Jim Olsen, MT FWP fisheries biologist, gives explanation on projects which we’ve partnered.
French Creek drains into Deep Creek then into the Big Hole River near East Bank Fishing Access. Gold was first discovered in French Creek in 1864 and a gold rush ensued. The gold mining that occurred in the French Creek drainage was primarily placer mining which means the gold was extracted from stream gravels rather than from a hard rock mine adit. Mining was focused in and around the French Gulch area including French Gulch, French Creek and Moose Creek. The streams were mined from one side of the valley bottom to the other down to the bedrock which in some cases was more than 40 ft down. Mining occurred continuously in the drainage until at least 1911 when most of the claims were played out. Once the area was abandoned, the stream was left in horrible shape. Large gravel and cobble piles flanked the valley bottom and the stream channel which formerly meandered across the floodplain, now was straight and locked into place by the large piles. Moose Creek no longer flowed directly to French Creek and the fisheries of the stream were decimated. Now, 100 years after any significant mining, the stream is still in pretty bad shape. The large gravel piles are relatively unchanged and the stream is still very straight. Because the channel is straight it has few pools and little spawning habitat. Most of the spawning gravels that were likely historically abundant have been washed away. Several partners have come together to restore the mining impacted reaches of French Creek, French Gulch and Moose Creek. This restoration work would consist of establishing a new floodplain through either relocating the stream channel to areas where a floodplain is present or removing the placer piles and constructing a floodplain. The new floodplain will contain a meandering stream channel with frequent high quality pools and spawning habitat. A new channel will be constructed between Moose Creek and French Creek restoring fish passage. Not only will this project improve the fisheries in each of these stream, they will also improve the water quality in and the riparian habitat for species such as moose and grouse. This project is part of a larger watershed restoration project in French Creek which includes restoring areas affected by the Anaconda Smelter and restoring native westslope cutthroat trout and Arctic grayling to the stream.