Bar-G Muddy Springs Creek Habitat Design Project

Project Narrative

Trout Unlimited will hire an engineering consultant and oversee designing of habitat treatments for 2.15 miles of Muddy Springs Creek, a tributary to the Pahsimeroi River. Current habitat conditions include lack of riparian vegetation, limited instream complexity, and over-widened stream segments that resulted from historic overgrazing. The initial step to rehabilitation of Muddy Spring Creek is selection and subcontracting with an engineering consultant who will survey, evaluate, and design habitat treatments to rehabilitate the degraded condition of Muddy Springs Creek. The deliverable product will be a final design for construction of habitat treatments that will increase habitat capacity for juvenile salmon and steelhead. The goal of rehabilitating Muddy Springs Creek is to restore the ability of the stream to support juvenile salmon and steelhead. Muddy Springs Creek, and other spring creeks like it, provide thermal and hydrologic advantages for rearing salmonids when compared to the mainstem Pahsimeroi River. Although Muddy Springs Creek has been excluded from grazing for approximately 15 years, the stream and riparian habitat has not recovered and remains in a highly degraded condition. Juvenile salmon and steelhead have been detected utilizing Muddy Springs Creek in recent years, but not consistently or in high numbers even though it is located adjacent to productive spawning habitat in the Pahsimeroi River. A precursor to salmonid habitat rehabilitation for Muddy Springs Creek includes surveying the stream and prescribing targeted habitat treatments that address the limiting factors for rearing juvenile salmon and steelhead.