by Michael Howell
The Bitterroot National Forest has recently ramped up its stream and fishery restoration efforts by hiring a new Fisheries and Watershed Program Manager and backing her up with an “Aquatic Team” consisting of multiple hydrologists, fishery biologists, forestry technicians and a natural resource specialist.
According to Fisheries and Watershed Program Manager Brandy Langum, her team has a wide range of expertise and a lot of experience in the various elements involved in improving water quality, fishery habitat, stream hydrology, groundwater storage and riparian vegetation.
Langum said the team is currently focusing on six different watersheds across the forest and building on past restoration efforts, gathering and assessing the available data, and planning a more robust program for continuing monitoring and restoration efforts in those drainages.
She emphasized that they are working closely with existing partners including the Clark Fork Coalition, Trout Unlimited, Bitterroot Water Partnership and the Bitterroot River Protection Association. They are also coordinating with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the Natural Resource and Conservation Service and Ravalli County.
“We are also hoping to involve local landowners in these areas,” said Langum.
Langum said that one aspect of stream restoration they were looking at closely was improving ground water storage by slowing down the flow of streams as they move through the watershed, allowing more water to seep into the aquifer rather than simply running off. This benefits late summer flows when streams begin drying up as this stored groundwater makes its way back to the surface. It means not only more water in late summer but cooler water.
The key to making these alterations lies in analyzing the existing natural processes at work in each drainage and doing what they can to enhance those processes. It may mean placement of large woody debris in the streams, for instance. She said they have a lot of tools in the tool box to accomplish this.
One way stream flows are naturally slowed down is by beaver dams. She said the Forest Service is using a new computer modeling program called the Beaver Restoration and Assessment Tool (BRAT). The BRAT model helps build realistic expectations about what beaver dam-building may achieve locally on a given stream, and also helps scale-up those expectations at the watershed level. BRAT model outputs can be used to initialize restoration and conservation planning and can also support initial conceptual design and siting of specific restoration actions. BRAT model outputs can also aid with expectation management, and conservation and restoration prioritization.
Langum said that she has seen the success of building these “beaver analogues” in attracting beavers to an area on other forests.
“These analogues are not meant to be long term,” said Langum. “They are installed just to get things started.”
Another major concern in relation to fish habitat is the buildup of sediment in stream beds. This is another naturally occurring process, but too much sediment can obstruct natural stream flows and destroy fisheries. Part of their work focuses upon improving the infrastructure that may be making significant contributions of sediment to the streams. This may involve upgrading existing culverts that may be obstructing fish movements. It may mean road work to improve drainage by containing and directing flows, or it may mean decommissioning roads or moving them away from the streams.
The aquatic team is also looking at restoration efforts aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of large, intense catastrophic wildfires which can burn so hot that the soil is sterilized, greatly impeding the forest’s ability to recover naturally from a wildfire.
“This mainly involves pro-active management aimed at reducing the potential for catastrophic fires,” said Langum. It involves thinning over-stocked areas and using planned burns and creating shaded fuel breaks. Planting trees in burned areas is another tool in the box as well as planting willows, snowberry, alder and dogwood to revegetate riparian areas.
According to Langum, the need for such restoration efforts is particularly high on this forest due to the number and severity of some of the fires over that last several years. She points to the Tolan Creek drainage which they are currently focusing on. The impacts following that burn have been “devastating,” she said. Large areas have been denuded and the soil sterilized, leading to large landslides dumping tons of sediment into the stream. They are working to stabilize those areas.
“It won’t come back in our lifetime,” said Langum, “but we are doing what we can to speed up the process.”
Nolan Platt, a hydrologist on the aquatic team, said that temperature data from streams across the forest over the last 30 years show that the water on the forest is growing warmer across the board. He hopes by continued and expanded monitoring to be able to assess the results of the kind of restoration work they are planning. He is optimistic.
“Ideally, with a lot of proactive work, we will not have another Tolan,” said Platt. “By being proactive and reducing the chances of catastrophic fires, by enhancing the chances and the speed for natural recovery through restoration work, we can make a difference.”
Bitterroot National Forest “Aquatic Team” members are Stevensville Ranger District Fisheries Biologist Chris Craft, Forest Natural Resource Specialist Anna Fearon, Forestry Technician-Aquatics Doug Platt, North Zone Hydrologist Zach Trainor, Fisheries and Watershed Program Manager Brandy Langum, West Fork RD Fisheries Biologist Marael Leslie, Forestry Technician-Aquatics Ben Hays, Forestry Technician-Aquatics Nathan Olson, Darby/Sula RD Fisheries Biologist Ben Armstrong and Forest Hydrologist Nolan Platt, South Zone Hydrologist Kayla Jamerson and Stevensville RD Natural Resource Specialist Lauren Patten.
Langum is leading her team of 11 specialists in planning and implementing major restoration projects across the forest. Langum, who started work last November, arrived with 17 years of experience as a fisheries biologist in Oregon, most recently working on the Siuslaw National Forest in the Coastal Range of Oregon and prior to that on the Willamette and Malheur forests. Prior to that she worked for the Fish and Wildlife Department in the state of California.
“I’m excited to be here and to have such an experienced team to work with as we build upon the past efforts at watershed improvement here in the Bitterroot,” said Langum. She said she plans to work closely with the established organizations in the valley that are already partnering with the forest and invites anyone interested to join in the common effort at improving and enhancing the local watersheds.