Jocko River Demonstration Reach Project: Wetland/Riparian Habitat Restoration and Bull Trout Recovery

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are restoring bull trout habitat in the Jocko River watershed, located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. In the spring and summer of 2005, the first phase of a large restoration project along 3, 200 feet of the Jocko River was implemented to reverse the trend of channel incision, reestablish the connection between the active channel and the historic floodplain, and restore native plant community types to the riparian and floodplain areas. To restore these native plant communities, the tribes used numerous revegetation strategies. The main obstacles to restoring a native forest cover type to the floodplain included competition from high densities of weeds and grasses, loss of woody vegetation cover, low levels of natural regeneration, and soil compaction. Nearly 20,000 native plants were installed in the floodplain. Weed mats and rigid browse protectors were used to control competition from weeds and grasses and prevent herbivory of seedlings. In addition, experimental weed treatment plots, including the use of mulch, continuous weed mat, and cardboard were established in areas with high densities of weeds to determine weed control effectiveness for use in future planning efforts. Revegetation strategies along the newly constructed channel focused on planting native tree, shrub and forb seelings, seeding with native and quick establishing annual grasses and forbs in disturbed areas, salvaging and transplanting native shrubs and trees, and installing soil bioengineering structures adjacent to rigid habitat structures to encourage establishment of shrubs along high energy banks