The South Fork Salmon River is an tributary of the Salmon River in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

Counties in central

. The river drains a rugged, lightly populated wilderness watershed in the

Salmon River Mountains The Salmon River Mountains are a major mountain range covering most of the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. The range is over long and its boundaries are usually defined by the Salmon River and its large tributary forks. Part of the centr ...

. It is the second-largest tributary of the Salmon River, after the Middle Fork.

Geography

Beginning near Monumental Peak in the

Boise National Forest Boise National Forest is a National Forest covering of the U.S. state of Idaho. Created on July 1, 1908, from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as five units: the Cascade, Emmett, Idaho City, Low ...

, the river flows generally north to its confluence with the Salmon near Mackay Bar, about above the larger river's mouth on the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

. About midway along its course, it is joined by its two main tributaries – the East Fork South Fork Salmon River from the east and the Secesh River from the west. The river receives runoff from a total of of land, ranging in elevation from at North Loon Mountain to at the mouth of the river.

History

The Native Americans living along the river were the

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle * Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying * Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Oregon ...

and

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...

. The river and its valley were used largely for fishing, hunting, and gathering, while local hot springs provided camping sites during the winter. The first recorded Europeans to see the South Fork may have been a group of mountain men working under the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British co ...

in 1831. They crossed the upper part of the river while reconnoitering the western part of the Salmon River system for good beaver streams. In the 1860s, prospectors discovered gold on the South Fork, leading to the initial settlement of the drainage by Westerners. After the gold rush faded, some miners stayed on as homesteaders and ranchers. The drainage was heavily logged from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, when an estimated 320 million

board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a length of a board, one foot wide and thick. Board foot can be abbreviated as FBM (for "foot, board measure" ...

of timber was taken from the basin. More than of logging roads were constructed across the drainage.

Ecology

The South Fork is an important habitat for

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

Westslope cutthroat trout The westslope cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi''), also known as the black-spotted trout, common cutthroat trout and red-throated trout is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'') and is a freshwater fish in t ...

bull trout The bull trout (''Salvelinus confluentus'') is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, ''S. confluentus'' has been known as the " Dolly Varden" (''S. malma''), but was reclassified as a separate specie ...

and

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

and has been designated critical habitat for salmon. Although the aquatic habitat in the South Fork drainage is considered good, some tributaries have been damaged by logging, mining, and road-building activities, which has increased the sediment load in the river. About of backcountry roads in the drainage have been decommissioned and are undergoing restoration by the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

. Plant communities in the South Fork drainage range from grassland and shrubland,

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

and

Grand fir ''Abies grandis'' (grand fir, giant fir, lowland white fir, great silver fir, western white fir, Vancouver fir, or Oregon fir) is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California of North America, occurring at altitudes of sea leve ...

forests at lower elevations, to

subalpine fir ''Abies lasiocarpa'', the subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain fir, is a western North American fir tree. Description ''Abies lasiocarpa'' is a medium-sized evergreen conifer with a very narrow conic crown, growing to tall, exceptionally , with a ...

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, ...

whitebark pine ''Pinus albicaulis'', known by the common names whitebark pine, white bark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine ...

and

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

at mid to high elevations. Among large mammals, the watershed is home to

Rocky Mountain elk The Rocky Mountain elk (''Cervus canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of elk found in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges of Western North America. Habitat The winter ranges are most common in open forests and floodplain marshes in the lo ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs and ...

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

and

gray wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly ...

. The area has over 200 confirmed species of resident and migratory birds.

Hydrology

The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

(USGS) operated a stream gage at the mouth of the South Fork between 1993 and 2003, recording an annual mean of . The highest annual mean was in 1997, and the lowest was in 2001. Mean monthly discharge rates for the South Fork are displayed in the below graph.

Monthly discharges at Mackay Bar (cfs)
Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.8) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.3) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.9) ImageSize = width:800 height:280 PlotArea = left:60 bottom:30 top:30 right:60 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:10000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:1000 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:Jan text:Jan. bar:Fév text:Feb. bar:Mar text:Mar. bar:Avr text:Apr. bar:Mai text:May bar:Jun text:Jun. bar:Jul text:Jul. bar:Aoû text:Aug. bar:Sep text:Sep. bar:Oct text:Oct. bar:Nov text:Nov. bar:Déc text:Dec. PlotData= color:barra width:30 align:left bar:Jan from:0 till: 774 bar:Fév from:0 till: 755 bar:Mar from:0 till: 1020 bar:Avr from:0 till: 2280 bar:Mai from:0 till: 6600 bar:Jun from:0 till: 7060 bar:Jul from:0 till: 2040 bar:Aoû from:0 till: 759 bar:Sep from:0 till: 544 bar:Oct from:0 till: 547 bar:Nov from:0 till: 674 bar:Déc from:0 till: 747 PlotData= bar:Jan at: 774 fontsize:S text: 774 shift:(-8,5) bar:Fév at: 755 fontsize:S text: 755 shift:(-8,5) bar:Mar at: 1020 fontsize:S text: 1,020 shift:(-13,5) bar:Avr at: 2280 fontsize:S text: 2,280 shift:(-13,5) bar:Mai at: 6600 fontsize:S text: 6,600 shift:(-13,5) bar:Jun at: 7060 fontsize:S text: 7,060 shift:(-13,5) bar:Jul at: 2040 fontsize:S text: 2,040 shift:(-13,5) bar:Aoû at: 759 fontsize:S text: 759 shift:(-8,5) bar:Sep at: 544 fontsize:S text: 544 shift:(-8,5) bar:Oct at: 547 fontsize:S text: 547 shift:(-8,5) bar:Nov at: 674 fontsize:S text: 674 shift:(-8,5) bar:Déc at: 747 fontsize:S text: 747 shift:(-8,5)

Recreation

Although not as frequently run as the Middle Fork, the South Fork is also well known for challenging whitewater. Boaters frequently put in at the Secesh River, about above the mouth of the South Fork on the main stem Salmon. Because of their relatively pristine condition, the South Fork and its tributary, the Secesh are being considered for inclusion in the

National Wild and Scenic Rivers The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...

system.

References