Project History:
The Salmon Subbasin Management Plan identified the Little Salmon River as severely impacted in terms of hydrology and habitat fragmentation (Northwest Power and Conservation Council, 2004). Implementation of this project will address objective 12 rehabilitate connectivity, strategy 12A1 reconnect waterways, of the Salmon Subbasin Management Plan. The Squaw Creek culvert replacement project was identified in 2005 by the US Bureau of Reclamation liaison biologist assigned to the Little Salmon River to coordinate conservation measures for the 2004 remand version of the FCRPS Biological Opinion.
Culvert Replacement Project Fiscal Year 2007 Summary:
The project will be initiated and fully completed in the 2007 calendar year.
This project will remove an existing perched culvert at stream mile 2.0 in Squaw Creek, tributary to the Little Salmon River, approximately 2.3 miles southwest of Riggins, Idaho and replace it with a bottomless arch culvert. The project will also include rehabilitation of a tributary channel that enters Squaw Creek over the stream bank immediately above the culvert to be replaced which will reconnect the tributary to itself and to Squaw Creek. The project has been designed, costs estimated, permits and environmental compliance completed by the US Bureau of Reclamation' s Pacific Northwest Region Design Group Boise and Grangeville, Idaho staff as part of Reclamation' s implementation of conservation measures program. The request for Bonneville Power Administration funding is needed to comply with the non-federal cost share requirement for the Idaho Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund portion of project funding. Construction is scheduled to begin July 30, 2007 and it is estimated that the instream portion of the project will last at most two weeks. A fish salvage operation will be conducted by volunteers coordinated by the Reclamation liaison biologist prior to the dewatering of the stream.
A subcontractor will be retained for construction, the Idaho County Roads Department will manage the project, Reclamation will provide engineering and biological assistance during construction, Idaho Department of Fish and Game will conduct pre and post construction fish surveys, and the Idaho Soil Conservation Commission will assist Idaho County with funding contract administration. The culvert will be maintained by the county roads department as part of their transportation system. No funding will be requested beyond 2007 for this project. Other funding for this project has also been secured from the following: The Idaho Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund through the Idaho Office of Species Conservation ($92,000), American Rivers - NOAA Fisheries ($15,000), and The Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation ($5,000).
Affected Species:
Spring/summer Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytcha) were listed as threatened in 1992 (Federal Register Vol. 57, 14653). The Distinct Population Segment designated by NOAA Fisheries is the Snake River, the Major Population Group is the South Fork Salmon River, and the population name is the Little Salmon River. Critical habitat was designated for this subbasin in 1993 as all river and tributary habitat downstream of natural barriers (Federal Register Vol. 58, 68543). The proposed project lies within designated critical habitat and Essential Fish Habitat for spring/summer Chinook salmon. Chinook salmon had not been documented in Squaw Creek upstream of the old City of Riggins diversion dam at stream mile 0.25. The diversion dam was removed in December 2005 by the city, restoring access to juvenile Chinook salmon rearing habitat. Idaho Department of Fish and Game surveyed the creek before that project in 2005 and counted 13 Chinook salmon averaging 82 mm below the dam. The mainstem Little Salmon River downstream of Squaw Creek would be used as juvenile rearing and adult migration habitat (BLM 2000). The population in the Little Salmon is supplemented by hatchery fish released at the Rapid River Hatchery.
Steelhead trout (O. mykiss) were listed as threatened under the ESA in 1997 (Federal Register Vol. 62, 43937). The Distinct Population Segment designated by NOAA Fisheries is the Snake River, the Major Population Group is the Salmon River, and the population name is the Little Salmon. The population in the Little Salmon is supplemented with hatchery fish annually released in the mainstem Little Salmon. Adult steelhead are observed in Squaw Creek. The most recent fish survey work by Idaho Department of Fish and Game in 2005 counted 37 steelhead above the City of Riggins diversion dam (below the culvert) averaging 88 mm and 53 steelhead below the dam averaging 75 mm.
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