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| Blackfoot River Basin Fisheries Restoration |
Lewis and Clark/Missoula Counties, Montana |
Primary Project Type: Watershed Restoration
Secondary Type: |
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Many actions targeting the recovery of bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout ... |
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Primary Problem: Combination
Secondary Problem: |
| Main Restoration Action(s): Watershed restoration |
| Native Fish Focus: Bull trout, Westslope cutthroat |
Is this project part of a watershed scale restoration? Yes
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| Project Dates: 1988 to ongoing |
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Initial Monitoring: 1988
Restoration Implementation: 1990
Follow-up Monitoring: ongoing |
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Lead Agency:
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish and Wildlife
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| Project Location:
The Blackfoot River is located in west-central Montana. Its headwaters are at the junction of Beartrap and Anaconda Creeks near the Continental Divide. It is a free-flowing river which flows from its headwaters west 132 miles to its confluence with the Clark Fork River in Bonner, Montana. The Blackfoot River drains a 2,320-square-mile watershed through a 3,700-mile stream network, of which 1,900 miles are perennial streams capable of supporting fishes.
To view a map of the project site, click here.
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Project Description:
The following case history uses text taken or modified from annual reports written by Ron Pierce (and colleagues) of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. A listing of these reports can be found at the end of the case history under “Pierce RW”.
The Blackfoot River is one of twelve renowned “Blue Ribbon” trout rivers in Montana. However, segments of the river system support low densities of wild trout and; in particular, low densities of imperiled native westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). Of primary concern are the fluvial or migratory life forms of these species. In 1998, bull trout in the Columbia River drainage were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designated critical habitat for bull trout for the mainstem Blackfoot River and primary tributaries of all bull trout core area watersheds. The Blackfoot is a core area watershed. Westslope cutthroat trout is a Species of Special Concern in Montana. In the Blackfoot River watershed, westslope cutthroat trout occupy approximately 90 percent of their historical range. The Blackfoot River also supports one of the larger fluvial meta-populations of genetically unaltered westslope cutthroat in Montana (Pierce et al. 2004), but at population abundance well below habitat capacity (Shepard et al. 2003).
Since 1988, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MTFWP) has inventoried 120 tributaries and six reaches of the Blackfoot River and identified fisheries impairments to greater than 90 percent of them. Although native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout have adapted to the extreme conditions of the watershed, both natural and human impairments are believed to be the causes of their low densities. Natural impairments include drought, areas of high instream sediment loads, low instream productivity, naturally intermittent tributaries, summer warming, and periods of severe icing in the lower mainstem river channel. Human impairments include over-exploitation of the fisheries by anglers, introduction of exotic fishes, riparian degradation due to grazing and timber harvest, contaminated sediments and altered stream channels due to past mining in the upper Blackfoot watershed, irrigation related impacts including reduced instream flows, poor upstream fish passage and entrainment of out-migrant fish to irrigation ditches, expansion of exotic disease organisms such as Myxobolus cerebralis, loss of fish passage at the Milltown dam and poorly designed culverts and road crossings.
The Blackfoot River watershed is the site of a comprehensive wild trout restoration initiative, with emphasis on the recovery and conservation of imperiled native fish. Through the voluntary involvement of resource agencies, conservation groups, and private landowners, the necessary combination of scientific, social and technical expertise has been acquired to fund and implement the initiative. Attaining quality habitat and stream connectivity, where appropriate, provide the basis of this restoration initiative. |
Project Goals: To assist in bull trout recovery, the Montana Bull Trout Recovery Plan established recovery goals for the Blackfoot River watershed (MBTRT, 2000). Goals are to: 1) maintain self-reproducing migratory fish populations in the Blackfoot River with access to tributary streams and spawning in all core area watersheds; 2) maintain the population genetic structure throughout the watershed; 3) maintain and increase the connectivity between the Blackfoot River and its tributaries; 4) establish a baseline of redd counts in all drainages that support spawning migratory bull trout; and 5) maintain a count of at least 100 redds, or 2,000 individuals, in the Blackfoot drainage with an increasing trend thereafter. Both the State of Montana and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed similar recovery plans to help remove bull trout from listing under the Endangered Species Act.
In conjunction with the goal of fluvial bull trout recovery, the focus of westslope cutthroat trout recovery is re-establishing the fluvial life-history form by: 1) reducing or eliminating controllable sources of anthropogenic mortality; 2) maintaining and restoring existing spawning and rearing habitats; 3) restoring damaged habitats; 4) improving connectivity between the Blackfoot River and fluvial spawning areas; and 5) maintaining certain genetically “pure” population isolates. |
| Project Methods:
Efforts to restore fisheries-impaired stream segments and to recover bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations within the Blackfoot River watershed began in the 1990s when MTFWP adopted basin-wide catch-and-release regulations. Recovery efforts expanded later in the 1990s and evolved into an iterative process involving long-term protection via conservation easements combined with active and passive habitat restoration on large, connected tracts of public and private land. Iterative restoration relies on on-going habitat and population monitoring, expanding the scope of the projects and modifying methods of restoration based on monitoring results. This leads to site-specific restoration actions such as enhancing flows in rearing areas, preventing juvenile fish loss to entrainment ditches in migration corridors, reconstructing altered streams, restoring habitat features in damaged streams, planting riparian vegetation, removing streamside feedlots, managing livestock grazing, improving fish passage, and enrolling private landowners in conservation easement programs. For more information on individual restoration projects, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish and Wildlife website.
