 | GEOREV-2008-604-00 | Proposal Version 1 | Existing Project | Pending BPA Response | 2008-604-00 | Lower Clearwater and Potlatch Watersheds Habitat Improvements | In 2008, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the State of Idaho entered into a Columbia Basin Fish Accord (Accord). The Lower Clearwater and Potlatch Watersheds Habitat Improvements project (Potlatch Accord Project) is one of thirteen projects contained within the Idaho Accord. Within the Accord’s project description, the purpose of the Potlatch Accord Project was to “accelerate the on-the-ground implementation of the recently completed (Potlatch River) Watershed Management Plan.”
The Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan (Potlatch Plan) referenced in the Accord was funded by BPA through Project 2002-061-00 and developed through an inter-agency effort coordinated by the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District (Latah SWCD). The goal of the Potlatch Plan is “to specify restoration strategies that help restore steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population in the Potlatch River watershed” (Resource Planning Unlimited, 2007). The Potlatch Plan is based on an adaptive management structure and the purpose is to provide landowners, land managers, and natural resource agency staff with a guideline to facilitate the coordination of steelhead habitat restoration efforts throughout the Potlatch River watershed.
In 2008, the Latah SWCD presented a request to the joint BPA/Northwest Power and Conservation Council (Council) Budget Oversight Group (BOG) to expand the scope-of-work for Project 2002-061-00 due to the types of projects identified by the Potlatch River Technical Advisory Group (TAG) as priorities within the recently adopted Potlatch Plan. The request was mainly to begin addressing instream habitat and passage barrier issues. The TAG included fish biologists from IDFG, NOAA and Nez Perce Tribe as well as project planners with Latah SWCD.
The BOG formally linked the Latah SWCD request related to project 2002-061-00 to the Idaho Accords and specifically Accord Project 2008-604-00. This linkage was made in the Council’s April 30, 2009 memo because the Accord identified the intent of the Lower Clearwater and Potlatch Watersheds Habitat Improvements project (2008-00-604) was to accelerate the on-the-ground implementation of the Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan. The Council also noted that an Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP) review was needed to process Latah SWCD’s request and that the Latah SWCD request, and associated ISRP review, was the first Idaho Accord action to be received by the Council for a recommendation.
At the request of the BOG, the ISRP reviewed the request to expand Latah SWCD’s scope-of-work. The ISRP’s final review (April 28, 2009) approved the request for the additional eight work elements and argued they thought the project was “on the right track and should produce real benefits to A-run steelhead, especially when upland treatments already underway are combined with riparian and instream restoration actions”.
BPA’s funded efforts within the Potlatch River watershed are, by design of the Council’s past actions and arguments, a joint effort between projects 2002-061-00 and 2008-604-00 to accelerative the implementation of the Potlatch Plan.
Project implementation of 2008-604-00 is a joint effort between the Idaho Office of Species Conservation, Latah SWCD and IDFG.
Consistent with the goal of the Potlatch Plan and previous Council and ISRP guidance, proposal 2008-604-00 seeks to restore wild Snake River Steelhead to a robust, self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River through: a) coordinated implementation of restoration practices on private, state and federal lands; b) coordinate interagency watershed planning efforts; c) continue watershed and fisheries monitoring; and d) develop outreach programs to landowners and the general public.
This proposal is consistent with the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Program goal to develop habitat-based programs designed to rebuild healthy, naturally reproducing fish and wildlife populations by protecting, mitigating, and restoring habitats. This project is consistent with the objectives and strategies of the Clearwater Subbasin Management Plan.
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.
The 377,776-acre Potlatch River watershed is located in north-central Idaho and is the largest tributary in the lower Clearwater River. The Potlatch River is critical to wild Snake River steelhead. This proposal identifies three objectives to enhance wild steelhead distribution, productivity, and production within the Potlatch River: improve fish passage to suitable habitat, provide suitable habitat for steelhead spawning and/or rearing, and improve instream water flows to support spawning and rearing habitat.
The first objective is to increase steelhead passage to high quality habitat. One of the primary limitations to volitional access to high quality habitat within the Potlatch River is improperly placed or sized and/or degraded road culverts, and natural or human caused barriers within the Potlatch River drainage. This proposal will seek to plan and implement the removal and/or modification of existing passage barriers within priority steelhead tributaries including: the Bear Creek drainage, Corral Creek, and the East Fork Potlatch River. Barriers within other Potlatch tributaries may be removed or modified as well to meet this objective.
The second objective of this proposal is to provide suitable steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. Project sites that have the potential to improve steelhead habitat have been identified within the Bear Creek drainage, Corral Creek, and East Fork Potlatch River tributaries. Steelhead habitat improvements will be addressed through meadow restoration, riparian habitat restoration, reduction of sediment sources, and increasing stream channel complexity.
The third objective addresses low late summer/fall flows throughout many of the priority tributaries within the Potlatch River. Flow enhancement is proposed through a variety of restoration practices. First, direct flow augmentation is proposed for consideration within the Bear Creek system through flow augmentation from an existing reservoir and the construction of additional ponds/reservoirs. Second, projects are being designed in the Bear Creek, Corral Creek, and East Fork Potlatch River to bring highly degraded forest meadow systems to a more functional condition with enhanced floodplain connectivity and riparian area restorations. Many of the projects involve undertaking channel realignments in those areas where the original stream channel had become disconnected due to channel straightening back in the early 1900s when logging railroads were throughout the forest meadow. These practices will be employed when there is a belief that a meadow restoration will enhance water retention and extend flows further into summer and fall months.
In an effort to monitor project effectiveness, Latah SWCD staff will continue to implement programs to assess changes in 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 improve 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 of the restoration projects were initiated (2007 and later), the monitoring that has been undertaken at the project scale serves primarily as baseline information. 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 sought 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 understand how steelhead within the Potlatch River respond to conservation practices due to the IDFG’s Potlatch River Steelhead Monitoring and Evaluation (PRSME) project. The Potlatch River is a NOAA intensively monitored watershed (IMW).
The PRSME project was established in 2005 with monies from Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Funds. It was expanded in 2008 with funds from NOAA/Fisheries Intensively Monitored Watershed funds. In addition to the PRSME program, annual snorkeling surveys are conducted at population trend sites strategically located within the watershed.
The information generated from IDFG’s monitoring is critical to understanding the Potlatch River steelhead population and the production and productivity of such. Restoration efforts are directed to tributaries that have the greatest potential for population level improvements based on new data and analysis gathered from this program.
This proposal will continue to implement restoration techniques that have been shown to be effective.
Although this Accord funding expires after 2017, the collaborative approach contained within this proposal has been designed to continue until wild steelhead have achieved a robust and self-sustaining population within the Potlatch River watershed. | Amy Hines | | | 12/18/2012 | 11/26/2013 | Amy Hines | Idaho Governor's Office of Species Conservation, Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), Latah Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) | Habitat | None | 2013 Geographic Category Review | 2013 Geographic Review | BiOp, Fish Accord |
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