Andy Brunelle is a quiet, spectacled man with a bear’s chest. He drives a 1971 VW bus. Andy bought the bus in college and hasn’t yet had a reason to replace it. That old van has taken Andy to countless TU meetings and project sites.

“Andy makes us tick,” chapter President James Piotrowski told me.

Most chapters are almost entirely run by a few devoted members, but what makes this situation so unique is that Andy avoids the spotlight. He is content just doing the work, even when other folks get the credit.

This weekend, Andy will receive a well-deserved pat on the back. I won’t totally ruin the surprise, but be prepared to clap for him come awards time at the annual TU meeting!

Regardless of whether they win awards or not, Andy and his friends in the Trueblood chapter have worked hard for the trout of Southwestern Idaho. Heck, I visited a fraction of their current project sites and I still have too much to write about.

The Boise River system is composed of multiple fisheries, each with its own set of conservation challenges. The Middle and North Forks flow out of the mountains, where the scars of century old mines still define the landscape. The South Fork is a tailwater that offers some of the best angling in the state. Right through town, the mainstem Boise River is a fine urban fishery, but it has been affected by development, channelization, and a loss of spawning and rearing habitat.

The Mainstem Boise
Through the town of Boise, the river has been cutoff from many of its side channels. Side channels provide slack waters that are important for juvenile fish rearing. Side channels also provide “a release valve” for the river during high water events, preventing flooding downstream.

Recognizing the importance of these secondary channels to fish, wildlife, and the residents of the valley, the Trueblood chapter has spearheaded side channel restoration efforts with the support of Idaho Fish and Game, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, streamside land owners, and other partners.

Andy took me to two of the most recent project sites. For the Island Creek project of 2003, the chapter restored over half a mile of channel. The ongoing Harris Ranch effort will create a mile of spawning and rearing water.

In both cases, machinery has been used to create a natural meandering channel. The improved side channels are then re-connected to the river. Woody debris, overhanging willows, and riffles provide the structure and habitat variability needed to support spawning and juvenile fish.

TU volunteers, along with school students and community members, do a lot of the work, including the post-work vegetation plantings. Volunteers have planted thousands of willows, sedges, and other streamside plants that will be crucial to the overall success of the project.

By improving the side channels, these projects serve to boost the trout population in the entire river.

I can’t overemphasize how much time and energy Andy and the other core chapter members invested in the planning stages of these projects. The permits, the grants, and the planning all involve countless applications and unforeseen hurdles. The actual on-the-ground work is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to large-scale restoration projects like these.

And these side channel projects are just one of the many ongoing Trueblood chapter programs. CLICK HERE to learn more about Boise’s TU chapter.

The Middle Fork Boise River
Pam Smolczynski lives in Idaho City, a mining boom town at the confluence of two Middle Fork tributaries, Elk Creek and Mores Creek. As a local resident with over a decade of experience with Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality, Pam was the top resume in the pile when TU was searching for a Boise River Watershed Restoration Coordinator.

Pam got the job this last spring and the national TU staff as well as the local volunteers are impressed by what she has accomplished already. Pam has secured a ton of funding for work in the area and has successfully launched a pilot project on Mores Creek.

Pam took Trueblood President James and me to the Mores Creek site to see the initial restoration efforts.

Mores Creek was subjected to dredge mining for gold. Dredge mining is highly detrimental to aquatic ecosystems. It involves using machines to remove large quantities of stream bottom, screening the sand and gravel for gold, and then dumping the tailings on the stream bank.

Dredge mining afflicts long lasting damage on the stream channel. The banks of Mores Creek are armored with large gravel and rock tailings piles that channelize the stream, preventing the water from jumping onto the floodplain.

During high water events, a pristine stream will spread out onto its banks, dissipating energy and depositing sediment. The tailings mounds have disrupted this natural process, exacerbating flooding downstream and scouring the streambed.

To mitigate this damage, Trout Unlimited, in cooperation with the Forest Service and other partners, has simply removed the streamside tailings and used heavy equipment to re-shape a natural floodplain on a ½ mile stretch of Mores Creek. The idea is that the stream will start to heal itself when it has the ability to exceed its banks. Also, a floodplain will enable streamside vegetation to become established, reducing the water temperature and making Mores Creek more suitable trout habitat.

