For the contract year 2012, the Yankee Fork Restoration Project will develop a monitoring and evaluation plan for the Yankee Fork and begin baseline data collection consisting of water quality data, fish biomass/ and usage, physical and biological surveying, and permanent photo points. We will continue the data collection of the use of sondes, temperature thermographs, and discharge measurements with the use of a gauging stations and pressure transducers.
This includes using long term deployment of multi-parameter water quality monitors (Sondes) at five random sites: Flat Rock, Custer Bridge, Jordan Creek, West Fork Yankee Fork and the pond series 1-4. This data collection of continuous water quality will begin April and continue through November. The sondes will measure: pH, conductivity, temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen and is dependent upon the stream conditions and storm events.  Temperature data will be collected throughout the Yankee Fork and tributaries. The project installs air and water thermal data loggers beginning in April and retrieves them in November as conditions permit; within the main-stem Yankee Fork, the project will be collecting data throughout the year, commencing in February 2012 and continuing through January 2013. Additionally, the project will continue to collect discharges measurements and stage readings (manually and digitally, with the use of pressure transducers).  The pressure transducers will gather continuous water levels throughout the field season.  There will be additional sites within dredged section of the Yankee Fork; these sites will collect water levels within the ponds series 1-4 and other tributaries.
In 2011 a USGS gauging station was placed on the lower end of the Yankee Fork Salmon River; the USGS will cost share to maintain this station while publishing the data on the USGS website in 2012.
The Yankee Fork Restoration Project will work with Trout Unlimited to be a lead sponsor for the restoration actions in 2012-2013; this includes working with the Yankee Fork Interdisciplinary team to identify reaches for enhancement within the YFSR. Trout Unlimited will also be taking the lead to work with the private landowners to acquire an agreement. The YF IDT will be addressing the ISRP questions to submit prior to implementation efforts.
To fulfill the requirements of RM & E work elements and sharing data with other agencies, the project will locate all the Tribes Yankee Fork data, organize, and enter into data bases; this includes previous years data and current data.
The Team has a unique opportunity to begin implementing projects in 2012, Pond Series 2 and 3. The private land owner, Simplot, is willing to allow construction as long as it begins soon, 2012. Therefore, we are paralleling implementation and finalizing the tributary assessment; other enhancement reaches will be identified and prioritized when the assessment is completed January 2012.