Potlatch River

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Potlatch River
Catchment area of ​​the Clearwater River, the Potlatch River can be seen in the top left.

Catchment area of ​​the Clearwater River, the Potlatch River can be seen in the top left.

Data
Water code US :  388818
location Latah Counties , Clearwater Counties , and Nez Perce Counties in Idaho , USA
River system Columbia River
Drain over Clearwater River  → Snake River  → Columbia River
origin Confluence of the East and West Fork rivers
46 ° 55 ′ 43 ″  N , 116 ° 20 ′ 55 ″  W
Source height 816  m
muzzle Clearwater River between Myrtle and Spalding in Nez Perce County Coordinates: 46 ° 28 ′ 31 ″  N , 116 ° 46 ′ 2 ″  W 46 ° 28 ′ 31 ″  N , 116 ° 46 ′ 2 ″  W
Mouth height 244  m
Height difference 572 m
Bottom slope 6.4 ‰
length 90 km
Catchment area 1538 km²
Discharge at the gauge near the mouth NNQ
MQ
HHQ (2006) 		2 m³ / s
11 m³ / s
231 m³ / s
Left tributaries Cedar Creek
Right tributaries Big Bear Creek

The Potlatch River is a flowing body of water in the state of Idaho in the United States . The approximately 90 km long tributary of the Clearwater River belongs to the catchment area of the Columbia River . The river drains an arid area on the Columbia Plateau as well as part of the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Idaho. The name is derived from the term potlatch , a specific type of ceremony used by Indians in the Pacific Northwest . An Indian tribe settled on the river hundreds of years before the arrival of the Europeans . They then settled in the catchment area of ​​the river, founded farms at the end of the 19th century and began raising cattle. Later, loggers cleared most of the remaining forests. The ecology in the river's catchment area is still recovering from it. Fishing, hiking and camping are the most popular recreational activities on the river, 14 percent of which is on public land.

Hydrology

The river rises in two arms in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Idaho. The West Fork drains part of Latah County and the East Fork is in Clearwater County . These two arms unite at Helmer and shortly below the river reaches a canyon in which it flows to its mouth. In the course of the canyon, Pine Creek, Big Bear Creek, Middle Potlatch Creek and Little Potlatch Creek flow from the right and Boulder Creek and Cedar Creeks from the left. The Idaho State Highway 3 follows the canyon in its lower section, at the confluence of Middle Potlatch Creek is Juliaetta . The confluence of the river with the Clearwater River lies at an elevation of 150 feet between the towns of Myrtle and Spalding . The flow rate at the mouth, near which there is a water level, averages 10.75 m³ / s. In 2006 a maximum flow rate of 231 m³ / s was recorded here during a flood. Because the river drains an arid area of ​​the Columbia Plateau, the river reaches its highest level in winter and early spring, in summer and autumn only a trickle remains. The river runs largely over and through Columbia Plateau Basalt and is therefore geologically quite similar to the Palouse River further west.

Forests cover around 57% of its catchment area, around 38% are used for agriculture and animal husbandry . 78% of the area is privately owned, 14% is within a national forest . Seven percent of the catchment area belongs to the state, the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs each own a one percent stake.

history

The Nez Perce lived on the banks of the Potlatch River for centuries. The area was once a wide strip of dry grassland surrounded by forested mountains. Due to its location on the eastern edge of the arid Columbia Plateau directly southwest of the foothills of the Rockies, the catchment area of ​​the Potlatch River receives much more rainfall than that of the Palouse and Tucannon Rivers . The Lewis and Clark expedition passed the mouth of the Potlatch River in 1805 and again in 1806 as they traveled down the Clearwater River. They described it as a "big creek" and named it Colter's Creek in honor of the expedition member John Colter . However, it is not known whether the expedition participants were the first whites to see the river. The current name of the river was given in 1897.

The original environment in which the Indians lived, however, remained relatively intact until large numbers of settlers arrived in western Idaho in the 1870s . Numerous miners also came because gold was found in nearby Orofino on the Clearwater River . Many of these newcomers started farms and ranches on the riverside prairies. The fertility of the soil in the river's catchment area generally increases towards the south. However, the inaccessibility of the scarce water in the area is an obstacle. The steep walls of the Potlatch River Canyon make it difficult for farmers to draw water for irrigation, so they limit themselves to growing those crops that could do without additional irrigation. Where there was too little water, the land was used to graze cattle or to make hay .

At first, the forests in the catchment area of ​​the Potlatch River were not particularly impaired, but after the logging industry increased by leaps and bounds at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, most of the primeval forests were cut down. The first sawmills served only to supply the surrounding area with lumber for houses and barns, but the Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway soon expanded its route into the region, so that the transport of wood to more distant areas was possible. The logging industry turned out to be very profitable, but had a lasting negative impact on the ecology of the Potlatch River catchment area.

