Creek Getting Bends Again Stretch Of Water Moved To Slow Flow, Help Trout

Over the past century, streams in the Coeur d’Alene River basin have been moved and straightened to make room for mine tailings, logging activities, highways.

For the first time, one is being returned to its original sinewy path.

A short stretch of Little Tepee Creek is being moved and stabilized. It’s a U.S. Forest Service experiment designed to keep rocks and dirt from tumbling downstream. The work also will provide a better place for trout to hang out.

“We’re kind of getting our feet wet with this one,” hydrologist Rob Harper said, no pun intended, on the drive to the creek east of Coeur d’Alene.

Little Tepee flows into the Little North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. It was chosen for the re-routing experiment because it’s small and not an important cutthroat trout fishery. So it’s easier and less risky to reshape than some of the many other streams that scientists would like to restore.

Little Tepee’s troubles began in the 1950s, when a logging road was built beside it. During a big flood in 1974, the raging stream reached out and “captured” part of a road bed.

It never returned from its detour.

Without its natural curves to slow down the water, the creek carved out rocks and spit them downstream.

The water spread out into several channels. It’s often been too shallow for trout to pass through on their way upstream to spawn, said biologist Ed Lider.

The scientists decided to recreate nature’s meandering streambed, so 900 feet of the creek that had flowed over the road would be replaced with a 1,300-foot stretch of water.

But where to put it? And how to keep the creek from moving again?

The Fernan Ranger District staffers began looking for the old streambed last spring, Lider said. “It was a tough job.”

Snow still covered the ground, making depressions more difficult to see. The land contours might have been changed by heavy equipment used years ago to remove cedar trees from the streambanks.

“We were looking for any refined channel, ” said assistant Nancy Zorens. “The creek’s been back and forth in this flood plain many times.”

Allowing space for Little Tepee Creek to overflow each spring was key to placing the streambed.

Once the path was chosen, Zorens had to mark it. She whacked through the thickest brush she’s ever come across.

Zorens oversees the construction. Work started in July, after the trout had spawned, and is just about done.

The heavy work is done with a “Spyder hoe,” a gangly piece of machinery that can travel uneven ground because it walks instead of rolls.

The operator uses the hoe’s shovel to clear brush and dig the channel. Pine stumps with roots attached are scooted into place to reinforce the riverbank. So are logs. Wood also is laid in parts of the streambed to control erosion.

The project’s finishing touch may be the planting of cedar trees, to replace those that once shaded Little Tepee Creek.

Forest Service employees will measure and photograph the creek in coming years to document how well the experiment works.

When will they know if it’s a success?

“After the next big flood,” said Lider.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; map of Little Tepee Creek restoration area

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LIST OF RESTORATION PROJECTS BIGGER THAN BUDGET FOR THEM The Little Tepee Creek project is part of continuing efforts to restore the Coeur d’Alene River watershed. The list of projects is far bigger than the budget to complete them. This year alone, the Idaho Panhandle National Forests is spending $700,000 to remove roads, stabilize streambanks and create fish habitat. Only $200,000 (including the $25,000 spent on Little Tepee Creek) is money that Congress set aside for restoration. With lawmakers in a belt-tightening mode, agency officials don’t expect to see much more of that. Most restoration money comes from timber sales and must be spent in the vicinity of the logging. The forest’s worst environmental damage is often somewhere else, say Forest Service scientists, so it doesn’t get fixed. Money budgeted for improvements in timber sale areas, but not used for some reason, goes into the federal treasury. “A couple of years ago, we turned back $300,000,” said timber management officer Andy Anding. - Julie Titone