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| Kleinschmidt Creek |
Powell County, Montana |
Primary Project Type: Instream Restoration
Secondary Type: Instream Restoration |
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Kleinschmidt Creek before restoration activities. Fine sediment accumulations ... |
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Primary Problem: Over-Widened Channel
Secondary Problem: Loss of Fish Habitat |
| Main Restoration Action(s): Channel reconstruction, Habitat enhancement |
| Native Fish Focus: Cutthroat, North Fork bull trout |
Is this project part of a watershed scale restoration? Yes
Click here for the description. |
| Project Dates: 1990 to 2001 |
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Initial Monitoring: 1990
Restoration Implementation: 1996 to 2001
Follow-up Monitoring: 2001 |
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Lead Agency:
Montana Department of Transportation
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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| Project Partners: |
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| Project Location:
Kleinschmidt Creek is located near Ovando, Montana in Powell County. It is a 2.6-mile spring creek tributary that joins Rock Creek at mile 0.1 before entering the North Fork of the Blackfoot River at mile 6.2. This stream drains the southern portion of Kleinschmidt Flat. Base flows at the mouth of Kleinschmidt Creek are approximately 9 cubic feet per second (cfs).
Click here for a map.
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| Project Description:
Kleinschmidt Creek had a long history of intensive riparian grazing with very little regard for riparian health and channel stability. Spring flow entered the creek at a constant cool temperature all year and, therefore, it was a valuable location for over-wintering livestock. Intensive use by cattle during the winter and spring months resulted in a wide and shallow creek (over 100 feet wide and just over one foot deep in many locations) with fine sediment accumulations and heavy aquatic plant growth covering much of the channel bottom. In addition to grazing, placement of rock dams, undersized culverts, and extensive channelization further degraded and over-widened Kleinschmidt Creek. This stream, prior to restoration, supported very low numbers of brook, brown, and cutthroat trout and had a high density of tubifex worms, the primary carriers of whirling disease. In order to prioritize restoration resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had developed a fisheries-based restoration priority scorecard, based on biological, social, and financial considerations, for 83 impaired tributaries of the Blackfoot River. Kleinschmidt Creek ranked 10th in priority out of 83 streams surveyed (Click here for more information on the ranking system - PDF file). Restoration projects were initiated during 1996. The majority of Kleinschmidt Creek, however, was not restored until 2001. |
| Project Goals: The goals of this project were to reduce whirling disease infection levels, restore stream channel morphology for all life stages of trout, increase recruitment of trout to the Blackfoot River, and restore thermal refugia and rearing areas for North Fork bull trout. This was accomplished by increasing the sinuosity and decreasing the width-to-depth ratio of the stream, improving riparian vegetation, and minimizing accumulations of fine sediments within the stream channel. |
| Project Methods:
Restoration of Kleinschmidt Creek began in 1991 with reconstruction of a 1200-foot section of lower Kleinschmidt Creek and placement of large woody debris for instream habitat. Restoration expanded substantially in 2001 when 6,250 feet of the stream were reconstructed to a Rogen E4 stream type. The resulting section was longer (8,494 feet), narrower, deeper and more sinuous. Restoration continues to expand upstream with grazing changes and limited channel reconstruction are planned for 2006.
Click here for more information on project methods.
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Kleinschmidt Creek during restoration construction to deepen and narrow the stre... |
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This photograph was taken immediately after channel modifications along Kleinsch... |
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| Monitoring Data and Collection
Methods: During 2001, post-project geomorphic and habitat features of Kleinschmidt Creek were assessed upstream of mile 0.4. In addition, water temperature was monitored and whirling disease sentinel cage studies were continued. In 2004 and 2005, fish populations, water temperatures, whirling disease, and spawning substrates were monitored. Fish populations were resurveyed at two locations (mile 0.5 and 0.8) of lower Kleinschmidt Creek which were surveyed in 1998 prior to channel reconstruction. These sites were established not only to assess the fisheries responses to restoration, but also to assess restoration techniques involving the placement of large instream wood into E4-type channels. No instream wood was placed in the reconstructed channel at mile 0.5, whereas the rest of the channel, including the mile 0.8 survey site, included instream wood placements.
Click here for more information.
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Was this project effective
and how was this determined? Following reconstruction, channel sinuosity increased from 1.06 to 1.44, an increase of 36 percent. Pool frequency increased 517 percent, from 2.4 pools per 1000 feet to 14.8 pools per 1,000 feet. Mean wetted-width decreased from 31.2 feet to 10.2 feet. Mean maximum pool depth increased from 2.9 feet to 3.6 feet (Table 1). A mean residual pool depth of 2.2 feet was calculated from the habitat survey. Wetted channel area decreased 56 percent, from 195,000 square feet to 86,600 square feet after project completion. The frequency of instream woody stems increased 1089 percent, from 1.9 to 22.6 stems per 1000 feet. Woody debris is evenly distributed along the restored section of Kleinschmidt Creek (Figure 4). The exception is the stretch between pools 7 and 22, which deliberately lacks wood for the purpose of monitoring and comparing fish populations in sections of reconstructed E-type channel with and without woody debris.
Water temperature monitoring has shown substantial reduction in water temperatures in the newly constructed channel, with maximum water temperatures 12 o F lower in 2004 than in 2001 (Figure 5).
Both sites with and without woody debris show higher densities of age 1+ brown trout compared to pre-project periods (Figure 6). During the post-project monitoring period (2002-05), densities of age 1+ brown trout were 168 percent higher in the wooded than the woodless section. Unfortunately, livestock access to the mile 0.5 (no woody debris) site confounded early phases of the study, making full interpretation of these results difficult. The survey site at mile 0.8 was not subject to streamside livestock damage.
Whirling disease sentinel cage studies consistently recorded high-level infections (> 2.7 grade) in Kleinschmidt Creek (Table 2) (Click here for more information on status of whirling disease in the Blackfoot River watershed - PDF file). Whirling disease sampling in 2004 recorded a continued severe 4.9 mean grade infection.
In 2005, a new pre-project fish population survey upstream of the groundwater influence area (mile 2.0) was established, in order to assess the influence of planned further restoration. This survey revealed very low densities of fish with a total trout catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of 1.7 fish per 100 feet. This portion of the channel is degraded from livestock over-use and appears to suffer from seasonal dewatering.
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(Before) Prior to restoration activities, Kleinschmidt Creek was a wide and shal... |
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(After) Prior to restoration, Kleinschmidt Creek was over 100 feet wide and just... |
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| Confounding Effects/Additional
Information: |
| Project
Specs (all specs are estimates): |
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Overall Estimated Cost:
$242,000: includes $10,000 for design, $12,000 for oversight, $72,000 for revegetation, $120,000 for construction, and $28,000 for vegetation and channel stability monitoring.
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| For more information on this project
contact: |
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Jeff Everett, Montana Partners for Fish and Wildlife, Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Email: Jeff_Everett@fws.gov
Paul Callahan, Land and Water Consulting, Email: paul.callahan@landandwater.net
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| This information
was collected by: Michelle White |
| Project last updated on: 8/14/2007 |
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