February 16, 2007 - Ovando, MT
By, Ryen Aasheim, Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, (406) 543-6454
Do you ever wonder where the Blackfoot River would flow if left to Mother Nature’s design? Or, where would it flow if left to human design? As usual, the answers are not black or white, but typically a mix of what makes sense for the land and the rural communities that use the land.
The Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited (BBCTU) meets these kinds of questions face-to-face as we work to restore streams, habitat and water quality. We believe that human uses including agriculture, timber and recreation mutually benefit the landscape, its rivers and streams -- and that balanced with conservation objectives, habitat can even be enhanced.
One of our most recent and largest projects took place on Ashby Creek in the Potomac Valley. Ashby Creek is a pure westslope cutthroat stream that flows eight miles into Union Creek –one of the main creeks that flows into the Blackfoot, just past McNamara’s Landing.
A significant piece of the downstream reach of Ashby Creek flows through a working ranch owned by the Hayes, a family committed to protecting open space and restoring altered habitats on their property. During the past 100 years, the downstream portion of the creek had been significantly altered as the channel had been ditched and moved out of its historic channel.
These impacts not only eliminated the sinuosity and channel pattern that once provided ideal westslope cutthroat habitat, but the channel’s new location prevented its connectivity with a regionally rare wetland. It was an ideal restoration opportunity and luckily for our chapter, some outstanding landowners and partners asked for our involvement.
Five Valleys Land Trust took the initial lead on the project and invested at least seven years to seeing the project through by securing a conservation easement on the Hayes Family Ranch that will not only protect this rather large restoration investment, but guarantee that the critical open space that surrounds Ashby Creek will remain.
This paved the way for the restoration project which was initiated in July. By the end of August, our partners had accomplished quite a project: over four miles or 15,700 feet of stream was reconstructed and moved back to its historic location and was once again connected to the wetland, 350 large woody debris structures (structures providing excellent wild trout habitat) were installed, an irrigation diversion was modified to provide fish passage upstream, and, a fish screen was installed.
The project was sealed with a volunteer revegetation day in early October, coordinated by BBCTU and Five Valleys Land Trust. Eighty different people, including students from Big Sky High School, showed up to plant 1,500 native trees and install browse protectors (to keep deer from stressing early growth of the trees). The enthusiasm of being a part of the project was evident when one high school senior said, “I can’t believe I get to be a part of a project that will actually provide real trout habitat.”
As with all of our restoration projects in the Blackfoot, many different partners came together to meet objectives of increasing pure westslope cutthroat trout populations, restoring an impacted wetland, obtaining perpetual landscape protection and maintaining the traditional land use and rural lifestyles. Many thanks to Five Valleys Land Trust, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Chutney Foundation and most importantly, the Hayes Family.
When asked why they agreed to undertake such a large restoration and conservation project, the Hayes family said, “This was our opportunity to protect and conserve a piece of Montana.” Thanks to the Hayes, the meanders are back in Ashby. Look for them next time you drive through Potomac.
