Appendix 4-1—Salmon Subbasin Project Inventory
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Salmon Subbasin Assessment May 2004 APPENDIX 4-1—SALMON SUBBASIN PROJECT INVENTORY The purpose of the project inventory is to Challis office describing many such projects provide a generalized picture of the types of (which are summarized in our tables). Many fish and wildlife restoration activities that are of them were relatively inexpensive and currently being conducted in the watershed, required little time, such as trough or fence along with information as to who is installations and maintenance on existing responsible for funding the projects. The features. information presented here was collected from technical and planning team participants There are also programs that affect the through the project inventory website or environment such as the noxious weed control through direct submission. Additional programs. The weed control program is information was collected from websites of conducted by weed control districts composed funding and implementation agencies and of communities, counties, or regions. Other through interviews of nonparticipants. Due to weed control projects are conducted outside the size of the Salmon subbasin and the the weed control program by other resource number of agencies, nonprofit organizations, management agencies. and private parties actively engaged in fish and wildlife restoration activities, it is Redundancies in listings also occur because unlikely that all activities implemented within many projects are joint ventures and were the last 5 years have been captured here. listed by each organization. For some However, we believe that the information organizations, the land holdings are the provided here covers the broad scope of most projects. The Nature Conservancy is one such of the current types of activities taking place. example. Each of its land holdings is listed as a project. There may be some detail about the One of the challenges in building the project restorative or maintenance activities but not inventory is finding summarized descriptions always. The same is true of some regional of the work. Some agencies have summary organizations that establish conservation tables of their projects, while others have full easements. One such organization is the Teton descriptions of work proposed or to be done. Regional Land Trust. Its members have The various National Forests are examples of contributed funds and set aside properties for that situation. Some National Forests have conservation. Sometimes work is done; other tables listing their projects, while others have times, land is just protected from pages of scoping documents. development. Other projects are part of an overall work effort. Examples are the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s habitat improvement projects through the WMA (Wildlife Management Areas) and HIP (Habitat Improvement Program) programs. The work is described in terms of regions, costs, and numbers and types of sites but not in terms of specific watersheds. On the other hand, there are numerous small projects. We acquired data from the BLM 1 Salmon Subbasin Assessment May 2004 Project Name Subbasin/ Begin End Implementin Funding/ Cause of Comments/ Geographic area of coverage (BPA contract Status g/ Principal Limiting Project Description Results/ Location Year Year Sponsor SP AH LE MS MF MF #) Agency Factors Monitoring SFS UPS LSA LOS P M Idaho All ongoing 1950 ongoing IDFG BPA/NOAA Fish Installed and maintained ~300 Screen tenders maintain screens X X X X X X X X X X Anadromous Fish anadromous Fisheries entrainment fish screens throughout the on a daily basis to assure proper Screening HUCs into Upper Salmon Basin. functioning condition, duties Program irrigation include; observations of fish (Mitchell Act) systems behavior and salvaging fish during irrigation shutdowns. PIT- tag remote sensing for entrainment and migration timing. POLE CREEK Salmon– complete 1972 1996 Idaho Sawtooth The site has been used for The site is an old horse pasture for X EXCLOSURE Headwaters Department of National grazing studies by Bill Platts. the Pole Creek Guard Station. RNA Fish and Game Recreation Occasionally, trespass cattle Conservation Area have lightly grazed within the Data Center, exclosure. and Sawtooth National Recreation Area SAWTOOTH Salmon– complete 1972 1998 Idaho Sawtooth Past and ongoing sheep and x VALLEY Headwaters Department of National cattle grazing has occurred in PEATLANDS Fish and Game Recreation the vicinity of the RNA. The RNA Conservation Area saturated peat substrate, Data Center however, is very unstable for a human to walk on and it is doubtful that livestock entered the peatlands to any significant degree. REDFISH LAKE Salmon– Unknown 1979 1998 Idaho Sawtooth There is some