Tom Taha Creek Watershed

Watershed Characterization

Physical and Biological Characteristics

Tom Taha Watershed (13,295 acres) is located in Idaho County. The stream flows in a westerly direction approximately 4.6 miles to the confluence with the Clearwater River near the town of Kamiah. The lower 2.59 miles flow through the Reservation. Elevations range from 1,175 feet at the mouth to 3,406 feet in the uplands. The dominant land cover is coniferous forest (83%), with some cropland (11%) and meadow/pasturelands (4%).
The watershed contains steelhead/rainbow trout, piute sculpin, and speckled dace (Kucera 1983). Density of young of the year steelhead/rainbow at stream mile 1.7 ranked first among Reservation streams sampled by Kucera (1983), and was almost twice that of the second ranked stream, Six Mile Creek.
Sparse riparian vegetation, low summer flows, extreme fluctuation in annual stream flow, and siltation were identified in early studies as impacting the water quality in Tom Taha Creek (Kucera 1983, and Fuller 1985). Erosion is a concern due to the gravel roads paralleling the lower stream section and logging activity in the watershed.
Tom Taha Creek stream survey data (NPT 2005) for one reach–173 meters– indicate suboptimal conditions for: width/depth ratios, stream bank stability, cobble embeddedness, large woody debris, and pool frequency (see Appendix C). Nonpoint pollutant sources include forest and agricultural activities.