On May 23, 2022, the ISRP received a response and revised proposal for the Shoshone Bannock Tribes’ Yankee Fork Restoration Project (#2002-059-00) submitted for the Anadromous Fish Habitat and Hatchery Review. The Yankee Fork Salmon River is a tributary to the upper Salmon River located in central Idaho, near the town of Challis. It contains anadromous fish spawning and rearing habitat, supporting spring Chinook salmon and summer steelhead, and also bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. The Yankee Fork Restoration Project is a multi-year, collaborative project to rehabilitate hydrologic and riparian function along approximately 5 miles of the Yankee Fork Salmon River, which was severely altered by dredge mining from 1940 to 1952, and upstream to Eightmile Creek, an area depleted of timber during the mining boom.
The ISRP recommends the project “Meets Scientific Review Criteria” and commends the proponents on preparing a greatly improved proposal and for addressing issues from both the preliminary review and comments from the ISRP’s 2008 review.
