Restoration projects heal region, help restore fisheries

The Nez Perce Tribe, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and others partnered to "unzip" (see below) 2 miles of the lower Crooked River.

The effort will also improve water quality in the Crooked River valley after the six-year $3 million unzipping project began in 2015.

Wetlands were increased in both area and diversity, the dredge tailing piles were flattened and some of the ponds were filled.

To monitor the fishes’ response to the restoration actions, Idaho Department of Fish and Game crews will snorkel survey annually, as they have since 1985.

During the 2023 surveys, the crews observed coho and spring chinook salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout and other native species.

Crooked River is a tributary of the South Fork of the Clearwater River in north central Idaho. It is approximately 5 miles west of Elk City. The river is home to spring chinook salmon, which return 354 river miles from the Pacific Ocean to spawn where their young will someday do the same. B-run steelhead and bull trout are also found in the basin and listed under the Endangered Species Act. Coho salmon, cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey and Idaho giant salamanders also live in the complex basin environment.

Besides being good ecologically for the Crooked River valley, the restoration work has been good economically for the neighboring communities. A 2005 study by Don Reading found that restored salmon and steelhead fisheries could provide an additional $23 million annually to the communities of Elk City and Grangeville.

Between the late 1930s and 1950s, the lower Crooked River valley was heavily impacted by industrial dredge mining for gold.

The Mount Vernon dredge could excavate up to 2,000 cubic yards of pay gravel per day, to a maximum depth of 20 feet. The dredge dug 24 hours per day, with three shifts, except for maintenance, repair, cleaning and moving ahead.

Unlike wildfires, dredging produced unnatural landscapes that will not return to a natural state without aid. Large dredge tailing rockpiles, as tall as 20 feet, were extruded from the dredge. They constricted and separated the river from the rest of the valley. One section, The Tortured Meanders, with its 90-degree turns, looked like a zipper from above. Unnaturally deep dredge ponds were also created and left behind.

Reparation projects and snorkel surveys are helping to heal the region. Habitat project managers will continue to monitor the fishes’ response to restoration efforts to guide future projects to benefit wild salmon and steelhead trout ecologically and local communities economically.

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Scott Putnam is a fisheries biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.