Preliminary Enhancement Plan Presentation

Picture above- Laura Hubbard, The Nature Conservancy's Idaho State Director talking with John and Elizabeth Stevenson about riparian plantings done along Patton creek last fall.

On June 24th, over fifty people gathered to hear Ecosystem Sciences Foundation present the preliminary enhancement plan for Silver Creek. After the meeting I hung around and spoke with a variety of people. Reactions ranged from staunch excitement to extreme disappointment. ESF stayed their course of ‘do no harm’ and advocated taking care of the remaining sediment inputs before doing any more extensive stream work. Because they think sediment inputs are coming largely from overland flow during the snow melt and runoff events, stopping those inputs will mean creating more substantial riparian buffers. Much of this work has already been done, riparian buffers being the focus of stream work from the 1970s to late 1990’s, but there are still some areas that need attention. Beyond the riparian buffers, we talked about a variety of subject ranging from groundwater usage, extending conservation partners, mitigating temperatures with increased riparian plantings, trout populations and existing (and lacking) data, restoration philosophies, and the list goes on.

It has been my goal from the beginning to have the planning process as open and transparent as possible. Nothing is written in stone at this point! This plan is still very much a work in progress—I myself submitted four pages of questions, concerns, ideas, and input to ESF last week and am waiting for their response. Feel free to do the same, here or in an email or phone call—the more they hear from us, the more robust the plan will be.

Presentation of the preliminary Silver Creek Enhancement Plan is this THURSDAY!!!!

You are invited to join us for an evening presentation from Ecosystem Sciences Foundation on the preliminary Silver Creek Enhancement Plan. They have been wading through the data, analyzing photos, and studying all things Silver Creek. It is time to hear what they have to say about what Silver Creek was, where it is today, and where it wants to go. We look forward to seeing you!

5:30 p.m. The Nature Conservancy office in Hailey at 116 First Avenue North. Call 788-7910 for more information.

We need photos!!

Call for photos! If you have any historical photos, we would love to see them! This helps us with the mapping so we can make sure what we think we are seeing the aerial photos is what we are actually seeing. Please email or send any photos you may have. Or you can call me, I will come get the photos, scan them and return them to you with a disk for you. 788-7910

Opening day on May 29th-- time for feedback and a barbeque!!!

The public meetings are coming to a close. We had a full house at the visitor center on May 11, I don’t think we have ever crammed so many people into that space! Mark Hill gave an interesting presentation on Ecosystem Sciences work in California on the Owens River. There were many differences and many parallels to the Silver Creek project and we had the opportunity to discuss a few of them. However, the talk always circles back to sediment when you talk about restoring Silver Creek. I heard from many people who disagreed with Marks statement that most of the sediment in Silver Creek is from historic inputs. I also heard from people who agreed. Many people said that it didn’t really matter—what do we do about it NOW?

Next meeting will be an open house at the visitor center on May 29th. Join us for a barbeque lunch from 12-3 pm and an open house where you can look at the preliminary maps and give us feedback.

PRELIMINARY PLAN TO BE PRESENTED ON JUNE 24th IN HAILEY, GET US YOUR FEEDBACK BEFORE THEN!!!!

June 24th, 5:30 p.m. at The Nature Conservancy office located at 116 1st Ave. North Hailey, ID. 83333

Objectives

Photo- IDFG's Terry Greggory, TNC's Dayna Gross, and private landowner, John Stevenson.

One of the things I keep getting asked during the public meetings and in discussions with people is—what is your objective?

This is a hard question to answer right now because we, The Nature Conservancy, have objectives for Silver Creek that focus on preservation and enhancement of specific habitat types. However, part of the process in developing a watershed plan, is to incorporate other objectives into our own--- with the goal of engaging multiple stakeholders to help guide the long-term conservation vision of the watershed.

Currently, our goals and objectives are as follows:
Our Goal: To work with landowners and partners to protect and restore the most important habitats in the Silver Creek watershed to ensure that the creek remains a special place for fish, wildlife and people.

