Saint Joe River
In 1978, 66.3 miles (107 km) of the river were protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, with 26.6 miles (43 km) designated as wild and another 39.7 miles (64 km) designated as recreational.
The Saint Joe River drains 1,850 square miles (4,790 km) of the Idaho Panhandle. It is part of the Spokane River watershed, which in turn is part of the Columbia River basin. About 68 percent is owned by the United States Forest Service (the St. Joe National Forest), 4 percent is owned by the Bureau of Land Management, 2 percent is owned by the State of Idaho, and the rest is privately owned.
The Saint Joe River watershed is covered primarily by mixed coniferous forest, which includes species such as Douglas fir, true fir, larch, and pine. Alder is common in the riparian zones of high altitude river valleys, while cottonwood dominates the lower altitude riparian zones, much of which have been converted to agricultural land. Rush, sedge, and cattails are common in the river's floodplains, which are also used to grow wild rice.
The river is home to many species of fish, including native westslope cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish, cedar sculpin and other cottids, shiners, and nonnative rainbow and brook trout, chinook and Kokanee Salmon. The upper Saint Joe River is also home to the last self-sustaining population of vulnerable bull trout in the Coeur d'Alene Lake watershed.
See also
- Cedar Snags, National Register-listed area along the North Fork, where large tree stumps in a swampy area survive from the Great Fire of 1910
- List of rivers of Idaho
- List of longest streams of Idaho
- List of National Wild and Scenic Rivers
- Tributaries of the Columbia River