- 42 - 

 A. Kootenai River Basin 



The Kootenai River drainage basin is in the northwest corner of Montana. 



Its headwaters are located in Canada. The boundaries of this area are the 



Whitefish Range and Salish Mountains to the east, the Cabinet Mountains 



to the south, and the Purcell Mountains to the north. The mouth of the 



Kootenai River is on the Columbia River in British Columbia. 



There are 2.4 million acres within the Montana segment of the Kootenai 

 watershed. Approximately 2.3 million acres are forest lands under federal, 

 state, industrial and small private ownership, with the USPS being the 

 largest landowner. About 53 percent of this acreage is commercial forest 

 land. All but four streams in the basin are classified as B-Di streams 

 by DHES. 



Forestry practices are the largest contributors to non-point stream 

 pollution in the Kootenai River drainage basin (DHES, 1974). The Lincoln 

 County Conservation Dsitrict (1977) estimated that less than two percent 

 of commercial timberlands (2,084 acres) can be classed as contributing 

 to non-point pollution due to soil erosion. Of these problem areas, 

 approximately 70 percent were considered correctible. 



The USPS and DF&G have also identified several drainages where silvi- 

 cultural activities have either created water quality problems or aggravated 

 and contributed to an existing problem. There have been no detailed 

 investigations of long-term effects from timber harvesting in these water- 

 sheds. To simplify discussion of water quality problems, the following 

 designations were made: 



Upper Kootenai River Canadian border to Pisher River 



Tobacco River headwaters to mouth 



