the Blackfoot main stem and west side tributaries from the North 

 Fork to the Clearwater drainage, and all of the Clearwater 

 drainage. Reasons for such high values stem from the upper 

 Blackfoot's pristine habitat, its ability to support high numbers 

 of breeding and wintering eagles, its essential grizzly bear 

 habitat, its abundant populations of wintering elk, mule and 

 white-tailed deer, and its high densities of black bear and 

 terrestrial and aquatic furbearers. Gallery forests, meandering 

 river channels with abundant wetlands and numerous spring creeks 

 provide habitat for nesting ospreys, great blue heron, wintering 

 and migrating waterfowl, and river otter. The inherent high 

 species and habitat values of the Blackfoot have not gone 

 unnoticed. The MDFWP has secured approximately 50,000 acres of 

 critical big game winter range along both the Blackfoot and 

 Clearwater rivers. 



Three other river segments within the upper Clark Fork River 

 drainage meet the outstanding resource value criteria: two 

 comprise the entire Rock Creek drainage, while the third includes 

 the lower Bitterroot River between the confluences of the East and 

 West forks of the Bitterroot and Lolo Creek just south of 

 Missoula. Rock Creek's abundant big game and relatively 

 undisturbed diverse riparian habitats gave this basin its 

 outstanding resource value. In comparison, the Bitterroot main 

 stem earned its Class I status because of high quality wetlands, 

 Cottonwood forests, and numerous islands that provide important 

 habitat for wintering and migrating bald eagles, colonial nesting 

 birds, ospreys, and waterfowl. The Lee Metcalf National Wildlife 

 Refuge protects much of the excellent habitat quality along this 

 river reach. 



Recreation 



Recreational attributes and values of 92 river segments were 

 inventoried in the upper Clark Fork drainage -- nearly 1,600 miles 

 of river, or about 12 percent of the 12,528 miles studied 

 (Table 26). River managers and users rated 13 percent of the 

 drainage's river miles as Class I (Outstanding), 21 percent as 

 Class II (Substantial), 47 percent as Class III (Moderate) and 14 

 percent as having Class IV (Limited). These proportions seem to 

 indicate that the drainage has overall lower recreational value 

 than the adjacent southern drainages. But a river having moderate 

 value in Montana is still a valuable resource from a national 

 perspective. Perhaps even more important are the values of rivers 

 like the Bitterroot and Clark Fork to local and regional 

 residents . 



Their were 379 reasons given by raters for the value classes 

 they assigned, and the most frequently given reason -- comprising 

 five percent of the total responses -- was "moderate use levels." 

 This was followed closely by mixed public and private access, 

 private property, scenic quality, mountainous terrain, good 



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