Klausen , slides lubricated with oil, loading stations for the railroad, forest railways and steam-powered winches (so-called steam donkeys ) were used to exploit the wood resources in the river's catchment area. Railway embankments helped straighten the watercourses, so that soil erosion on the inhospitable side of the mountains increased dramatically; it made many watercourses muddier than they naturally were. Almost all of the virgin forests in the area have now disappeared and most of the existing forests are secondary forests .

ecology

The Potlatch River with an average early summer flow

Once upon a time, the landscape on the Potlatch River was dominated by grasslands, which consisted mainly of Idaho fescue ( Festuca idahoensis ) and Pseudoroegnaria spicata . Black poplars , American quivering poplars , maples and alders made up the riparian forest on the Potlatch River. In the foothills , a steppe-like meadow landscape thrived with Oregon hawthorn , snowberries and small conifers, while hawthorns and pipe bushes grew on the banks of smaller tributaries . Prairie lilies and tall perennials shot in the thinly distributed seasonal wetlands along the river and the larger streams in the catchment area. The forests consisted mainly of a mixture of Douglas firs and yellow pines , in between there were occasional coastal firs , giant arborvitae , western white pines and larches ; the undergrowth was made up of Holodiscus discolor , Physocarpus , rock pears , wild roses and snowberries. Wildfires burned the area from time to time, making way for new growth. After human intervention, this vegetation persisted, but to a lesser extent, and the grasslands were almost completely displaced by agriculture. The annual amount of precipitation ranges from 370 to 750 mm, the temperature fluctuates between −4 ° C and 38 ° C.

According to a study carried out between 2003 and 2004, there are 13 different fish species in the Potlatch River and its tributaries, including Rhinichthys osculus , Rhinichthys cataractae , rainbow trout (partly wild and partly used), brown trout , largemouth bass , common sunfish , Ptychocheilus oregonensis , Richardsonius balteatus , bullheads , Catostomus columbianus , sucker carp and American perch . The migration of steelhead trout , the anomalous migratory form of rainbow trout, was almost completely stopped because the construction of dams on the lower reaches of the Snake and Columbia Rivers prevented the fish from migrating. The two species Rhinichthys together form the largest fish population in the catchment area, the largest biomass is achieved by steelhead trout with 58.4%. Of all the watercourses of the catchment area examined during the study, the West Fork Potlatch River has the greatest biodiversity due to its relative unspoilt nature . The lower reaches of the river suffer from chronic pollution from agricultural contaminated surface water. Steelhead trout stocks were monitored between 2005 and 2008 as part of the Potlatch River Steelhead Monitoring and Evaluation Program (PRSME). None of these fish have been observed in the main section of the Potlatch River, 197 adult fish have been counted in the eastern head arm, and 226 have been recorded in one of the larger tributaries, Big Bear Creek. Post-spawn migration was assumed to be 6976 fish on East Fork and 9491 fish on Big Bear Creek. In 2009 the Idaho Department of Fish and Game initiated a series of seven projects aimed at preserving the habitat of fish in the Potlatch River.

leisure

Many of the mountains and forests in the river's catchment area are protected as national forests. There are several campsites monitored by the United States Forest Service in the headwaters of the river. Anglers are only allowed to fish brown trout, cutthroat trout , rainbow trout and steelhead trout on the Potlatch River and most of its tributaries . The Department of Fish and Game puts these fish species into the river every year. On the Potlach River, fishing is permitted from its mouth up to Moose Creek at Bovill and its East Fork.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Potlatch River ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan ( English ) In: Resource Planning Unlimited . Latah Soil and Water Conservation District. October 2007. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Potlatch River Subbasin Assessment and TMDLs ( English , PDF) Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. September 2008. Archived from the original on October 2, 2009. Retrieved on January 23, 2010.
  4. ↑ USGS Gage # 133341570 on the Potlatch River near Spalding (Average Streamflow) ( English ) In: National Water Information System . United States Geological Survey . 2004. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  5. ↑ USGS Gage # 133341570 on the Potlatch River near Spalding (Peak Streamflow) ( English ) In: National Water Information System . United States Geological Survey . 2004. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  6. ^ A b On the Clearwater — Canoe Camp to the Potlatch River ( English ) In: The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark . United States Geological Survey Cascade Volcanoes Observatory. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  7. ↑ Potlatch River Watershed ( English ) In: Watersheds . Nez Perce Soil and Water Conservation District. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  8. ^ Olin Dunbar Wheeler: The trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904: A Story of the Great Exploration Across the Continent in 1804-06; With a Description of the Old Trail, Based Upon Actual Travel Over It, and of the Changes Found a Century Later ( English ), Volume 2. GP Putnam's Sons, 1904, pp 122 (Accessed on 2010-02-053).
  9. ↑ Lumbering an economic mastery in Clearwater County for almost a century ( English ) In: 20th Century Chronicles . Clearwater Tribune. Archived from the original on November 9, 2006. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  10. ↑ a b Brett Bowersox, Nathan Brindza: Potlatch River Basin — Fisheries Inventory ( English , PDF) Idaho Department of Fish and Game. 2003-2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2010. Retrieved on February 5, 2010.
  11. ↑ Kent Bowersox: Production, productivity, and life history characteristics of steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss , in the Potlatch River drainage, Idaho ( English , PDF) In: The Tippet . Clearwater Fly Casters. January 2009. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  12. ↑ Direction 2009: Issues, accomplishments, & Priorities ( English , PDF) In: The Compass . Idaho Department of Fish and Game. 2009. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved on February 5, 2010.
  13. ↑ Potlatch River ( English ) In: Clearwater National Forest . US Forest Service . Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  14. ↑ Clearwater Region ( English ) In: Fishing Seasons and Rules . Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010.