Silver Creek Enhancement Plan Objective:
The Silver Creek Enhancement Plan will be the first effort to comprehensively address fish and wildlife habitat in the entire Silver Creek watershed, including tributary streams. The plan will identify where habitat is in the best condition, and where habitat can be restored. It will prioritize projects and focus on those methods and partnerships that can achieve the most effective conservation. The plan will also develop incentives for landowners interested in enhancing habitat on their properties. By undertaking this comprehensive effort, we can ensure the long-term protection and improvement of Silver Creek.

Let us know what you think!

Water Modeling

Amazing how cold it can be at the end of April at Silver Creek! The wind cuts through clothing like nothing. And this is the week that Maria Loinaz scheduled to come to the valley and install monitoring devices for her pHd studies!

Originally from Puerto Rico, she is doing her pHd research in Denmark focusing on groundwater and surface water modeling. She chose the Wood River Valley as a research location because of the unique nature of the area—the groundwater and surface water are closely tied together, it is a world class fly fishing destination, and there are environmental stressors effecting the system (in particular sediments, nutrients, and temperature). There have been models of the Wood River water system done before but the unique thing about Maria’s is that she is coupling the water model with an ecological model. She will be able to see how changes to the system (such as temperature, land use changes, etc) will affect the ecosystem and specific habitats.

Stay posted!

The Meetings continue

I enjoyed two great meetings this week and look forward to the last one of this series tonight. These meetings are open houses and meant to be forums for discussion. So far, we have talked more about silt and added a few topics--- for instance, shoudl the tributaries be managed differently than the main stem of Silver Creek?

Ecosystem Sciences Foundation has been knee deep in data and studies, and also knee deep in Silver Creek. Some of their VERY PRELIMINARY observations and discussion topics are as follows:

• The majority of sediment deposits in Silver and most tributary streams are “legacy” sediments from the early years of livestock grazing. Relatively recent studies seem to confirm this and that a sediment balance has been reached in Silver Creek in that the annual sediment inputs may equal the annual sediment exports.
• Current sediment sources occur during spring runoff from agriculture fields adjacent to streams that are not adequately buffered with riparian vegetation. Other sediment sources such as airborne (losses during tilling), bank erosion, muskrat activity, etc., are far less significant than the overland runoff.
• The average and minimum annual summer temperatures in Silver Creek are well below threshold temperatures for all trout life stages. Maximum summer temperature, generally at dusk, are high yet still below the threshold temperature for trout. Rapid temperature decline beginning at night fall ameliorates adverse affects on trout. In fact studies show substantial trout feeding activity at night.
• Neither temperatures nor sediments are currently having an adverse affect on Silver Creek trout populations; however, there is small margin for additional temperature increases or sediment deposition before a “tipping point” is reached in which trout numbers, recruitment and growth are adversely affected.

These are discussion topics only as ESF may revise them based on further investigation!!! Stay posted!

For the meetings in May, we can look forward to seeing these maps:
• Watershed Map: Basic map of what area will be included as
the “ecosystem”
• River-Tributary Map: Bellevue triangle including Big and Little Wood river connections
• Groundwater: Basic local of the aquifer(s) in triangle and major wells
• Land Use: Color coded for ag, rural, urban, preserve, etc
• Irrigation System: Use hydro graphics to map major canals and diversions
• Landform and Vegetation: riparian, etc
• Fish Habitat: Pools, riffles, runs
• Sediment Inputs: Using info from Goodman and Griffith/Minshall studies
• Sediment Deposition: Major sites of deposition in Loving, Silver
• Thermal Conditions: Using thermal imagery, temp data from data loggers)
• Steam Widening 1946 overlay on 2009 (with quantification)
• Buffer Zones: areas where ag land and tributary interface are or are not adequately buffered
• Stream Restoration: Map restoration projects as length of stream to illustrate connectivity and isolation
• Priority Areas: sediment input, channel overwidening, diversions/backwater, ponds, deposition zones, thermal loading, etc


What do we need now???
Your comments and old photos! Please use get us your comments, thoughts, photos, and information as soon as possible.
Thank you and hope to see you tonight at the Nature Conservancy office in Hailey at 116 1st ave. north, 5:30 pm.
Dayna