1. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Summary Slide
German Gulch Restoration & A Vision for the Silver Bow Creek Watershed
Pat Munday, PhD
GGTU Board Member
Voice mail
My name is Pat Munday. I teach courses such as Technology & Society for Montana Tech, and my chief professional interest is environmental history, philosophy, and politics. As a board member with the George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited (GGTU) in Butte, Montana, I have co-written a grant proposal to Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

2. Project Background Clark Fork River Superfund Area (EPA Clean Up)
The upper Clark Fork River Basin of western Montana is America’s largest Superfund site. The environment has been heavily damaged by a century of mining and smelting in the Butte-Anaconda area. Silver Bow Creek begins in Butte, and is a major headwater tributary of the Clark Fork River. Currently, remedy is occurring on Silver Bow Creek thanks to an $80 million dollar settlement from ARCO (now ARCO-British Petroleum) to the state of Montana. The state is also using another portion of money from the settlement – about $115 million – as a restoration fund for projects in the upper Clark Fork River Basin.
GGTU is interested in the restoration of the upper Silver Bow Creek watershed as a westslope cutthroat trout (WCT) fishery. Many isolated populations of WCT occur in tributaries of Silver Bow Creek.

3. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
GGTU believes that German Gulch Creek is the single most important tributary of Silver Bow Creek (SBCr). Though the German Gulch watershed does have some environmental problems, it is relatively pristine compared with other SBCr tribs. The creek supports a good population of WCT, and the watershed is largely public land with only one major irrigation diversion. That diversion is near the confluence of German Gulch Creek with SBCr.
German Gulch is a popular fishing, hunting, and outdoor recreation for Butte-Anaconda area residents.
German Gulch Creek,
our backyard trout stream
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

4. Westslope Cutthroat Trout - keystone/indicator species
Chad Okrusch photo
GGTU is asking NRDP for nearly a million dollars for German Gulch. GGTU believes that if SBCr water quality can be restored, then German Gulch Creek will be an important “seed stock” as fish recruit from the tributary to the main stem.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

5. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Holistic Goals
“Authentic” restoration (Clewell)
Connect tributaries w/ mainstem creek
Restore & protect habitat
Enhance water quality & quantity
Insure public access
In developing restoration goals for SBCr and tributary streams such as German Gulch Creek, we have tried to take a holistic approach. Clewell, Higgs, and others interested in the science of ecological restoration have developed the term “authentic restoration.” This term means trying to return a damaged ecosystem to a state that it might have evolved to as a result of natural processes with minimal anthropogenic influences. Many restoration ecologists use the term “ecological integrity” or even “fidelity” in much the same way.
In taking a whole-watershed approach, we know that we should aim to restore single species or postage stamp bits of habitat. Wild and native trout, for example, need healthy populations spread over diverse habitat in order to survive both short and long term threats. Although WCT are often found as isolated and fragmented fluvial (local resident) populations today, historically it seems they flourished as a fluvial-adfluvial (migratory) form that ranged widely between mainstem rivers and tributaries. Restoring connectivity between Silver Bow Creek and its several major tributaries is, we believe, critical to the long term survival of WCT as a species and the long term health of our watershed as a whole.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

6. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Holistic
Goals
Though we have holistic goals for the upper Silver Bow Creek watershed, we realize these are ideals that hinge upon limiting factors that might prevent our realizing these goals.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

7. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Watershed
Level (SBCr)
Reality
Sub-watershed
Level (G.Gulch)
The reality is that serious environmental impairments exist at both the watershed and sub-watershed levels.Though in the long term we might be able to address the watershed level threats, in the short term we are focusing on sub-watershed level threats as restoration opportunities that will cumulatively lead to broader benefits.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

8. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Real Problems (SBCr)
Mine waste re-contamination
Nutrients from Butte Metro Sewer
Fragmented watershed
Exotic fish
Silver Bow Creek faces serious environmental problems that will prevent establishing a WCT fishery in the near future. The EPA is just now moving toward a Record of Decision for remedy on the Butte hill superfund site (“Butte Priority Soils”). This decision will probably determine whether SBCr is ever capable of supporting fish such as WCT that demand high water quality.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

9. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Re-contamination
Butte Priority Soils
“Metro Storm Drain”
Parrot Tailings
Storm Sewers
Reclaimed Tailings
EPA Map
ARCO-BP and EPA commonly refer to the headwaters of Silver Bow Creek as the “Metro Storm Drain.” This channel was for years used as an open industrial sewer for dumping toxic mine waste. The current channel is highly contaminated. ARCO-BP has capped (covered over) this channel, and the EPA proposed remedy calls for allowing this cover up as a permanent remedy. There is good evidence that groundwater moves through the contaminated sediments beneath this channel and enters SBCr.
The Parrot Tailings is an extensive mine waste deposit in the upper headwaters area, under the city of Butte in the Civic Center Area. Though these tailings are in contact with groundwater and preliminary studies show that a plume of contaminated water is moving toward SBCr, the EPA proposed remedy calls for leaving the Parrot Tailings in place.
Butte’s storm sewers were heavily contaminated with heavy metals from a century of mine waste flushing through them. It is thought that these storm sewers, if not replaced, will long contaminate SBCr. Butte-Silver Bow government is negotiating for money from ARCO-BP that could be used to address this problem. This problem is addressed in the EPA proposed remedy via a water treatment system.
Finally, there are extensive mine waste deposits that were reclaimed by ARCO-BP. EPA’s proposed remedy calls for counting these reclaimed mine dumps as remedy.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

10. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Metro Sewer Nutrients
“Both macroinvertebrate and periphyton assemblages indicated nutrient enrichment contributes to severe impairment in Silver Bow Creek”
(Confluence)
Midge larvae (EPA)
Because SBCr has long been a lifeless industrial sewer, Butte’s sewage treatment plant was allowed high nutrient level discharges into the creek. Only after the creek left the Warm Springs Ponds many miles downstream did it have to meet water quality standards for nutrients. Though technically Butte’s exemption for nutrient discharge is slated to run out in a few years, no plan to address this problem is currently on the table.
There is abundant evidence of this nutrient problem, most notably the anaerobic conditions in stream sediments below the Metro Sewer discharge. These conditions cause low water quality, and a preponderance of benthic macroinvertebrates such as blood worms and black fly larvae.
Black fly larva (EPA)
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

11. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Fragmented Habitat
Agricultural dewatering
Basin Cr. Dams
Domestic wells
WET Photo
Upper SBCr’s several major tributaries include Brown’s Gulch, Basin Creek, Blacktail Creek, and German Gulch Creek. Brown’s Gulch is largely agricultural. The lower creek is totally dewatered from late July through September in most years. Furthermore, poor riparian conditions and degraded stream habitat result in very high water temperatures in summer months. Basin Creek feeds two reservoirs that supply Butte with part of its drinking water. During much of the year, no water flows from these reservoirs to SBCr. Blacktail Creek is a major tributary that flows year round. It is heavily subdivided and developed along most of its length. Nutrient levels are high, and anecdotally residents believe that the many domestic water wells have significantly reduced the creek’s flow. Blacktail Creek has little or no riparian buffer along much of its length—it is bordered by a highway, streets, and flows through a golf course where the riparian vegetation has been largely removed.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

12. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Exotic Fish
Brook trout
“No” rainbow or brown trout
Exotic brook trout are present in all SBCr headwaters except Basin Creek. This makes Basin Cr (above the reservoirs) an especially important stronghold for native fish. Brook trout compete with and displace WCT, especially where stream conditions are degraded.
SBCr long acted as a toxic barrier to insulate its headwater streams from infiltration by exotic brown or rainbow trout (from the upper Clark Fork River). Apparently, though there are historical records of brown and rainbow trout being stocked in SBCr tributaries, these stockings were largely unsuccessful. Largely, because genetic analysis of WCT shows introgression in some headwater populations.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

13. Real Problems (G.Gulch)
Historical placer mining
Mine waste contamination
Fragmented watershed
Exotic fish
Inholdings/potential development
Even German Gulch, a relatively pristine SBCr tributary, has its share of problems.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

14. Historical Placer Mining
Germans, Chinese
Mining Camp, pop. c. 1,000
Placer Mining Scene
A century or more ago, German Gulch was turned upside down by hydraulic placer mining. For some years, up to 1,000 miners made a living extracting gold dust from the stream. The results of this activity can still be seen throughout the watershed, and have greatly impaired the habitat and productivity of the stream.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

15. Historical Placer Mining
Pilot Reach
Habitat
Channel stability
Confluence Consulting photo
GGTU has proposed a pilot stream restoration on a 1500 foot reach of German Gulch Creek.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

16. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Mine Tailings
Roads Built w/ Mine Waste
High Mx levels
Remove
Revegetate
Kathleen West photo
Tailings S. from Durant hotel
Here is a photo of mine tailings near the ghost town of Durant, at the confluence of German Gulch and Silver Bow Creeks. This view is looking upstream to the south. The tailings were used to build a spur railroad line. The creek is just a few hundred feet to the right of the old road. These tailings parallel the creek for about one-half mile, and cross the creek at one point. GGTU proposes to remove these tailings and restore the area.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