For more information on the restoration process in the Blackfoot River watershed, click here.
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Rock Creek restoration also included grazing changes with fencing and off-stream... |
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Hoyt Creek is also the site of a developing restoration project. Approximately ... |
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| Monitoring Data and Collection
Methods: Restoration projects in the Blackfoot River watershed have been monitored with the intention of enhancing aquatic populations and natural stream integrity. Much effort has been made to collect baseline information in a manner that documents the need for restoration actions and ensures scientifically sound post-project evaluations. There have been two types of project monitoring evaluations — implementation monitoring and effectiveness monitoring. Implementation monitoring assesses the degree to which the project was completed as designed, while effectiveness monitoring assesses the degree to which the project meets its intended objectives related to target species.
For more information on project monitoring in the Blackfoot River Watershed, click here.
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Was this project effective
and how was this determined? Many actions targeting the recovery of bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in the Blackfoot watershed have been implemented since the early 1990s. By 2005, Blackfoot partners had developed or implemented fisheries improvements on 40 streams, mostly on private lands (Pierce et al 2004, Pierce and Podner 2006). Most of the implemented projects have been successful; however, project setbacks have occurred. Landowners have been intimately involved in all aspects of fisheries restoration, from baseline data collections to post-project monitoring.
The 2004 to 2005 reporting period ended with the sixth straight year of significant drought. During this six-year period, mean monthly flows during the critical summer period (July and August) averaged 66 to 76 percent of normal; the river set an 18-year record for warm water temperatures; normal “flushing flows” occurred only once; and emergency angling restrictions were enacted in four of the six drought years. As a result of drought-related stressors, certain fisheries experienced large declines. Between 2000 and 2005, notable declines included a 57-percent decline in bull trout redd counts for two spawning streams (Monture Creek and North Fork) and a 51-percent decline in total trout densities (fish greater than six inches) in a section of the middle Blackfoot River (Scotty Brown Bridge section). Many tributary fisheries also declined; however, restoration of minimum instream flows and restoration of habitat improved many local populations at the project scale despite the effects of drought. These results confirm the importance of correcting human-caused limiting factors in streams as a means of increasing the resistance of individual populations to drought. With time, cumulative habitat improvements should improve population resilience and allow populations to recover more quickly following drought.
In addition to the challenge of continued drought, other challenges have emerged. The Blackfoot River system has been subject to continued development, expanded recreation in critical habitats, large increases in angling pressure in vital waters for native fish, and pervasive misidentification and illegal harvest of native fish. In addition, whirling disease has continued to expand throughout the low elevations of the watershed, with infections now confirmed from the confluence of the Blackfoot River to the mouth of Alice Creek. Whirling disease infection rates have also increased at the low elevations of several tributaries to the lower Blackfoot River.
As projects in the Blackfoot watershed have expanded in scope and complexity, the need to monitor projects and review restoration methods has increased as well. To date, the Blackfoot partners have modified methods to include 1) simplifying fish ladder and fish screen designs; 2) hiring personnel to assist with grazing plans and the special maintenance needs of fish screens; and 3) clarifying landowner agreements regarding stewardship and maintenance expectations.
In the early 2000s, two significant conservation measures advanced: the sale of large tracts of industrial forest (Plum Creek Timberlands) to the Nature Conservancy, and the decision to remove Milltown Dam from the junction of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers. The Nature Conservancy-Plum Creek land exchange will prevent subdivision on approximately 89,000 acres of land — most of which is located in bull trout core areas or streams supporting genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout. The state of Montana and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to remove Milltown Dam will restore fish passage and river and riparian habitats in the area of Milltown Reservoir when implemented. The dam is scheduled to be removed in 2007. In addition to fish passage and channel restoration, dam removal should eliminate spawning habitat for northern pike, a species with a dietary preference for bull trout and other salmonids (Schmetterling 2001).
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The old Ashby Creek stream channel.... |
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Ashby Creek is the site of a new experimental fish screen called the Coanda Effe... |
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| Confounding Effects/Additional
Information: |
| Project
Specs (all specs are estimates): |
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| For more information on this project
contact: |
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Fisheries Biologist Ron Pierce , Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Email: rpierce@mt.gov
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| This information
was collected by: Kristin Keith |
| Project last updated on: 4/16/2007 |
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