INTRODUCTION 



Northern Lights, Inc. (NLI), a rural electric cooperative based in 

 Sandpomt, Idaho, submitted an application to the Montana Department of 

 Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) in 1980 to build a hydroelectric 

 dam and generating plant, known as the Kootenai River Project, in the 

 Kootenai Falls area of Lincoln County, Montana. In 1978, NLI contracted DNRC 

 to conduct a baseline wildlife investigation in the project area. The 

 results of that study, completed in September 1979, were published later that 

 year (DNRC 1979). 



To keep the wildlife data base current and to determine the nature of 

 year-to-year variation in wildlife use of the project area, NLI contracted 

 with DNRC in October 1979 to continue pre-certification wildlife monitoring 

 (see DNRC 1979 for a study plan) . This study would provide a data base for 

 documenting project-related impacts and determining the success of mitigation 

 and compensation programs, if the Board of Natural Resources issues a 

 certificate for the site. 



This First Annual Report documents results from the first year of the 

 Kootenai Falls wildlife monitoring study (September 2, 1979, through 

 September 1, 1980). The area monitored in this study was the same as that 

 inventoried during the original baseline study (DNRC 1979, pp. 2-3), although 

 some surveys also were conducted along U.S. Highway 2 between Libby and Troy. 



