level improvements based on new data and analysis gathered from these various monitoring programs. The collaborative approach contained within this proposal has been designed to continue until the wild steelhead have achieved a robust and self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River watershed.	Ken Stinson			01/17/2013	11/26/2013	Ken Stinson	Latah Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)	Habitat	None	2013 Geographic Category Review	2013 Geographic Review	BiOp