Friday, February 12, 2021
CapitalPress.com 11
Cooperative effort cleans up sediment, road problems
By BRIAN WALKER
For the Capital Press
PLUMMER, Idaho — The
days of Alder Creek Road in North
Idaho’s Benewah County being
unsafe have been left in the dust.
The Plummer-based Benewah
Soil and Water Conservation Dis-
trict and Benewah County per-
formed improvements along Alder
Creek from Alder Creek Loop
Road to the intersection of Carlin
Creek.
“Addressing the sediment
issues also addressed many safety
issues for residents on the road,”
said Bill Lillibridge, lead engineer
for the project.
“It was built as a seasonal road,
but was being utilized year-round
due to increased residential use.
It is pretty much the only road in
the immediate area and is seeing
extensive traffic with the expan-
sion of small-acreage residential
use.”
Lillibridge said the road posed a
year-round concern.
During wet weather and snow,
Benewah SWCD
The road before any work was done.
the road could be impassible. It
would wash out during the sum-
mer and fall.
Besides road grade raising, wid-
ening and improvements, 21 cul-
verts were added.
“These culverts provided drain-
age ditch relief and creek/draw
conveyance,” Lillibridge said.
“This replaced over-road flow in
most situations, which was a large
source of stream sediment and road
degradation.”
Proper road rocking, fill and
shaping was used on the project
area to improve drainage through
the road surface and reduce surface
runoff.
Projects that reduce sediment
are a high priority for the Coeur
d’Alene Lake Management Pro-
gram. The St. Maries watershed
contributes a high load of nutrients
to the lake, according to environ-
mental officials.
Much of the road was too nar-
row and unsafe for residents as
well as fire and medical emergency
vehicles prior to the improve-
ments. Catastrophic events such
as the 2015 fire season empha-
sized the critical need for road
improvements in this remote area
of Benewah County.
The project cost about
$400,000. An Idaho Department
of Environmental Quality Section
319 grant funded more than half of
the project, with the local govern-
ment funding the rest.
Leann Daman, manager of the
conservation district, said the first
two phases of the Alder Creek
grant were serviced with a private
engineering firm. That cost was
built into the budget for all three
phases of the project.
“When the conservation district
was asked to assist with Phase 3,
we were able to include the benefit
of our partnership with Idaho Soil
and Water Conservation Commis-
sion and the technical assistance we
receive through ISWCC. That cost
savings enabled the conservation
district to address about 2.5 addi-
tional miles of road by using engi-
neering services of ISWCC and not
a private hire engineer as had been
included by Benewah County and
its original grant budget.”
Those additional 2.5 miles were
treated with culverts and rock for
the benefit of local residents and
the Alder Creek watershed, she
said.
Another project the conserva-
tion district is involved with is St.
Joe River streambank stabilization.
The project addresses water
quality, fish and wildlife habi-
tat and riparian health restoration.
IDEQ, private landowners and
Avista Utilities are assisting with
funding. More than $100,000 has
been spent. The conservation dis-
trict will monitor the site for five
years.
The Idaho Department of
Fish and Game funded a separate
$300,000 St. Joe River streambank
restoration project of the conserva-
tion district.
“There has been some great
streambank restoration happening
on the St. Joe River,” Daman said.
Wildfire upstream can mean erosion problems afterward
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
A webpage, https://www.
oregon.gov/odf/fire/
Pages/afterafire.aspx, lists
resources for landowners
impacted by the wildfire,
including NRCS/USDA
financial assistance to help
farmers, ranchers and for-
est landowners in Marion,
Clackamas, Linn, Lane,
Douglas, Jackson, Tilla-
mook, Washington, Yamhill,
Lincoln and Josephine
counties.
Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Detroit buildings were devastated by fires that swept through the Cascade Range in
September. The surrounding burned forests are precursors to erosion that will im-
pact water quality, experts say.
federal officials.
Flooding not only threat-
ens fish-bearing streams
and drinking water sources,
but also can leave noxious
weeds on farm fields, accord-
ing to Kyle Abraham, chief
of the Oregon Department
of Forestry’s private forests
division.
OTECO
Rebecca McCoun, North
Santiam Watershed Council
executive director, said local
volunteers have been work-
ing hard to help landowners
whose properties were, or will
be, affected by the fire.
By mid-November, more
than 122 landowners had
been contacted in Marion and
Linn counties; 106 of these
were given 240,700 pounds
of straw donated, gathered
and delivered by volunteers to
help reduce erosion.
“It has blown my mind,”
McCoun said of the volun-
teer help.
“Very little can be done
in some places,” she said of
steep banks and canyons with
basalt walls. “Erosion is going
to be a problem. But there are
W ATER M ASTER S ERIES
WHEEL TRACK FILLERS
sites where there’s potential.”
Root wads can be used
to fortify banks and donated
straw bales could prevent
some erosion. Planting trees
and protecting water sources
may stave off future prob-
lems, she said, but the time to
act is now.
Work began quickly to
assess the damage and plan
projects that will guard
against landslides, clear road-
ways and prevent erosion and
other disasters.
Fire-caused erosion may
increase this winter, U.S. For-
est Service Hydrologist Jamie
Sheahan Alonso predicted
in November as she shared a
multi-agency assessment of
the watershed’s damage.
National forest land makes
up approximately half of the
Lionshead and Beachie Creek
burned area.
In addition to federal
assessments, the multi-agency
Erosion Threat Assessment
Resource Team (ETART) is
also assessing water-related
issues on state, private and
tribal lands.
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canyon with emergency sup-
plies. Now, well into the win-
ter rain and snow season, the
post-fire’s threat to private,
local, state and federal lands
is becoming evident. Win-
ter storms could wash down
soil exposed by the fire caus-
ing flash floods and erosion,
according to local, state and
S221118-1
DETROIT, Ore. — The
devastation to the North San-
tiam Canyon is palpable. At
Detroit, if you roll your car
window down, the smell of
wet ashes drifts in on the chill
winter air.
Along the banks of the
North Santiam River, piles
of charred trees and brush
removed from the hillsides
await removal.
The fires that in Septem-
ber burned more than 1 mil-
lion acres in Oregon are out,
but erosion and floods may be
the next disasters that follow
them, hydrologists warn.
Rain and snow now blan-
ket more than 400,000 acres
torched in September by the
Beachie Creek and Lionshead
fires in the Cascade Range
east of the Willamette Valley,
the largest two of the seven
major fires that sparked in
September.
Dozens of community
groups, including farmers,
have helped residents of the
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