local adaptations that involve spawning in discrete areas, tributary use by early life- 

 stages, large home ranges, extensive migrations at higher flows, and seasonal use of 

 larger, more productive river habitats. Fluvial bull trout also require complex habitats, 

 colder water, lower sediment and more tributary access than currently exists in many 

 areas of the Blackfoot Watershed. Stream resident bull trout require similar 

 environments and complete their life cycle in tributary streams. Adfluvial bull trout 

 occupy the Clearwater chain of lakes and migrate to tributaries for spawning and rearing. 



Fluvial bull trout, a native charr capable of attaining large size, inhabit -125 miles 

 of the Blackfoot River mainstem. Densities remain very low in the upper river, but 

 increase downstream of the North Fork at mile 54. Outside of the Clearwater River 

 drainage, bull trout occupy approximately 25% of the drainage or approximately 355 

 miles of stream. Most bull trout spawning streams (Gold Creek, Dunham Creek, 

 Monture Creek, Copper Creek, and the North Fork of the Blackfoot River) support 

 migratory fluvial fish, although some streams (Poorman, Cottonwood and Belmont 

 Creeks) seem to support predominately stream resident bull trout. Migratory bull trout 

 use the larger, colder streams north of the Blackfoot River and larger, more productive 

 river reaches. Fluvial bull trout reproduce in only a few discrete groundwater-fed 

 spawning sites and seek cold-water refuge during periods of river warming. Juvenile 

 rearing of fluvial fish can occur in the small and cold, non-spawning tributaries, in 

 addition to the larger spawning streams and Blackfoot River. 



Bull trout recovery began in the Blackfoot Watershed in 1990 when the FWP 

 Commission adopted basin-wide catch-and-release regulations. Recovery then expanded 

 in the 1 990s with an emphasis on improving fish passage, restoring degraded habitat, and 

 screening irrigation diversions in "'core area" (Gold Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Monture 

 Creek and North Fork) watersheds (Pierce et al. 2001). In 1998, bull trout in the 

 Columbia River 



drainage were listed 

 as threatened under 

 the Endangered 



Species Act (ES A). In 

 2003, the USFWS 

 designated proposed 

 critical habitat for 

 bull trout for the 

 mainstem Blackfoot 

 River and primary 

 tributaries of all core 

 area watersheds, 



including all major 

 spawning and rearing 

 areas therein. In 

 2005, the USFWS 

 designated critical 



habitat for bull trout. This recent designation excluded all federal and private industrial 

 forestlands and all major fluvial bull trout spawning and rearing areas within the 



140 

 120 



100 



E 



3 



80 



60 



40 



20 



00 



a> 



s 



CM 



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in 



at o> 



00 



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Figure 2. Bull trout redd counts in index sections of three primary 

 spawning streams, 1989-2005. 



