drinking water supply is listed as "nonsupportive" of uses for this reach. The Montana 

 Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP)in cooperation with the Deer Lodge 

 office of the USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS), has assembled 

 funding from a variety of sources for a restoration project which will be developed into a 

 Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nutrients and sediments. The goals of the 

 MDFVVP restoration plan include: habitat improvement for spawning trout (primarily 

 brown trout), riparian habitat restoration, and removal offish barriers to increase 

 connectivity of Lost Creek with mainstem populations of trout (Reiland, 1999). Specific 

 actions (described in greater detail in the next section) include a number of restoration 

 and management strategies intended to improve fish habitat, such as offstream water 

 development, corral relocation, stream bank revegetation, riparian exclosures and 

 pastures, conservation easements, and the return of several channelized reaches to 

 historic meandering channels. 



Considering the existing conditions on Lost Creek and the scope of the proposed 

 restoration, habitat improvements will likely result in reductions in nutrient loading and 

 sediment delivery to Lost Creek and the mainstem of the Clark Fork River. Therefore the 

 goals of this thesis project include the following: 



1 ) Assess current conditions in Lost Creek including kinds and degrees of 

 impairment; 



2) Provide baseline data to evaluate benefits of restoration work; 



3) Evaluate Lost Creek as a nutrient source to the Clark Fork River; 



4) Evaluate nutrient sources along Lost Creek; 



5) Make specific recommendations for TMDL development for Lost Creek, and 

 how it should relate to the Clark Fork VNRP. 



Description of Lost Creek Basin and History 



Lost Creek is 37.5 miles long and drains approximately 62 square miles. A 

 tributary to the Upper Clark Fork of the Columbia River, Lost Creek has a long history of 

 environmental impacts. Once a part of the more extensive Mt. Haggin ranch, the Lost 

 Creek basin has been the site of over 100 years of intensive management, originally 

 sheep ranching and more recently cattle ranching. Irrigated crop production resulted in 

 dramatic hydrologic modification with numerous irrigation withdrawals, including a 

 diversion from adjacent Warm Springs Creek into Lost Creek. Dutchman Creek, a 

 tributary to Lost Creek was also diverted from its original channel into an impoundment 

 designed for irrigation water storage. Other impacts include unsewered residential 

 development near the town of Lost Creek and upland soils contaminated by nearby 

 Anaconda's now defunct copper smelting facilities. In addition, the Ueland Ranch has 

 been irrigating hay fields with Anaconda's municipal wastewater since 1995. Water is 

 stored in ponds located near the ranch's calving facility (near sample site 3 on Map 1 ) 

 and is pumped to sprinkler systems on the north side of the Lost Creek drainage. This 

 system includes five groundwater infiltration basins which receive excess water from the 

 storage ponds approximately 2-3 months during the spring when wastewater exceeds 

 irrigation demand. 



