Kootenai Tribe completes plan for habitat restoration
The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s recently completed the “Kootenai River Habitat Restoration Project Master Plan,” which was funded by the Bonneville Power Administration.
“The master plan, which was released in July, provides a framework for a broad-scale, ecosystem-based river habitat restoration project that will be implemented in the Idaho portion of the Kootenai River,” said Susan Ireland, director of the Kootenai Tribe’s Fish and Wildlife Department. “The master plan is the first phase of a multi-phase project to plan for, design and implement habitat restoration actions to benefit Kootenai River native fish, including Endangered Species Act listed Kootenai River white sturgeon.”
During the last century, the Kootenai River basin was modified by many human actions including agricultural development, construction of flood control levees, and construction and operation of Libby Dam.
Although these modifications provided many economic and flood control benefits, over time they also severely limited the capacity of the ecosystem to provide suitable habitat for many species in the Kootenai River.
The Kootenai River and its species are central to Kootenai culture.
“Our tribal elders remind us that we Kootenai entered into a Covenant with the Creator-Spirit to guard and keep the land forever,” said tribe chairwoman Jennifer Porter. “This master plan will help lead us to a healthy ecosystem and the return of our Kootenai resources.”
The master plan was developed by the Kootenai Tribe under the guidance of the Kootenai
Tribal Council. It also involved a collaborative effort that included technical and policy level
participation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville
Power Administration, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
and the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
In developing the plan, the tribe also sought and incorporated input from numerous technical experts. The U.S. Geological Survey, in particular, has provided extensive information about the Kootenai River, which has been critical to the development of the master plan.
Additionally, communities along the Kootenai River were briefed during the master plan development through the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative and other community groups.
“It is through sovereign collaboration and community outreach that we can ensure all governments with responsibility to the Kootenai ecosystem are working together in a way that makes sense for our communities,” said tribal vice chairperson Kym Cooper.
The Tribe’s Master Plan provides a detailed analysis of the factors limiting ecosystem function
and management and infrastructure constraints for different river reaches within the project
area.
Based on this analysis, the master plan presents specific restoration strategies for each
river reach that are designed to address those limiting factors and then identifies a suite of
actions that could be combined to implement the restoration strategy for each reach.
The master plan also includes an analysis of how effective different habitat restoration actions
would be, either as individual stand-alone actions, or combinations of actions.
“One of the interesting things we learned through this master plan is that it is unlikely
that any single action, for instance increasing flow or just putting substrate in the river, will be
able to adequately address the broad range of limiting factors,” Ireland said. “ You need to combine a bunch of different actions together to solve the complex problems we’re looking at in the Kootenai River. In the Master Plan we present a framework for combining multiple actions for maximum benefit.”
The Kootenai River Habitat Restoration Project is also designed to compliment and enhance the
benefits derived from related projects being implemented by the tribe and other entities. In
particular, the project is an essential companion to the tribe’s conservation aquaculture
program at the Tribal Sturgeon Hatchery near Bonners Ferry, which currently is preventing
extinction of Kootenai River white sturgeon while habitat restoration is planned and
implemented.
In addition to this habitat restoration plan, the tribe will be completing the “Kootenai River Native Fish Conservation Aquaculture Master Plan” in early August. This document will describe a number of critically needed upgrades to the Kootenai Sturgeon Hatchery as well as providing the conceptual design for a proposed new hatchery facility (the Twin Rivers Hatchery) that would be located at the confluence of the Moyie and Kootenai rivers on tribally owned lands.
The tribe anticipates the Kootenai River Habitat Restoration Project will be implemented in
sequenced phases over a number of years with the first round of project components targeted
for implementation beginning in 2012.
The plan and additional support documentation are available at the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s Web site: http://www.kootenai.org/fish.html.