Cassi Wood walks along newly formed banks bracketing the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho. The toppled trees so recent in their placement that they look planned. Small-statured Wood, in her oversized waders, is just as organized as the landscape she’s designing.
“I really enjoy being able to work on stuff that fixes landscapes for the enjoyment of the public,” says Wood, Trout Unlimited central Idaho project specialist. “My hope is that in 10 or 20 years, the landscape will be recovered and maybe no one will know we were here.”
Wood is part of a multi-year, multi-agency effort to restore the Yankee Fork. She works with tribes, government and private contractors. They all want the same result. More Chinook salmon swimming 850 miles from the ocean to Idaho to spawn.
“Certainly fish is one of the big reasons we’re engaged in this effort, but really what we’re doing is restoring a watershed,” says Bart Gamett, U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist. “That means clean water, more abundant wildlife. It means a better place for people to come and recreate and overall a healthier system that we’ll leave to future generations.”
Read the whole article in the Fall/Winter edition of East Idaho Outdoors.