Sharon

Gary and Sharon (Rinehart) Jacobsen
Ranch Riparian Project

Sharon and Gary Jacobsen stand on one of the cattle watering walkouts built on their ranch as part of the
Spring Creek Remediation Project.







By PJ Wright

      Great fishing is taken for granted by most outdoors-men living in Western Montana.  The continued rich tradition of fertile waters is rarely looked upon as anything other than “it’s just the way it is.”

      Intervention by wildlife biologists, ranchers and nonprofit organizations to rebuild and improve tributaries and spring few waterways is relatively new and not widely known.  Several programs which enhance and provide new habitat for spawning of bull and cutthroat trout have been completed.  Some are still in progress in northern Powell County.

      One such project has changed stream flow on the Gary and Sharon Jacobsen Ranch near Ovando, which has been in a conservation easement since 1994.  The ranch is on a clay base layer of soil, under which bedrock pushes wide springs whose waters are warm, shallow, and slow moving.  Ideal fish spawning water is deep, cold, and contains pools, riffles, runs, and glides.

      Greg Neudecker of US Fish and Wildlife Service began talking to the Jacobsens in 2000 about a riparian project on their property to restore and provide spawning habitat.  The project would be extensive, and would involve heavy equipment, several years of landowner commitment, and would be funded by a consortium of organizations.

      "The first step in working with ranchers is to gain trust and a working relationship,” said Neudecker.  “In the old days, ranchers and ‘fish and game’ people were not always on friendly terms.  There tended to be doubt about intentions on each side.”

      The Jacobsens and Neudecker toured the ranch and preliminary project discussions took place.  A two-year study was begun on water temperatures, stream meandering, and other issues.  The spring creek had vegetarian degradation which had resulted in channel widening, elevated temperatures, and excessive sediment input and accumulation.

      The reconstruction of 13,400 feet of the spring creek was begun in 2005.  The job would include narrowing and deepening the channel, increasing stream sinuosity, and placing in-stream wood and sod mats along stream banks in order to facilitate recovery.

                    Before and after pictures reveal the Spring Creek on the Gary and Sharon Jacobsen Ranch near Ovando.

                   The wide, shallow, slow flowing stream was changed to a deep, cold stream with higher velocity and pools

                    and habitat conducive for bull and cutthroat trout spawning grounds.



      The Jacobsens were actively involved in the live-stock management and future timber harvest required to insure long term project success.

      Ryen Aasheim, Project Manager of the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, BBCTU, was a major consultant in the restoration process.  According to Aasheim, three of the reaches were restored by shaping the channel (cut in pools, fills in the inside of bends) and placing sod mats (some from the Nevada Spring Creek Ranch) to neck down the stream and restore appropriate profile.  Several large woody debris jams were also incorporated into pool tailouts where the existing flow did not meet spawning specifications.

      Vehicle crossings were constructed in all four reaches.  A total of five bridges for the center pivot irrigation system were also installed.

      Part of the revegetation plan included not only placement of sod mats, but seedlings of native plants throughout the four-reach area.  In April of 2006, 1,500 willows were planted by BBCTU volunteers.  In October of that year 670 native plants including alder, bog birch, Hawthorne, wolfberry, chokecherry, and dogwood were put into the ground.

      The grazing management plan which was developed involves three separate stock tanks, gravity fed by a cistern, and a solar panel pump system.  The Jacobsens built ‘walkouts’ along the stream so cattle can water without stepping into the creek.

      A similar project is underway on Nevada Creek Ranch, north of the Nevada Creek Dam Reservoir.

      Funding for the Jacobsen Ranch Project came from a variety of sources—The Chutney Foundation, $58,269; NRCS, $136,500; US Fish Wildlife Service, $10,000; Future Fisheries, $72,049; and Jacobsen Ranch, $12,000 in kind contribution.

      Neudecker and Aasheim report that bull trout and cutthroat have been found in the new channels.  The payoff for this riparian effort is the enriched spawning habitat and the enduring pleasure of sportsmen for generations.