A purpose of this study was to evaluate current conditions for fish and other aquatic life in Meacham Creek and compare this to what the stream was probably like prior to European settlement. We used two reference streams, the North Fork Meacham Creek and the Wenaha River, to provide snap shots of functioning stream conditions where human influences are minor. Another purpose of the study was to develop an action plan with recommended practical improvements to Meacham Creek that would benefit fish.

Meacham Creek is a stream of contrasts. Warm enough at its mouth for summer swimming; it is also host to a population of cold-seeking bull trout in its headwaters. Secluded behind locked gates and barely inhabited by people, it includes one of the busiest railroad lines in the state. The stream is capable of delivering water at the rate of 8,800 cubic feet per second during extreme floods but its flow drops to a trickle by late summer, with some sections going subsurface altogether. Its thickly-forested northfacing slopes clash with the sun-scalded grasslands facing south.

Fish have adapted to the peculiar patterns of Meacham Creek over the thousands of years and some species still do well. The productivity of young-of-the year steelhead trout is high, although chinook salmon and bull trout numbers are low.