Here’s the Missoulian’s report on the Big Creek water quality restoration project . . .
A major tributary to the North Fork of the Flathead River was removed from a list of impaired Montana water bodies Friday, becoming the first state stream to meet the standards for delisting. Officials with the Hungry Horse Ranger District and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that Big Creek is the first water body to complete a full water quality restoration process after it was added to a list of sediment-impaired waters in 1996.
Hungry Horse District Ranger Jimmy DeHerrera said the delisting is a major accomplishment, and the result of a watershed restoration plan that began nine years ago. The plan involved decommissioning some 60 miles of forest logging roads, removing 47 culverts and replacing an additional 19, improving 89 miles of roads to decrease storm water runoff, and replanting 25 acres of eroding uplands.