C H A P T E R 4 HISTORIC AND EXISTING CONDITIONS Chapter 4 contains analyses and descriptions of social, biological, and physical conditions as they existed historically, and compares historic conditions to current conditions. Social conditions include land settlement and occupation, land uses, transportation and access systems in the assessment area, and a social assessment of stakeholders. Social changes occurred as Euro-American settlers moved into the subbasins, which were occupied by Native Americans. Land use changed from hunting and gathering to agriculture, mining, and logging, and most recently to a more dispersed economy that includes recreation and tourist businesses, among others. Road systems grew from trails and early wagon roads to administrative roads and roads connected with timber harvest, some of which are now being decommissioned. Trails have changed from traditional or functional uses to recreational uses, and a large portion of the assessment area has been designated as wilderness. The assessment of historic and existing biological conditions and processes includes climate, air quality, geology and soils, hydrology and watersheds, aquatic habitat and species, landscape ecology, and terrestrial wildlife habitat and species. Fire suppression, as compared to historic fire regimes, appears to have had the most far-reaching effect of any factor on most of the biological elements of the assessment area. This is because the historic fire cycles, now disrupted, regulated pulse disturbances in the watersheds, not only affecting stream channels and water quality, but also changing plant communities and aquatic and terrestrial species habitat. Timber harvest and road building have affected terrestrial and aquatic conditions in some watersheds, causing shifts to press disturbance regimes. Portions of the area continue to function as strongholds for aquatic species. LAND SETTLEMENT AND OCCUPATION The Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins have seen numerous changes in land use patterns through the course of human involvement over the past 8,000 to 10,000 years. The region has experienced several waves of occupation over time, by groups of people including Native Americans, fur trappers and other mountain men, homesteaders, and early day Forest Service employees. These people interacted with the environment in various ways, extracting resources and manipulating it to their benefit. PREHISTORIC OCCUPATION Prehistorically, Native American groups, consisting mostly of ancestral Nez Perce (also known as Nimiipuu), but also including the Salish, and perhaps the Shoshone and Bannock) occupied this area throughout their seasonal movements. The first trails were created by these groups along the rivers and streams to areas including hunting and gathering areas in upland settings, adjacent areas such as the mountains and valleys of western Montana and east central Idaho, and the Salmon and Columbia River country. The first people to occupy this area may have arrived 8,000 to 10,000 or more years ago. The homes of the first known inhabitants of the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins were temporary. Ancestors of the Nimiipuu inhabited the subbasins, and although they established seasonal and permanent villages, the people moved about the vast area to locations where more abundant food sources could be found according to the EARLY EURO -AMERICAN OCCUPATION seasons. The Nez Perce Tribe continues to have interests in various portions of the assessment area. The types of prehistoric Native American sites that can be found within the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins include camp sites, possible village sites, hunting, fishing, and other food gathering sites, travel routes, and locations that may have religious or spiritual significance. These previously occupied areas are located throughout the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins, from the highest elevations to the lowest river valleys. Artifacts associated with the activities which took place at all of these types of sites can also be found in the region. Very few of these sites have been excavated to date. However, sample excavations have occurred at a few sites along the Selway River in recent years, and they have produced materials that have yielded radiocarbon dates relating to the time of occupation of particular locations. From a site in the Moose Creek vicinity, two radiometric dates have been obtained. This site appears to have been occupied on at least two different occasions, around 2,580 and 1,150 years ago (Sappington and Turnipseed, 1997, p. 187). From another site located further up the Selway River, one prehistoric occupation is dated to about 3,060 years ago (Sappington and Turnipseed, 1997, p.190). From one site on the Selway River just upstream from its confluence with the Lochsa River, dates of about 1,070 (Armstrong, 1999) and about 700 years ago (Beta Analytic, 1999) were obtained. Several sites along the Lochsa River, which is adjacent to the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater assessment area to the north, have also been