COEUR d'ALENE — Over the course of 15 days in October, a dam at Big Creek in Shoshone County went by the wayside as part of yearslong efforts to restore the area’s natural resources.  

A Four Counties Natural Resource Committee talk Wednesday at the Iron Horse Bar and Grill took attendees through the work to remove it, straighten a section of stream to divert it from the roadway and reconnect native fish to their former spawning grounds.  

Rebecca Stevens, program manager for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's Natural Resources Department-Hazardous Waste Management Program, said the construction stopped in early winter 2025.   

“Big Creek is clean, we don’t have contamination in this area,” Stevens said. “It’s not very often you have a tributary in the Silver Valley that is clean and has fish.”  

Partners in the Restoration Partnership contributed $214,000 toward the project. Sunshine Mining Company chipped in $350,000 to power the Sunshine Diversion Dam, constructed in 1935. The Four C's include Benewah, Kootenai, Latah and Shoshone counties. 

The dam was removed during the government shutdown, causing a few unexpected delays, Stevens said, but the project was completed by the end of 2025, providing access to 27 square miles of the Big Creek watershed. Before that, the area had been blocked to fish migration due to the dam's height and flow velocity, according to the Restoration Partnership. 

Members of the Restoration Partnership include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Idaho Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.  

Justin Shaw of HMH Engineering called the dam removal a “feel-good project.”  

“They started talking about it 30 years ago and to get it down to a 15-day work contract was amazing,” Shaw said. “People drive by now and don’t know there was a structure there.” 

The plan is to allow the stream to heal and begin riparian plantings this spring to restore native vegetation.  

Future upstream structure removal projects will follow historical designs. The dam removal project, however, didn’t have a historical design partner to follow, which is why allowing the stream to run its course to assess its flow is an essential next step. 

“Where does this creek want to be?” Shaw asked. “We’re starting to see what Big Creek looks like in this area.”     

Workers installed a silt fence and a silt curtain at Big Creek to reduce turbidity during dam removal. Numbers were reported to DEQ when water turbidity was high, indicating the presence of contaminants.    

Stevens said the dam removal was one of about 20 projects in the restoration planning area underway with the Restoration Partnership, and that working directly with the Sunshine Mining Company was a change of pace. 

Dry wells were also installed as part of the project in case Sunshine Mine needs water access in the future. 

Wade Jerome, a restoration biologist with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, said the project generated significant excitement as natural patterns began to reemerge in the waterway's ecosystem.

“Fish can get to spawning grounds they haven’t gotten to in 100 years,” Jerome said.   

*This story was updated with additional agencies included in the partnership.

    Justin Shaw of HMHM Engineers addresses the audience on the Big Creek fish passage barrier removal in Shoshone County, completed in late 2025.

    The Big Creek Fish Passage Barrier Removal Project united several agencies.