Groups work to boost Potlatch steelhead run

LEWISTON – State and local agencies and northern Idaho landowners are working to bolster a run of wild steelhead that persists in the Potlatch River and its tributaries despite what biologists call harsh conditions.

The groups started the project to try to make stream flows more dependable than what now ranges from flash floods to going completely dry. Officials say there also is a shortage of woody debris and spawning habitat.

The run of wild fish is not augmented with a hatchery program.

“Those creatures are pretty damn amazing for their ability to subsist in what we think is a pretty hostile environment,” said Ed Schriever, the new Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s fisheries chief.

Others taking part in the program are the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Idaho Office of Species Conservation and Idaho Department of Lands. Some landowners also participate, including farmers and Potlatch Corp., a lumber company.

The 60-mile-long river flows through private land in its lower section, and public and private land in its upper sections.

Brett Bowersox, a biologist with Fish and Game, said monitoring of Big Bear and Little Bear creeks, both Potlatch tributaries, have found 80 to 300 adult steelhead returning each year and producing 9,000 to 12,000 juvenile fish.

“We’ve been really surprised by the number of adult steelhead that come back and the number of juvenile fish they produce,” he said.

He said the department recently began monitoring steelhead on the East Fork and West Fork of the river, where they join to form the main stem of the Potlatch.

The river is a tributary to the Clearwater, a renowned stream among steelhead anglers. The Potlatch is closed to steelhead fishing in the spring when the fish are in the river, Bowersox said.

Efforts have focused on restoring riparian habitat. In the lower part of the river that has meant using the federal Conservation Reserve Program to leave some fields unplowed and planted with native species. Biologists say that will help absorb more runoff from melting snow as well as spring rain, releasing that water more slowly over the summer so the river doesn’t go dry.

“Before agriculture you would have had more of a sponge effect on the Palouse,” said Bowersox. “More rain and snow was absorbed and seeped out through springs. Now it’s more of a sheet flow across bare ground.”

In the upper portions of the river, woody debris is being put in the river, and work is planned to form pools and riffles with gravel beds, which steelhead use for spawning.

Some members of the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District have planted trees and shrubs, fenced out cattle, and agreed to have stream channels on their lands restored.

District Manager Ken Stinson said most landowners are eager to take part.

“They remember the runs,” said Stinson.

“They remember fishing certain areas and seeing the fish come up and they would like to see them come back. Folks who haven’t been here multiple generations, when they find out steelhead can exist on their property or their area, they become motivated to see if the runs can come back.”