The Kootenai River drainage was divided into 39 wildlife units 

 along natural habitat boundaries (Table 17). Although only seven 

 percent of the units received a Class I final resource value, 44 

 percent earned species ratings of Class II. Twenty-three units (59 

 percent) achieved species value of Class II or better, reflecting 

 consistently high, although not always outstanding, wildlife 

 values. 



Chief reasons for the Kootenai's consistently high species 

 values are the frequent occurrences of habitats important for 

 grizzly bears, bald eagles, and big game. Nearly 72 percent of the 

 Kootenai's assessment units contained habitat essential for 

 grizzly bear recovery. These units included all of the east and 

 west drainages of the Cabinet Mountains, the entire Yaak drainage, 

 the Wigwam River, portions of the Tobacco River, and Lake 

 Koocanusa tributaries. 



Near the Idaho border. Lake Creek harbors both bald eagle 

 nesting and grizzly bear habitat. Important bald eagle wintering 

 areas are found along the entire Kootenai River as well as along 

 portions of the Fisher, Tobacco, and Libby Creek drainages. Nearly 

 two thirds of the Kootenai's units include essential winter range 

 for white-tailed deer, mule deer, and/or elk. Moderate to high 

 populations of moose and black bear also occur in 85 to 95 

 percent of the units, respectively. The highest game species 

 values in the Kootenai were assigned to two upper Yaak units and 

 to the tributaries along the east side of Lake Koocanusa. 



In addition to threatened/endangered and big game species, the 

 Kootenai is a summer home for one of the most unique and 

 interesting Montana wildlife species of special concern, the rare 

 harlequin duck. Of all the waterfowl species, harlequins breed 

 exclusively on turbulent Whitewater streams. Traveling more than 

 600 miles up the Columbia River basin from the rocky Pacific 

 coast, breeding harlequins make their summer homes in the 

 turbulent waters and thundering rapids of northwest Montana. 

 Their congregation point along the Kootenai is Kootenai Falls, the 

 only known accessible site outside of Glacier National Park where 

 harlequin ducks can be regularly observed. The falls receive more 

 than 64,000 visitor days of use per year. Because harlequins are 

 long-lived with relatively small stable populations, they are 

 vulnerable to habitat alterations. Kootenai Falls and many of 

 Montana's high gradient streams where harlequins may breed have 

 been proposed for micro-hydro and larger hydroelectric 

 development. 



One of the few remaining native bighorn populations in 

 northwest Montana presently occupies Lake Koocanusa's east face. 

 The native Ural-Tweed herd is slightly smaller and darker, and 

 morphologically distinct from most other bighorn sheep populations 

 in the Rocky Mountains. Due to its isolation in the undeveloped 

 northwest corner of the state, this herd did not undergo the major 

 declines in the early 1900s that eliminated most of Montana's 



38 



