Wallace Creek Easement/Culvert

Project Narrative

The conservation easement on a 0.7 acre parcel at the mouth of Wallace Creek was finalized and entered into the public record during the first quarter of 2010. It is being held by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The easement includes all of Wallace Creek from a culvert on the Wallace Creek Road downstream to the mouth (approximately 275 feet of stream). There was a slight deviation to the conservation easement. The original proposal for the conservation easement was proposed for fifteen years, that was changed to a permanent easement.The second part of this project was for engineering to design design a structure to improve the impassable culvert. Designs were completed for a bottomless concrete box culvert that will replace the existing culvert and allow fish passage. Originally IDFG was going to come back to the Idaho Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Board to request funds to implement the design. That changed over the life of the project. The Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Program (USBWP) along with the Lemhi County Soil and Water Conservation District approached IDFG with a desire to pursue funding for and oversee replacement of the culvert. IDFG has forwarded the designs, cost estimate, and all other pertinent information to the USBWP. The USBWP has applied for and received funding from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund to replace the culvert.The permanent easement will benefit anadromous fish by allowing the project sponsor to implement stream restoration activities to allow passage in the lowest reach of Wallace Creek. The project sponsor will carry the easement to protect stream habitat and stream habitat work that has been performed, and prevent any non-restoration related construction. A future benefit will be the implementation of the structure design created by this project that will remove the impassable barrier.