NOTE TO CONTRACT OFFICER:  Please send contract documents to Jannice Richardson, Administrative Contact and Matt Boyer, Contract Manager.

Subbasin:  Flathead.  This project conducts mitigation actions in the Flathead River headwaters downstream to Flathead Lake, including lakes within the subbasin boundary.

Project Background:
In 1991, Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) published the Fisheries Mitigation Plan for Losses Attributable to the Construction and Operation of Hungry Horse Dam (MFWP and CSKT 1991).  This Mitigation Plan presented fisheries losses, mitigation options, and recommendations to protect, mitigate, and enhance resident fish and aquatic habitat impacted by the construction and operation of Hungry Horse Dam.  The Northwest Power and Conservation Council (Council; formerly the Northwest Power Planning Council) approved the loss statement: including annual losses of 250,000 juvenile bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and 65,000 juvenile westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi), plus 124 km of critical, low gradient spawning and rearing habitat that was inundated and lost subsequent to the filling of Hungry Horse Reservoir.  The Council then directed MFWP and CSKT to immediately develop an Implementation Plan, which was adopted for Hungry Horse Dam (MFWP and CSKT 1993).  On-the-ground mitigation activities began in 1992.  This project is one of a few federally funded, Columbia River mitigation projects carrying out a plan to offset a Council-adopted loss statement.  Fisheries losses were to be offset by modifying dam operations, restoring or reconnecting habitat, reducing negative non-native species interactions, and implementing hatchery (native fish conservation) technology and offsite mitigation.  

The Council subsequently adopted the Flathead Subbasin Plan in 2004 (CSKT and MFWP 2004).  The federal action agency's 4-H plan is designed to recover Columbia River fish species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (Federal Caucus 2000).  Our mitigation program is directed by a similar scientific framework to offset fisheries losses at various spatial scales, descending from basin-wide mitigation requirements to site-specific actions.  Mitigation projects are selected and prioritized based on decision pathways described in the Flathead Subbasin Plan (2004), and specific objectives and tasks are described in detail in the contract and statement of work.  This project will focus on improving conditions for native fish survival and recovery in the upper Flathead River and Lake system.  From July 2019 through June 2020 our work will focus on assessing population level effects of dam operations on native fishes (bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, and mountain whitefish), implementing habitat improvement and fish passage projects, and quantifying and mitigating deleterious effects of non-native aquatic species on native fishes.  Specific project descriptions and their objectives are explained herein.

Hungry Horse Dam, constructed in 1952, flooded hundreds of kilometers of native fish habitat (South Fork Flathead River and its tributaries).  The purposes of the dam are water storage and hydropower production.  BPA markets the hydroelectric power produced at Hungry Horse Dam.  Per the Northwest Power Act of 1980, BPA is required to fund fish and wildlife conservation work to mitigate for the effect of the dams on those resources.  The losses to fish and wildlife habitat were quantified in a report written jointly by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and the Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai in 1991.  This year’s contract implements that continuing mitigation.  MFWP conducts fisheries research, habitat improvement and fisheries protection to implement the BPA Fish and Wildlife Program in the Flathead River Basin.

This contract request proposes to implement this year’s work under Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks’ Hungry Horse Mitigation project 1991-019-03.  From July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020 they propose the following work:

- Continuation of research, sampling and analysis of westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout genetics and water quality indicators in the Flathead basin, at the same locations as previous contracts per WE C, D, E, G, H, and I-L.  These work elements are continuations of both mid- and long-term research and monitoring of native and nonnative fish in the basin.

- Continued collection of westslope cutthroat trout to rear in a safe environment in Sekokini Springs Hatchery. Last year, fish were collected from Danaher and Sullivan Creeks.  This year, they will be collected from Danaher and Emery Creeks.

- Continuation of bull trout habitat data collection per WE N, O, and P.

- Improvement of aquatic and riparian habitat in the Flathead basin as described in WE F, M, and R-AE.

- Continuation of law enforcement patrols to reduce poaching of bull trout (WE Q).

- Continued support of water quality monitoring in lakes in the Flathead Valley (WE AF).