Monitoring in the Yaak
Yaak Valley Forest Council
Overview of the Yaak Watershed
Project Area
The YVFC conducts water quality sampling within the NW Montana portions of the Yaak and Kootenai River watersheds. The Kootenai River flows south and crosses the US-Canada Border into the Koocanusa Reservoir, then flows west past Libby and Troy, MT into Idaho. The Yaak River, a tributary of the Kootenai River, originates in the North Purcell Mountains in southeast British Columbia. The Yaak River flows south, crossing into the US, joining the Kootenai River 7.65 mi west of Troy, Montana. Primary land-use activities within the Yaak and Kootenai River watersheds consist of forestry and agriculture, along with a history of mining activities and proposed mines. Within these waterways, priority native species include bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, Columbia Basin redband trout, white sturgeon, torrent sculpin, and western pearlshell mussel.
The wild Yaak is a rugged and remote landscape in northwestern Montana, deep in the Kootenai National Forest. Carved out of the Southern Purcell Mountains by the Yaak River and its many tributaries, the Yaak Valley is a biologically rich landscape harboring an astonishing variety of wildlife and pockets of old-growth forests. Continental weather patterns collide in the Yaak as colder and drier Rocky Mountain ecosystems meet a steady onslaught of storms and moisture from the Pacific Ocean.
The resulting high-precipitation, number of cloudy days, and deep winter snowpack create a “modified Pacific maritime” climate that supports small pockets of rare inland-temperate rainforest dominated by western red cedar and western hemlock. All that moisture filters through the many streams and pockets of marshy-wetlands found in the wild Yaak, working its way into the Yaak River watershed and creating areas of climate refugia, parts of the landscape uniquely resilient to climate change.
New growth larch needles (Courtesy of Anthony South)
Water Quality Monitoring Goals
The Yaak Valley Forest Council conducted a preliminary investigation of our ten-year thermograph dataset that shows tributaries of the Yaak River flowing through intact forests retain a consistent temperature year-round. Because of this stability, Yaak Valley streams are more resilient to climate change as water temperatures increase over time and will continue to provide cold-water habitat for native trout and water-dependent land-based species long into the future.
The Yaak Valley Forest Council (YVFC) works within the larger Yaak Headwaters Restoration Partnership to protect and restore habitat connectivity in the Yaak watershed. The implementation of a water quality monitoring program addresses several threats to our regional waterways including: increased home building, a rise in didymo and algae blooms over the last two decades, and the overarching and compounding threat of climate change. The twenty chosen monitoring sites differ in intensity of forestry activities, road density, and distance to human habitation. Statistically analyzing the results of the water quality data will help inform regional land management decisions.
YVFC examines water nutrients, sediment, and selenium samples at 23 sites. These locations were selected because they differ in a number of discrete parameters including intensity of timber extraction, mining activities, road density, and distance to human habitation.
Sampling Sites for Water Quality Monitoring
Click on the images below to get a closer look at each monitoring site.
The Yaak's Biological Diversity
The wild Yaak acts as a refuge for a broad array of climate-sensitive species reliant on intact mature forests, ephemeral-water sources, and a topographically diverse ecosystem unique to this valley. Westslope cutthroat trout (A) populations are at risk from stream sedimentation, stream barriers to migratory corridors, warming stream temperatures, and hybridization. Western toad (B) life-history requires over-ridge habitat corridors that need special consideration when planning for timber harvest. An English sundew (C) population in the Yaak is one of only two dozen known in Montana and requires untrampled peat mats to prosper. Much of the English sundew's moist habitat in the Yaak Valley is under threat from clearcutting the currently proposed US Forest Service Black Ram timber project. Salvage logging and clearcutting in the wild Yaak reduces habitat for the pileated woodpecker (D) and other cavity-nesting bird species. Pika (E) are particularly susceptible to climate change and population fragmentation. Yaak populations of pika require conservation of cool peak-to-peak migratory routes. Northern Alligator lizards (F) are unique, moisture and cool-temperature-adapted reptiles found in Yaak that require habitat protection.
All species were photographed in the Yaak by Yaak Valley Forest Council Field Crew Leader Anthony South. All wildlife featured in these photos, except pika, are state-listed Montana Species of Concern.
