PressRelease:
Powder Basin Watershed Council
Activities Report
Daly Creek and Brownlee Reservoir Subbasin Watershed Tour
June 10, 2009

Tour attendees met at the Senior Center/Community Connections parking lot in Baker City. We departed Baker at 8:30 am. En route to Daly Creek we had a free-ranging discussion of the Keating Area, Virture Flats cattle management, Thief Valley reservoir, Powder River irrigation issues and other topics with contributions from many people on the bus.
At Daly Creek we were met by Gary Holmstead, the Idaho Power manager for Daly Creek ranch. Jim Young and Bruce Lindley joined us from Halfway. Gary outlined the property, wildlife and conservation issues, and discussed Idaho Power’s initial management plans for the Daly Creek property and other recently acquired mitigation properties, including Sturgill Creek on the Idaho side of the river and various other properties in the Hells Canyon Complex area. Gary discussed issues including weed control, riparian and water quality monitoring, and management planning and future public access. Joe Hessel described a restoration project on North Fork Daly Creek that ODF carried out in 2002. Joe noted that many adjacent areas have similar problems with stream degradation, road erosion and road-stream conflicts. Gary then led the group to visit a restoration site upstream on Daly Creek.
We ate lunch at Holcomb Park on the north side of Brownlee Reservoir. Jim Young briefed the group on two upcoming projects undertaken by PBWC—the Brownlee Reservoir Subbasin assessment, and the Pine Creek Floodplain planning assessment. Craig Martell described the Snake River tributaries and grazing units the group would be visiting along Brownlee Reservoir when the tour continued after lunch. Tracy Richter and Jesse Naymik discussed some of the issues with watershed health in the Brownlee Reservoir and distributed bathometric maps of the reservoir.
The bus then departed to follow the Snake River Road along Brownlee Reservoir to Huntington. At Swedes Landing the group stopped to view Quicksand Creek. Craig Martell described the proper functioning condition (PFC) survey for this creek as functioning with upward trends. He noted that the Forsea grazing allotments have been managed with frequent rotations of livestock that appear to be contributing to the health of the stream system.
As the bus traveled along the reservoir Jesse Naymik discussed some of the issues in Brownlee Reservoir that Idaho Power is seeking to address. These problems include high water temperature, low oxygen, algae blooms and high nutrient loads in the inflowing waters. Mary Bashe and others described some of the history of sites along the river before inundation by construction of the Brownlee Dam.
At Canyon and Connor Creeks, Craig discussed some of the issues with these tributaries which have lower PFC scores than Quicksand Creek. Various options for grazing management are being explored on some of these allotments and Craig described some of the parameters for BLM grazing permit management.
Marshall McComb hosted the group for a tour of the Fox Creek property held by the nonprofit Seven Generations Land Trust. He described some of the extensive weed control and CRP fencing projects they have undertaken. Ulee Yanok described the history and some of the notable ecological values of the property including the rare examples of climax-stage river birch, mountain hackberry, and clonal box elder vegetation types. Ulee also described some of the future plans for establishing beaver demonstration sites long the creek. She noted that Bill Davis, the donor who left the Fox Creek property in trust, emphasized the value of beavers for improving the soil-water characteristics in the arid West and that, as more brush and trees grow along the creek they are exploring how to proceed with beaver and agriculture co-existence to carry out his vision of viable beaver demonstrations for the area.
After a brief rest stop at the BLM Spring Recreation Area, the bus proceeded to Huntington. We detoured south of the town to view the very active land slump that is occurring along Highway 30 between Huntington and Farewell Bend. At Farewell Bend we merged onto I-84 and headed north to Baker City. The bus arrived back at the Senior Center parking lot at 5:10 pm after a long and interesting day.

Thank you to all of the partners who helped make this tour a success: Idaho Power for site visits and great presenters, Craig Martell who discussed BLM management, Joe Hessel who talked about ODF projects, Marshall McComb who hosted us at Fox Creek, OWEB the primary funder of the PBWC, OSU Extension Service who provided the portable PA system, Community Connections of Baker County who provides affordable bus rentals, and all of the tour attendees who participated, shared information, and asked questions.
Attendance:
Name Contact Information
Dan Weitz PBWC
Gary Holmstead Idaho Power
Heidi Holmstead
Jim Young PBWC
Bruce Lindley PBWC
Tracy Richter Idaho Power, trichter@idahopower.com
Jesse Naymik Idaho Power, jnaymik@idahopower.com
Marshall McComb Fox Creek
Donna Landlon Fox Creek
Gary Yeoumans Baker City, yeoumans@thegeo.net
Tamara Wood to-error-is-human@hotmail.com
Neil Wood Baker City
Mark Morehead Idaho Power
Tim Bliss PBWC
Vickie Valenzuela PBWC
Ulee Yanok PBWC
Nadine Craft ODFW
Mary Basche “really enjoyed the tour and people”
Eric Romtvedt Retired rancher
Jerry Franké BRSWCD
Craig Martell BLM, 523-1306,
(home: rucklescreek@wildblue.net)
Sarah Young PBWC Staff
Vicki Wares PBWC Staff
Suzanne Fouty USFS
Karen Leiendecker OWEB
Joe Hessel ODF