This project was funded by a Big Sky Watershed Corps Project Support grant from the MWCC Watershed Fund.
Project Description
Location: Yaak River in the Kootenai River Watershed
This project will restore four acres of high-value riparian habitat in northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley, stabilizing eroding riverbanks and enhancing riparian buffers. Reduced sediment pollution, lower water temperatures, and stream habitat created by this project will directly benefit one of the last remaining populations of genetically pure Columbia River Redband trout in Montana, threatened Westslope cutthroat trout, western pearlshell mussels, and many more sensitive species that depend on clean, cold water.
The Yaak Valley Forest Council (YVFC), the Vital Ground Foundation, and volunteers will conduct riverbank and riparian restoration at three restoration sites located on the Vital Ground Foundation’s Broadie Habitat Preserve. Our aim is to measurably reduce sediment loading into the watershed by revegetating stream banks and enhancing riparian buffers. These projects support the goals of the 2015 Kootenai River Basin Watershed Restoration Plan and Montana’s State Wildlife Action Plan, which call for reducing human-caused sedimentation to improve water quality.
The Broadie Habitat Preserve is a 215 acre parcel that includes the confluence of Lap Creek and the Yaak River in the northern Yaak Valley. Lap Creek is listed as a priority site for restoration under the 2015 Kootenai River Basin Watershed Restoration Plan and is one of only four waterways in the Yaak River watershed on the 2020 Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s list of impaired waterways due to high sediment loading. At the Broadie South Bank site, the partnership will restore approximately 198 feet of highly eroded riverbank. This bank was identified as a high-priority restoration site after a MWCC funded Bank Hazard Erosion Index (BEHI) survey completed by YVFC personnel in 2023 rated the bank as 40.45 / Very High. The bank shows a lack of native vegetation, near vertical, undercut banks, as well as impacts from cattle grazing. To stabilize this riverbank and restore natural riparian function, YVFC and volunteers will implement a top-down strategy, utilizing woody material, the planting of native vegetation, and conducting invasive weed abatement while also focusing on increased wildlife connectivity through fencing removal and the creation of a healthy riparian buffer. The two other proposed restoration sites at this location, Broadie Lap Creek and Broadie North Bank, were restored by the YVFC and Vital Ground, in 2022 and require additional invasive weed abatement and tree planting to ensure successful establishment of native riparian flora. These restoration projects will collectively restore a large section of high-quality native fish habitat in the Yaak River watershed and improve the long-term resilience of sensitive and threatened species in the Yaak Valley.
Project Outcomes and Impacts
Project in progress