Monitoring results of watershed restoration activities - Quartz Creek - Middle Kootenai Bull Trout recovery area

A watershed restoration plan to facilitate the recovery of bull trout in th e Quartz Creek watershed was proposed in 1990. Since that time a wildfire a nd subsequent timber salvage activities in conjunction with the recovery ac tivities have occurred. All timber salvage activities were modified to comp lement the goals of the restoration plan. The majority of the restoration w ork involved the removal of unstable roads and culverts from the watershed. Sediment generated from these activities has the greatest chance of impact ing the downstream uses. Instream suspended sediment monitoring was used to evaluate the impacts of restoration activities. The monitoring revealed th at different equipment operators can affect the amount of sediment generate d. Overall, the monitoring showed that the instream effects are of very sho rt duration and do not affect beneficial uses.