concern that x MORAINE RNA Headwaters Department of National timber harvest activities Fish and Game Recreation adjacent to the eastern Conservation Area boundary could impact the Data Center RNA. Pole Creek Salmon– complete 1983 1983 Sawtooth Sawtooth Construction of a screen at an Surveys have estimated that the x Irrigation Headwaters National Forest National irrigation diversion on Pole area above the Pole Creek Diversion and IDFG Forest and Creek, a Salmon River diversion is capable of supporting Screening IDFG tributary in Stanley Basin and 937 Chinook spawners and 563 (8341600). a change in the method of steelhead spawners. An estimated irrigation allowing some water 25 percent of the juveniles to remain in the stream. produced by these spawners Replaced in 2000 by IDFG. would have been lost in the diversion before the screen was installed, this represents an annual loss of up to 234 chinook and 141 steelhead. 2 Salmon Subbasin Assessment May 2004 Project Name Subbasin/ Begin End Implementin Funding/ Cause of Comments/ Geographic area of coverage (BPA contract Status g/ Principal Limiting Project Description Results/ Location Year Year Sponsor SP AH LE MS MF MF #) Agency Factors Monitoring SFS UPS LSA LOS P M Camas Creek, Middle Fork 1984 1993 USFS–Region Improve stream bank Riparian areas have been X Middle Fork Salmon 4 conditions to increase reestablished, providing suitable Salmon River River spawning and rearing potential habitat for migrating/spawning Riparian on Camas Creek, Idaho fish. Fences and fording gates Protection through riparian fencing, bank have provided conducive (8402300) and instream work. M & E is environment for increase in redds conducted via projects and less use of property within the 8300700 & 8300900. fenced areas. The habit effort has resulted in significant improvements in the riparian vegetation and stream condition in the project area. This project is expected to result in the production of an additional 4,586 smolt or 76 adult summer steelhead and 24,570 smolt or 128 adult spring chinook salmon (May and Rose, 1986). 3 Salmon Subbasin Assessment May 2004 Project Name Subbasin/ Begin End Implementin Funding/ Cause of Comments/ Geographic area of coverage (BPA contract Status g/ Principal Limiting Project Description Results/ Location Year Year Sponsor SP AH LE MS MF MF #) Agency Factors Monitoring SFS UPS LSA LOS P M Marsh, Elk Creek 1984 1996 USFS–Region Survey & evaluate streams in Detailed surveys have measured X X & Upper Salmon 4 the upper Middle Fork Salmon the quantity of habitat that could River Habitat River and the upper Salmon be enhanced. Data has been Work (8402400). River drainages. Improve developed to quantify expected stream habitat by riparian increases in fish habitat and fish fencing and instream work. standing crops using fish Continue with O&M of population/standing crop surveys projects to insure long term and applicable data from similar benefits. streams. Measures to improve habitat, including in some cases fencing, streambank stabilization, and instream structures have been completed. BPA and the USFS have agreed to plan and design these projects cooperatively; funding for implementation shall be accomplished on a cost sharing basis between the two Federal agencies. During August and September 1995 a physical inventory was conducted on selected streams by USFS personnel. Photo points were retaken at major project sites. Adult Chinook salmon spawning ground counts have occurred each August. The upper Salmon River, Valley Creek, Pole Creeks and Knapp Creek were walked to tally Chinook salmon spawning associated with project sites. At the same time, Boise National Forest personnel conduct an intensive inventory of spawning salmon in the Bear Valley drainage. 4 Salmon Subbasin Assessment May 2004 Project Name Subbasin/ Begin End Implementin Funding/ Cause of Comments/ Geographic area of coverage (BPA contract Status g/ Principal Limiting Project Description Results/ Location Year Year Sponsor SP AH LE MS MF MF #) Agency Factors Monitoring SFS UPS LSA LOS P M Water Budget 1984 1987 Pacific States Management of the Water Using data on fish movements X X X X X X X X X X Management Marine Fish Budget, monitoring of juvenile supplied by the Smolt Monitoring (8353600) Com fish migration and Program (Project 80-1), the Water determination of migration Budget Managers requested flows timing, travel, survival, etc. and spill over dams to afford the Project was developed in best possible conditions for fish conjunction with 8000100, passage. In conjunction with 8349100, and 8666000. About project 8349100 and project 25 hatcheries and dams 8666000 there was also participated. monitoring of juvenile fish migration and determination of emigrational characteristics of the smolt out migration , including migration timing, travel