The primary goal of the Fort Hall Habitat Restoration project is to restore, enhance, and protect Fort Hall Indian Reservation (Reservation) streams so they can support native fish populations at near historic levels. The Fort Hall Bottoms area provides a range of ecosystem services important to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, including sustaining populations of Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri) and other native fish. The range and distribution of Yellowstone cutthroat trout have been impacted in many tributaries of the Snake River by competition with other salmonids and by habitat degradation. Streams on the Reservation have been negatively affected (i.e. loss of riparian vegetation, down cutting, and lateral scouring of stream banks) by a variety of sources, including livestock grazing, American Falls Reservoir (AFR) construction and operations, and the 1976 Teton Dam collapse.  Damage to stream banks from years of unrestricted grazing continues to be a problem on Reservation streams. Rapid flooding and drafting of American Falls Reservoir in conjunction with seasonal freeze-thaw cycles is a cause of stream bank failures on lowland Reservation streams.  Negative impacts from stream bank failures include, but are not limited to:  widened channels, a reduction in riparian vegetation and in-stream cover; increased summer water temperatures, and deposition of fines on critical spawning and rearing substrates.  

Stream restoration will continue to be the focus of the Fort Hall restoration work on the Bottoms in this FY 2025 contract.

The Cable Bridge project is located along Spring Creek, which is a spring-fed tributary to the American Falls Reservoir (AFR).  This project involves the enhancement of approximately 2,500 linear feet of Spring Creek near its confluence with Big Jimmy Creek. The project reach is situated near the upstream limit of the AFR’s backwater influence, which causes flow patterns to vary depending on the reservoir elevations.  The transitional character of the project reach results in habitat degradation largely caused by excessive deposition of suspended sediments, channel widening, bank erosion, bank sloughing, and the accumulation of fine sediment in the stream system. These conditions are aggravated by the unstable conditions of the site’s streambanks in combination with the rapidly varying pool elevation of the AFR.

Implementation work in this contract will complete restoration of the Cable Bridge reach of Spring Creek (Work Elements H. 29 and I. 47). An important culvert replacement adjacent to the main Cable Bridge Project Area will also be implemented under this contract (Work Element G. 184).  Construction began in late summer-fall 2023, continued in the FY 2024 contract (84068 REL 8) and will continue and be completed in this FY 2025 contract. Final project designs for the Cable Bridge Construction project are uploaded to this contract in CB Fish.

Annual monitoring of Yellowstone cutthroat trout densities in project areas will continue as in previous contracts. Monitoring will also include post-implementation data collection of some silt and water depth readings to compare pre- and post-construction site conditions.  

This contract also includes out-year planning.