IDAHO — The Wildfire Crisis Strategy emphasizes tribal involvement and partnership in co-stewardship of tribal homelands. Fuel breaks are an important piece in the overall strategy to reduce wildfire impacts to communities, infrastructure and critical natural resources. The Knock on Wood project incorporates all of these things into a collaborative riparian restoration project. Healthy riparian areas create natural fuel breaks and protect fish habitat which is important to the Nez Perce Tribe and the forest.

The Forest Service, in partnership with the Nez Perce Tribe, utilized large wood materials from log decks created by fuel break construction during the Snow Fire of 2021. These wood structures were installed to improve habitat for Snake River Basin steelhead trout, an important species for the Nez Perce Tribe and the Forest. Using a self-loading log truck, the trees were transported from the decks to six sites along the mainstream of Lolo Creek.

While the focus will be on fish bearing streams, project activities may also occur in headwaters where improvements to hydrologic function will benefit fish habitat lower in the sub-watershed. The project area encompasses approximately 78,500 acres in the Lolo Creek watershed within the Clearwater River subbasin on the Lochsa Ranger District.

A winch was used in conjunction with a mini excavator or self-loader to move the logs into the stream channel from the existing road prism, with minimal ground and vegetation disturbance. The logs were placed as far into the creek as possible from the road using the self-loader and mini excavator.

Habitat complexity has been identified as a limiting factor for aquatic species due to past management activities in the Lolo Creek drainage. Project outcomes include increased channel stability, rearing habitat, pool formation, spawning gravel deposition, channel complexity, hiding cover, low velocity areas and floodplain function. Project activities accounted for site specific conditions such as bank full width, stream discharge rates and channel types. Riparian planting may occur 100 feet above and below the structures in the following season to address any erosion that could result from the stream adjusting to the structures or to provide additional habitat complexity. 

Nez Perce Tribal and Nez Perce/Clearwater National Forest staff worked together to accomplish this mutually beneficial work. Habitat improvement projects in critical watersheds are an important piece of the recovery plan for endangered fish such as the Snake River Basin steelhead trout. Knock on Wood will improve adult spawning and juvenile rearing habitat in federally designated critical habitat for Snake River Basin steelhead trout and Spring Chinook salmon.

Current trends in estimated natural-origin steelhead adult escapement into Lolo Creek are at historic lows, and recent modeling by the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resource Management indicates the Lolo Creek population may be at or below the NOAA Quasi-Extinction Threshold (50 or fewer spawners on the spawning grounds for four consecutive years) by 2025. These trends are a call to action for increased restoration in the Lolo Creek watershed to avoid extinction of this iconic Idaho species and to protect treaty resources of the Nez Perce Tribe.