New bridge on Poorman Creek to help fish, road maintenance

Work on a new bridge over Poorman creek, just below McClellan Gulch is well underway, with the project projected to be complete by about the second week of August.

The new bridge replaces a culvert that proved to be undersized during high water and that hampered the migration of native bull trout and cutthroat trout that make their way up Poorman Creek from the Blackfoot River. The new bridge should also help the county with maintenance issues related to the culvert during high water years.

"That culvert was about a five-foot pipe, but bank-full width was about 18 feet, so we try to make sure these new structures are going to accommodate bank-full flows," said Ryen Neudecker with the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

The bridge replacement effort was led by BBCTU, in partnership with Lewis and Clark County, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

Neudecker said they had been in discussions with the county for four or five years about installing the bridge and had the design ready to go, but lacked funding for it until this year.

"The Forest Service had some dollars to spend to restore sites and improve connectivity for migrating fish. Looking at the priority, Poorman Creek ranked very high," she said. "We went to the county and asked them how they felt about replacing that culvert. They were agreeable, but obviously their priority is on the Dalton Mountain system bridge."

She said it was a good opportunity to get the creek crossing sized for long-term maintenance, and to do as much as they can for connectivity for the fish that are moving into the creek. She said their rule of thumb is to try to make the bridges as "invisible" as they can to fish and other aquatic animals living in the stream.

"We've been really impressed with the landowners that are right near that pipe," Neudecker said. "The county had to get easements from them and they were just really good to work with and really accommodating."

The new bridge marks the third time BBCTU has had a hand in replacing culverts on Poorman Creek. They also helped install the bridge near Circle City about three miles south of Lincoln, as well as the bridge that replaced the triple culverts just below Twin Gulch.

Although there are currently no plans in the works for a bridge to replace the culvert south of McClellan gulch, Neudecker said BBCTU knows that pipe also causes problems, and indicated its high on their list.

"We're trying to continue upstream to address issues as best we can and as fast as we can, so fish can move freely," she said.