excavated, and radiocarbon dates have been obtained from them as well. One site was initially occupied between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago, and the densest occupation occurred between 6,700 and 4,500 years ago. Still later, the site was occupied up until about 2,500 years ago. At another site just upstream from the confluence of the Lochsa and Selway Rivers, occupation dates range from about 2,800 to 150 years ago (Sappington and Carley, 1989, p. ii). There are also sites that have been used by Native Americans up to the present time. From these few examples, it is clear that the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins have been occupied repeatedly over the last 10,000 years. The Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins were also major thoroughfares for traveling, as evidenced by the overall number and types of sites and artifacts found in the area. EARLY EURO -AMERICAN OCCUPATION The first Euro-Americans to establish a presence in this region were fur trappers, who were followed by missionaries, in the early to mid-1800s. Fur trapping continued into the 1900s, although on a smaller scale than in previous years. In the 1860s, gold was discovered in several areas of what are now the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests. Thousands of eager miners came through the region. There were attempts to extract gold within the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasin assessment area, but those efforts produced little in the way of economic gain for the individual miners. With this influx of people to the region, new trails and wagon roads were created, while existing routes were improved to accommodate the wagons and pack strings now regularly using these routes (USDA, Meadow Face EAWS, Draft, 1999, p. 78). As the regional gold rush subsided, the next wave of settlers came. When they first arrived, all of the lands were in public domain. If land seemed appropriate for settlement, it was surveyed and divided into lots. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed any person who was the head of a family or over age 21, and was a United States citizen or had declared the intention to become one, to secure a patent (deed) to 160 acres of the surveyed public domain. They could prove their claim by living on the land for five years, cultivating it, and making improvements. SELWAY AND MIDDLE FORK CLEARWATER RIVERS SUBBASIN ASSESSMENT 4-2 TWENTIETH CENTURY OCCUPATION AND FOREST SERVICE MANAGEMENT Homesteaders, cattlemen, sheepmen, and other ranchers and farmers arrived in the area. They generally established their homesteads and other facilities on the lower slopes and along the main rivers and streams. Houses, barns, sheds, fences, and other improvements to the land were constructed to support year round occupation. Several of these homesteads remain in private ownership to this day along the upper Selway River between Paradise and Moose Creek. By the late 1800s, communities outside the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins (such as Elk City, Darby, and Hamilton) had been established to facilitate trade for miners and other settlers. By the early 1900s, “neighborhoods” developed in areas within the subbasins. TWENTIETH CENTURY OCCUPATION AND FOREST SERVICE MANAGEMENT BUREAU OF FORESTRY AND BITTER ROOT FOREST RESERVE The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Forestry, which became the Forest Service in 1905, became a presence in the area in 1897. This was to affect the character and subsequent development of the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater subbasins thereafter. President Grover Cleveland designated all of the Lochsa-Selway country in Idaho, along with other lands in Montana as the 4,147,200-acre Bitter Root Forest Reserve in 1897. Starting in 1906, lands within the Forest Reserve could be authorized for homesteading only if they were valuable for agriculture. At this time, the General Land Office administered the forest reserve, while the U. S. Geological Survey performed the surveying and mapping efforts. John B. Leiberg of the U. S. Geological Survey created the first map of this region in 1898. The Forest Service secured land that suited its purpose for administrative sites and withdrew it from the public domain in 1907 and 1908. One of the first rangers in this area was George Ring, who was appointed to the position in 1899. He was instructed to patrol for fires and to suppress any he discovered. His territory included what is now most of the Clearwater National Forest. As the fledgling Forest Service was developing, additional "rangers" were employed. Fighting fires was their main objective, but other projects were also undertaken. Ranger Ring began clearing trails, and in 1905 supervised the initial construction of the Selway Trail (Parsell, 1990). FOREST SERVICE AND AREA NATIONAL FORESTS In 1905, the Forest Service was an official agency. It was originally part of the Department of the Interior, and after much discussion and internal pressure the Forest Service (and the previously created reserves) was transferred to the Department of Agriculture.