One of TU’s primary goals is to increase connectivity in watersheds. Ability to move around the watershed is critical for trout especially if they are to endure a warming climate and increased predatory pressure from non-native species.
Understanding what are true barriers to fish movement, and what species are upstream and downstream of those barriers, are the first steps to increasing connectivity. TU focuses on human made barriers like culverts, dams, warm temperatures, pollution and some subsurface flows. Interestingly though sometimes removing a barrier is not elected it can actually be protecting a resident population of native fish from invasion of non-native competitor species. But more often, a barrier has the same species upstream and downstream and its removal will be beneficial.
TU is working with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Panhandle National Forest to:
- Identify barriers through broad scale culvert and bridge surveys.
- Using eDNA analysis to identify predatory & competitor species around culverts.
- Removing barriers when partners are interested and funding is available.
Project
- Reconnection
Partners
- The Panhandle National Forest
- Idaho Department of Fish and Game
- The Restoration Partnership
Locations
- The St. Joe River
- Coeur d’Alene River
- St. Maries River
Focus
- Fish Barriers
Working with a diverse group of land managers and owners, TU is helping to identify fish movement barriers and remove them across Spokane-Coeur d'Alene waterways.
Since 2021, TU has assisted in the physical removal of three barriers all on US Forest Service lands:
- Removal of the Red Ives Dam on Red Ives Creek, a tributary to the Upper St. Joe.
- Replacement of a perched culvert on Dresser Creek, a tributary to the NF Coeur d’Alene River.
- Replacement of a dysfunctional pipe on Charlie Creek, a tributary to the St. Maries River.
And we are working on developing quite a few more barrier removal projects in the coming years. Each one of these efforts opens up access to habitat for spawning, food sourcing, and refuge from too hot or too cold of temperatures.
