By fall 2003, four years into the drought, bull trout spawning surveys (redd 

 counts) showed a basin-wide decline in all surveyed spawning streams (Gold, Dunham, 

 Monture and Copper Creeks and the North Fork). Compared with 2002, redd surveys in 

 index reaches of the three primary spawning streams reveal large declines in Copper 

 Creek and North Fork, where redd counts fell 73% and 41%, respectively. Monture 

 Creek, a stream less prone to drought, declined 14% compared with 2002 (Figure 4, 

 Results Part HI and IV). 



Juvenile bull trout surveys in 2002 at long-term monitoring sites of Monture 

 Creek, the North Fork, and Copper Creek showed generally stable densities in Monture 

 and Copper Creeks but a large decline in the North Fork (Results Part III). This 

 variability seems to reflect the degree to which each stream (and local population) 

 responds to the various influences of drought. The North Fork for example has high 

 juvenile bull trout production in good water years (Pierce et al. 2001), but very low 

 production under extreme low water, compared with Monture Creek where more stable 

 flows in drought years result in more stable densities and consistent juvenile production 

 (Results Part III). Unlike Monture Creek, the North Fork suffers flow deficiencies in 

 critical migration corridors (intermittent flows on Kleinschmidt Flat) that inhibit the out- 

 migration of bull trout. In the case of Copper Creek, an intense wildfire in 2003 

 compounded by fire-fighting activities at the bull trout-spawning site has likely 

 exacerbated that decline. 



Bull trout population surveys in upper Cottonwood Creek indicate low, but stable 

 densities. Dunham Creek is showing early signs of recovery following the correction of a 

 severe erosion problem immediately upstream of a small spawning site (Results Part III). 

 We also observed adult bull trout in Grentier Spring Creek, a restored tributary to the 

 upper Blackfoot River near Lincoln for the first fime. 



In 2002 and 2003, habitat restoration in bull trout streams included: 1) eliminating 

 the last open irrigation ditch on Cottonwood Creek; 2) improving fish passage at 

 diversions on Dunham and upper Cottonwood Creeks; 3) flow enhancement and grazing 

 management changes on the North Fork Blackfoot River; 4) continued habitat 

 improvements on Dunham and Rock Creeks; and 5) an instream flow and habitat 

 restoration project on lower Poorman Creek, along with fish passage improvements in 

 upper Poorman Creek. 



We assessed potential problems for bull trout on two sites in the National Forest 

 in 2003, which included a channel stability/erosion problem on upper Cottonwood Creek 

 and a defunct diversion on Snowbank Creek. The Cottonwood Creek problem involved 

 channel instability caused by flood water through a contracted opening of an undersized 

 culvert, resulting in severe channel downcutting and a release of high volumes of fine 

 sediment (Dave Rosgen, personal communication) into a bull trout rearing area (Pierce et 

 al. 2002, Results Part III). Upper Cottonwood Creek runs subsurface within a short 

 distance of entering this unstable section of channel, thereby isolating fish between the 

 intermittent reach and the perched culvert (Results Part III). The Snowbank Creek 

 problem, located in the Copper Creek drainage near a key bull trout-spawning site, 

 involves severe dewatering below a defunct diversion that also entrains WSCT. This 

 problem, if corrected, should increase flows in bull trout spawning and rearing areas and 

 potentially improve migration corridors in the Landers Fork. 



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