BEF believes that no effort to restore a watershed can be successful without the participation of the people who live in it. And the best restoration solutions involve long-term commitments that focus efforts across an entire watershed landscape, rather than on small pieces of streams and rivers.
Healing takes time and cooperation, so we enter each Model Watershed Partnership knowing that a minimum 10-year commitment is required for true ecological recovery. BEF not only commits 10 years of financial support to each Model Watershed Partner, we also provide scientific and technical assistance and the flexibility to learn from each restoration project in order to improve techniques over time.
If you are interested in becoming a BEF Model Watershed Partner, please contact Todd Reeve, our vice president of Watershed Programs, at our Corvallis, OR office (541-760-6658).
Lower Kootenai Model Watershed
2003: Based on a scientific assessment of restoration needs in the watershed, BEF pledged 10 years of support to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho in order to improve the water quality and ecosystem health of Trout Creek.
The first step was to get the cows out of the stream. Until 2003, cows grazed and trampled the stream, eroding the banks, making the water muddy, and eating all the streamside vegetation.
To fix this problem, fences were built along the stream, a new grazing plan was implemented and BEF helped install a solar water pump and trough to provide water to the cows away from the stream.
2004: After fencing out the cows, the next step was to begin to stabilize the eroding streambanks and get trees established along the stream in order to shade the exposed stream. The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho began planting native trees and shrubs, such as cottonwoods, alders and willows along Trout Creek.
The Kootenai Tribe also worked with partners to reintroduce Kokanee salmon, which is a land-locked species of Sockeye salmon, to Trout Creek. They planted large masses of fertilized eggs in mounds of gravel on the stream bed. The eggs came from parent salmon representative of native fish runs that historically spawned in this creek.
2005: In order to reduce the amount of dirt being washed into the stream and improve water quality, the Kootenai Tribe stabilized and protected the banks along this meandering bend by weaving branches and brush together and staking them into the soil. They planted willow and red osier dogwood directly into this "brush mattress" and continued planting other native shrubs, trees and wetland vegetation, such as sedges and rushes. Large poplar trees were planted in order to provide more shade to the stream water in the hot summer months.
2006: The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho helped landowners plant native conifers such as larch, pine and cedar in stream-side areas.
Along with ongoing restoration work, each year the Tribe and BEF measured water quality and ecosystem health in Trout Creek. Some of the parameters measured include aquatic "bugs" (macroinvertebrates), algae on rocks (periphyton) and fish species. Water-quality parameters include nutrient levels, temperatures and muddiness (total suspended solids).
2007: The cows continued to be rotated through their pastures, the trees and shrubs continued to grow, and most excitingly, record returns of bright red adult Kokanee salmon returned to spawn in Trout Creek!
Since 1981, fewer than 7 adult Kokanee salmon had returned to spawn in Trout Creek each year. But the eggs that were planted in Trout Creek in 2004 had hatched and grown up in Kootenai Lake over the past three years. In the fall of 2007, over 300 of these beautiful, bright-red fish returned to lay their eggs, spawn and die in Trout Creek. Their offspring are expected to return as full-grown adults in 2011.
2008: The Tribe and BEF are retrofitting the solar water pump so that it can provide water even when the stream flow is low in the summertime. Community members helped plant and protect native trees and shrubs along the stream, where beaver, elk and mice had damaged earlier plantings.
2009: If all goes as planned, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho will place logs in the stream and along the banks to provide even better habitat for trout and salmon.
2010: The goal is to engage all landowners along Trout Creek and nearby streams in restoration projects by 2010.
2011: The offspring of the record numbers of Kokanee salmon that spawned in 2007 are expected to return to Trout Creek as adults in 2011, after growing up for the past three years in Kootenai Lake. Cross your fingers!
2012: The goal is to measure a 20% increase in native fish, such as cutthroat, redband trout and bull trout in 2012. By improving habitat and water quality for these native species, the Tribe expects their survival and growth to improve over time.
2013: The goal is to improve the percent canopy cover (in other words, the overhanging limbs and the percent of trees shading the stream) to 30% of the active stream channel by 2013. This will keep the stream water cooler in the summertime, when trout and salmon need cold water to survive.