Abstract
Fire, landscape-scale management projects and proposals, and regulatory drivers (TMDL) present a unique opportunity for aquatic restoration in the Ninemile drainage. The Ninemile drainage is an important fish production tributary to the middle Clark Fork. Yet is has an extensive legacy of both public and private management that has reduced and limits native fish production. Currently, Westslope cutthroat trout are distributed throughout many tributary watersheds and the upper mainstem Ninemile, but bull trout are only incidental. Non-native salmonids are also established in portions of the watershed. Channel, floodplain, and water temperature modifications from agriculture and valley development (lower 2/3 of the mainstem), coupled with extensive placer mining on the upper main Ninemile, have contributed to the incidental presence of bull trout. Also, the mid to upper portions of most publicly managed tributary watersheds have extensive road networks and associated crossing features that have chronic sediment and fish passage effects. This, coupled with past cumulative effects from vegetation management, and tributary placer activities combine to limit and fragment additional native fish production in the Ninemile watershed.
The fires of 2000 led to the first large-scale proposal for road obliteration, stream crossing improvement, and mine-site restoration in the upper half of the Ninemile drainage (Post-Burn EIS). Some of this proposed work has already occurred (stream crossing improvement), and more (road closure, crossing removal, road relocation, and mine-site restoration) is scheduled to occur in summer 2005 and beyond. Another large vegetation and watershed improvement proposal for the southeast portion of the Ninemile drainage is underway (Frenchtown Face EIS). More than 100 miles of road are proposed to be decommissioned along and up to 16 large pipe, some partial or complete fish passage barriers, are proposed to be removed or replaced. These two projects (Post Burn and Frenchtown Face) fit well with the recently completed Ninemile TMDL and watershed restoration plan that identifies watershed wide sources of pollution and pollutants, and proposal to improve watershed and instream conditions. Additional coordinated mainstem Ninemile and tributary restoration planning and proposal by land and fish management agencies coordinated with the Ninemile watershed group can help further protect and restore this important native fishery.
Start Date
1-4-2005 11:00 AM
End Date
1-4-2005 11:20 AM
Document Type
Presentation
Fishery & Watershed Restoration Efforts in the Ninemile Watershed: Potential, Progress, and Opportunity
Fire, landscape-scale management projects and proposals, and regulatory drivers (TMDL) present a unique opportunity for aquatic restoration in the Ninemile drainage. The Ninemile drainage is an important fish production tributary to the middle Clark Fork. Yet is has an extensive legacy of both public and private management that has reduced and limits native fish production. Currently, Westslope cutthroat trout are distributed throughout many tributary watersheds and the upper mainstem Ninemile, but bull trout are only incidental. Non-native salmonids are also established in portions of the watershed. Channel, floodplain, and water temperature modifications from agriculture and valley development (lower 2/3 of the mainstem), coupled with extensive placer mining on the upper main Ninemile, have contributed to the incidental presence of bull trout. Also, the mid to upper portions of most publicly managed tributary watersheds have extensive road networks and associated crossing features that have chronic sediment and fish passage effects. This, coupled with past cumulative effects from vegetation management, and tributary placer activities combine to limit and fragment additional native fish production in the Ninemile watershed.
The fires of 2000 led to the first large-scale proposal for road obliteration, stream crossing improvement, and mine-site restoration in the upper half of the Ninemile drainage (Post-Burn EIS). Some of this proposed work has already occurred (stream crossing improvement), and more (road closure, crossing removal, road relocation, and mine-site restoration) is scheduled to occur in summer 2005 and beyond. Another large vegetation and watershed improvement proposal for the southeast portion of the Ninemile drainage is underway (Frenchtown Face EIS). More than 100 miles of road are proposed to be decommissioned along and up to 16 large pipe, some partial or complete fish passage barriers, are proposed to be removed or replaced. These two projects (Post Burn and Frenchtown Face) fit well with the recently completed Ninemile TMDL and watershed restoration plan that identifies watershed wide sources of pollution and pollutants, and proposal to improve watershed and instream conditions. Additional coordinated mainstem Ninemile and tributary restoration planning and proposal by land and fish management agencies coordinated with the Ninemile watershed group can help further protect and restore this important native fishery.