IFG started the project off with a bang by partnering with Kaniksu Land Trust, placing nearly 2,000 acres of their property rights into a conservation easement, including nearly three-quarters of the entire stream, that will forever preserve this special spot for public recreation and education. IFG has teamed up with Trout Unlimited, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and Idaho Department of Fish and Game to restore Prichard Creek. Although the water is cold, the stream in its current state is not able to offer the refuge and abundance it once did. The waters flow underground for miles each summer and most of the stream lacks the rich floodplain habitat that was once likely vibrant with beavers, amphibians, and birds. Between 1917-1926 there was also a large in-stream placer dredge that turned over about five miles of the floodplain leaving an unrecognizable waterway. The watershed had several hard rock mines and mill sites in the 1900s that led to metals contamination in the water and sediment. It was the location where AJ Prichard first discovered placer gold in 1879 beginning the Coeur d’Alene mining rush. Prichard Creek is a tributary to the North Fork Coeur d’Alene River. In 2019, Idaho Forest Group, a Coeur d’Alene-based lumber company, embarked upon an unusual undertaking for an industrial timber landowner – to restore a stream extremely degraded by historic mining activities.
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