17. Contemporary Mine Waste
Pegasus/Beal Mtn
“LAD”  cyanide
Waste  Se, “an insidious killer”
17 – 28 µg/L
Beal Mountain Mine was a cyanide heap-leach, open-pit, gold mine operated by the now bankrupt Pegasus Mining Corporation on the headwaters of German Gulch from 1987 to Reclamation has ended most ecosystem-level threats from the Beal Mine, including cyanide exceedances that stemmed from the land application of heap leach liquor. This land application process has ended. According to a USFS study, selenium pollution from the mine occurs at levels high enough to impair aquatic life in the upper reaches of German Gulch Creek. Though exceedances routinely occurred and Montana DEQ collected this data throughout the 1990s, the violations never became public until the Clark Fork Coalition brought lawsuits against both Montana DEQ and the US National Forest Service in Since that time, the Forest Service has begun clean up under CERCLA. (Clark Fork Coalition, 2005; LaMarr 2002, 2003a, and 2003b).
Continuing selenium pollution in the German Gulch watershed is a concern. At high enough levels, selenium impairs the reproductive success of trout. Selenium levels in brook trout eggs have been sampled and are high enough – from 17 to 28 μg/g dry weight – to indicate impairment in the mainstem of German Gulch Creek from a point near the Beal Mine to a point approximately four miles downstream (Tim LaMarr 2002; 2005).
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

18. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Fragmented Watershed
Connect German Gulch w/ SBCr
Late Su. / Drought, No Bypass Flow
Wells for In-stream Flow (2 cfs)
Confluence Consulting photo
Spangler Ranch Headgate
As Silver Bow Creek is restored, it will be important to establish connectivity with German Gulch Creek. This will allow fish to move down into Silver Bow Creek where they can colonize it, and to move up into German Gulch Creek should they need a cold water refuge.
Currently, the Spangler Ranch headgate swallows the entire flow of German Gulch Creek in late summer and in drought years. This leaves several hundred feet of creek below the headgate dry.
The owner of the Spangler Ranch is willing to give up some water for a German Gulch – Silver Bow Creek connection, if we can provide an alternative source of water. For this reason, we want to do a groundwater study on the Spangler Ranch to assess the potential for a well.
Our goal is to maintain an instream flow of 2 cfs so that fish can migrate between Silver Bow and German Gulch Creeks.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

19. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Fish Entrainment
Fish-Friendly Diversion
Self-cleaning Screen
Confluence Consulting photo
As you can see in the photograph, the headgate is in a direct line with the creek’s flow. We would like to develop a design for a more fish-friendly diversion to minimize the loss of fish into the flume.
We are working with FWP Fisheries Biologist Ron Spoon on this issue, and he believes there are good low maintenance designs for self-cleaning fish screens that would meet the needs of both the water rights owner and the fish.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

20. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Exotic Fish
Electro-fish, remove
Install barriers
Enhance habitat for WCT
Tim LaMarr photo
GGTU members have worked closely with FWP and FS fisheries biologist on a brook trout removal project in a selected tributary of German Gulch Creek. There is good evidence from other creeks to show that an intensive removal effort can largely eliminate brook trout and greatly increase WCT numbers.With a barrier, brook trout will be stopped from recolonizing this reach of stream. It is unknown how often removal projects might need to be implemented to remove the future progeny of surviving brook trout.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

21. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Public Access
Repair SBCr bridge
Convert old road to foot trail
Acquire inholdings
Matt Hamon photo
The existing bridge across SBCr to lower German Gulch is in bad shape. The current bridge allows access by ATVs that frequently ignore travel restrictions in lower German Gulch. GGTU proposes replacing this dilapidated structure and installing a gate to reduce ATV trespass.
GGTU also proposes converting the old road up lower German Gulch to a foot trail, and linking this trail with a Forest Service road that crosses German Gulch Creek about 4 miles above its confluence with SBCr.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

22. Potential Development
Acquire inholdings
GGTU proposed buying three inholdings. These three properties are patented mining claims, and the conservation-minded family wished to see the area preserved in a primitive state. Two other outstanding inholdings exist. One is not accessible by road. The owner of the other has informed us that he plans to build a hunting/outfitting lodge.
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

23. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Approximate Budget
GGTU has about 20% cost share in its total project cost.
The bulk of the project cost is for “stewardship”—including a 30-year 2-cfs instream flow lease, a water well development to replace this source of water for the rancher, headgate improvements, a fish screen, and (further up the basin) a fish barrier.
In addition to the project elements described in this presentation, GGTU also proposes a thorough cultural inventory and the development of interpretive materials (kiosk, signs, brochures) about the history of German Gulch.
Total ≌ $1.06 mill
GGTU German Gulch PDG II

24. GGTU German Gulch PDG II
Our Goals
Pat Munday photo
Chad Okrusch photo
George Grant Trout Unlimited’s goals are simple. We want to protect and restore Westslope Cutthroat Trout in German Gulch Creek. We want these fish – “Montana’s Family Fish” – to be available to future generations, our children and grandchildren. With the restoration of Silver Bow Creek and the completion of the Greenway through Durant Canyon, these fish will be a priceless resource for all of us.
Thank you for this opportunity to request funding from the Natural Resource Damage Program’s Citizen Advisory Council.
What questions do you have?
GGTU German Gulch PDG II