If all goes well in the test section, Pam is already set to march the project downstream. Trout Unlimited plans to improve miles of trout water in the Boise River System. This work will benefit two native trout species, redband rainbows and bull trout.

In addition, Pam is spearheading efforts on Elk Creek, the Idaho City water supply. To learn more about how these TU projects will benefit both fish and the community, CLICK HERE.

And you don’t have to take my word for it… CLICK HERE to see what the Idaho Statesman says about the Mores Creek project.

A New Challenge
The Middle Fork of the Boise River is currently threatened by a cyanide heap-leach gold mine. These mines are awesome in a terrifying sort of way. I got to tour one such mine in Colorado for a college geology class. It is hard to imagine that such large-scale destruction is even possible until you see it for yourself.

The first step of cyanide heap-leach mining is to blow up and crush an entire mountain. The Boise River mine, known as the Atlanta Gold Mine, would decimate over a thousand vertical feet of Rocky Mountain high country.

The billions of tons of gravel that are produced are put into a pit that is lined with a couple layers of plastic about as sturdy as a Hefty bag where cyanide, one of the most toxic chemicals known to man, is leached through the rock, chemically binding to the gold. Cyanide leaks from mines in Montana and Idaho have contaminated drinking water and killed trout and such devastation is a real possibility at the proposed mine as well.

After the gold is removed from the cyanide solution, the remaining 99% of the gravel is dumped into a big valley, filling it entirely with highly erosive granitic pebbles that won’t support vegetation for a century or more.

To get the 1.4 million pounds of sodium cyanide, the 2 million pounds of explosives, and the 2.3 million gallons of diesel fuel to the remote mining site, the company will need to truck it in from Boise on winding, narrow, washboarded dirt roads that are heavily used for recreation. Furthermore, these roads run right along the headwaters of the Boise River and a spill would be catastrophic for sensitive and threatened native trout species, not to mention over 20% of Boise’s water supply.

Like the mine I visited in Colorado, the Boise River mine would be operated by a foreign corporation and most of the profits would end up in Canada. Of course, if a spill was to occur, the mining company could always fold and leave the cleanup costs to American taxpayers… they usually do.

Hopefully the Forest Service and citizens of Idaho will block this proposal. Ted Trueblood TUers are doing their part to spread the word and make sure this mine doesn’t become a disastrous reality.

CLICK HERE for more information

Finally the Fishing!
Barry Ross, a founding member of the Ted Trueblood Chapter and an avid local angler, took me to the Owyhee River, just on the other side of the border with Oregon. The Owyhee is a desert tailwater that is popular amongst Idahoans and Oregonians, but relatively unknown elsewhere.

A decade ago, anglers would catch as many as 20 trout over 20 inches in a day. Increased angling pressure and drought may be two factors that have reduced catch rates in recent years, but regardless, the Owyhee remains a fine fishery.

The river is unlike any I have ever fished. Much of the river is slow and pond-like. These large pools are interrupted by steep, short riffles. The water is milky and visibility is less than a foot. Still, the fish will rise to dry flies once the sun descends below the canyon wall.

When we arrived at the river in the early afternoon, Barry and I tried our luck subsurface. I started out with a standard double nymph rig without much success. I then tied on a small black marabou leech that Barry gave me. That fly wasn’t in the water more than 2 seconds before I was tied into an 18” brown.

With the trout in hand, I admired its large spots and sharp teeth. Figuring that if I caught one in less than a minute I was in for an exciting evening, I neglected to photograph this fish. Well, I think I jinxed myself because I didn’t land another nice trout for the rest of the day!

Barry fared better than me with his double Renegade rig once the sun was off the water. The inconsistent risers attacked those flies with gusto. Neither of us landed one of the truly hog-sized trout that lurk in the depths of the Owyhee, but I look forward to returning someday to try again.

As I left Boise in the truck that I bought in college, I thought about Andy and his old van. Will I still be driving my Nissan to TU meetings in 20 years? I hope not, it’s a junk box already! No matter what I’m driving, I do hope to stay involved with coldwater conservation. If I can contribute half as much as Andy has, it could make a big difference.

And it's just a fish story without photographic evidence! CLICK HERE to see my photos from Boise.

You too can get involved! Contact your local chapter to find out how:
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