This footage was collected in 2018 during construction of Phase 2 on Ninemile Creek. The Ninemile Creek watershed is located in the Middle Clark Fork River Watershed approximately 20 miles west of Missoula, Montana. With a contributing area of approximately 186 sq. miles. The watershed originates in the Ninemile and reservation divides of the Lolo National Forest and flows 26 miles to the confluence with the Clark Fork River. Historical mining activities significantly altered the morphology and landscape of the Ninemile Creek Valley. Records indicate that a placer gold boom occurred on Ninemile Creek between 1874 and 1977 and mining with draglines, dredges, hydraulic hoses and sluicing continued on Ninemile Creek and primary tributaries until the late 1940s. The mining process reworked the glacial and fluvial sediments comprising the valley bottom. Alluvial gravels and cobbles were worked into numerous tailings piles ranging from 10 feet to 40 feet in elevation above the stream channel. Mining activities compromised the integrity of the river and floodplain ecosystem by simplifying aquatic habitat conditions, increasing stream energy, and reducing floodplain connection and function.
In 2009, Trout Unlimited in collaboration with the Lolo National Forest initiated a planning process to evaluate restoration feasibility and design and implement restoration efforts on a six mile section of Ninemile Creek commonly referred to as the Housum Placer, a private 250 acre mining claim. The goals of this project are to 1) rehabilitate stream, floodplain, and hillslope processes impaired by previous placer mining operations; 2) Promote aquatic habitat conditions that support all life stages of fish; and 3) Reconnect major tributaries including Martina Creek, Mattie V Creek and Burnt Fork Creek with the mainstem Ninemile Creek, and 4) Incorperate the desires and needs of the landowners and multiple stakeholders.
