In 2001, the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Blackfoot Challenge, 

 Chutney Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in cooperation with the Montana 

 Fish, Wildlife and Parks developed a fisheries-based tributary scorecard and ranking 

 criteria designed to prioritize potential restoration opportunities on Blackfoot River 

 tributaries. We based priorities on biological attributes of streams and social and 

 financial considerations. 



We ranked all 83 impaired tributaries by total score, and also stratified all streams 

 by restoration (project streams) or non-restoration (non-project streams) status. We then 

 ranked project and non-project streams by: 1) total rank, 2) biological rank, 3) native 

 species rank (bull trout and WSCT fields), 4) sport fishery value, 5) potential to increase 

 instream flow to the Blackfoot River, 6) potential for downstream water quality 

 improvements, and 7) social and financial considerations. 



It is important to note that our ranking criteria does not consider many complex 

 restoration-related issues, such as: 1) fisheries potential of sites, 2) potential contribution 

 to connected systems, 3) severity of impacts to other systems, 4) population size, 5) 

 native and non-native species interactions (e.g. WSCT genetics), 6) numerical water 

 quality standards and criteria, or 7) industrial-scale timber harvesting practices, public 

 land or hard-rock mine drainage issues, and 8) possibly other specific agency programs 

 geared toward fisheries and water quality improvements. As such, this prioritization does 

 not replace imperiled native fish recovery (e.g. ESA, Habitat Conservation Plans) 

 programs or water quality planning (319, TMDL and Best Management Practices, 

 Superfimd) efforts. Rather, this prioritization attempts to guide the limited resources of 

 the Blackfoot Cooperators by providing a priority list of biologically important but 

 impaired streams located primarily on private lands. Because priorities are stratified by 

 several criteria, many priority categories overlap closely with any number of specific 

 resource (public and private) conservation programs, including those outlined above. 

 Where overlap occurs, we welcome cooperation and assistance in this endeavor. 



This document is intended to be a guide for prioritizing restoration activities, 

 however, good restoration opportunities may occasionally occur among the lowest 

 priority streams, prompting restoration actions. Report objectives are to provide a 

 hierarchical and biologically based series of restoration priorities for future habitat 

 restoration work, both within and beyond the current focus area, based upon our best 

 current information. We recognize unique restoration opportunities may be presented, 

 that priorities shift, and that continued input Irom landowners and managers will help 

 guide the Blackfoot River Restoration Initiative. 



The following table summarizes the 83 impaired streams included within this 

 report, and is sorted by priority rank and total score (Table 1). For the remainder of the 

 report, we also prioritized project and non-project streams separately {see Results Part I 

 and II). 



