Day 4: Swimming With the Cutthroat, Idaho Panhandle National Forest

Give him a cheer

Use your lungs

Loud and clear

It’s Will Young!

Today’s adventure commenced with Will Young from the forest service meeting our group at the Devil’s Elbow campground. Some may argue that their day’s festivities began with some fly fishing, however for the group, Will kicked off the party. 

Will is a fishery biologist through formal education.   Like many of our speakers this week, on the job, he is so much more.  He often fills the shoes of a hydrologist, soil scientist, civil engineer, project manager, and fish hydrology educator.  Over the years he has learned a lot through trial and error and has become passionate about large scale habitat restoration.   He looks at the processes above the streams and the impact of these processes on the streams.

After the introduction we headed north, pulling over to discuss last year’s fire and view a map of the “Grizzly Fire Salvage and Restoration Project Proposed Action Plan”.  Approximately 27,000 acres in this area burned last year.  Most years, a fire of this magnitude would not occur in this area.  Due to the drought over the last few year and the large number of significant fires which dwindled available resources for managing this fire, the fire grew.   In addition, the forest type has changed over the last 100 years.  The predominant tree a century ago was the white pine, a fairly fire resistant tree, however due to over harvesting and disease the white pine now only makes up about 4 % of the forest.

Will also explained that it could have been worse and we may yet see some good things come from the fire.  Some fire teams were able to come to the area.  They worked to manage the fire efficiently.  There was also an inversion which acted like a lid for the fire.  He also referred to this fire as a mosaic fire meaning that the intensities varied.  This is a positive and can help with wildlife diversity and habitat.

The reclamation plan includes the management of the burned trees.  In some area the ‘danger’ trees will be logged.  Areas with sensitive soil or riparian zones will not be logged.  In these areas the trees that could be a danger will be cut down and left for habitat.

As we continued our trek to Teepee Creek we could see numerous people enjoying the day fly fishing in the rivers and creeks.  Teepee Creek was chosen as a restoration site because the wear and tear it took from hosting a saw mill in the 1930s along with the attempts to rid the area of plants such as currents and gooseberries through the use of bulldozers.  Yikes! In the 1990s the forest service and fish and game worked together to study the fish in this creek.  They found that Teepee Creek is a major spawning ground for cutthroat.  Restoring this area includes bringing the creek back to a more natural shape, using large woody debris along the river bank, and planting in the riparian zone and surrounding area.   The restoration efforts help to make a suitable habitat to help the wildlife, particularly the cutthroat, flourish.

The west slope cutthroat trout is a key player in Coeur d’ Alene and the surrounding watersheds and has been a reoccurring topic throughout our week.  It has been significant to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the food web, fly fishers (catch and release) and fishing based businesses.  They thrive in cool clean water and therefore are an indicator species of healthy water.  Will shared that a cutthroat will lay several thousand eggs with a fry survival rate of about 5%.  Some of the eggs and fries will be eaten by other fish or macro invertebrates and some are smothered by the fine sediments like road sediment, which prevent them from getting oxygen.

Today, the forest service is in charge of multi-use management.  Not only are they supporting the flora and fauna of the area but they are also dealing with the human interaction whether it be for hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, snorkeling or a gazillion other possibilities. In other words, there are many who have a vested interest in the health of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.    Currently the forest service is working with the public, consisting of individuals, organizations, and businesses to form a plan for decommissioning some of the roads in this forest.  While sediment is normal in the creeks and rivers, the fine sediment from the roads are particularly harmful to this habitat and the cutthroat.  At this time the jammer roads used to provide access to lumber on the mountain slopes will likely be decommissioned.  They have not been used since the 1960s.

Day 4 concluded with a swim with the cutthroat and a hike along trail 20.  Snorkeling in the creeks is a common method in this area used for monitoring and studying the cutthroat trout and their habitat.  It is possible, probable, most likely, okay-for sure, that I missed the finer details Will explained since my head was already in the water.  The water was clear with a plethora of mayflies and caddisflies (aka fish food).  The water was also frigid or, if you are a cutthroat, refreshingly habitable.  Which is the reason we were able to see several hanging out in a small shady pool resulting in one blurry photo of a whopper.  Our hike provided us a panoramic view of the meandering creek and several defined elk trails.