Heagle Park Floodplain Restoration
It's A Grand Slam At Upper Colorado Gulch. Reducing Flooding, Restoring Crucial Habitats, And Returning The Banks Of The Bigwood River To A Natural State Is A Win-win-win.
WHO?
The Wood River Land Trust has partnered with the City of Hailey and Flood Control District #9
WHAT?
A streambank and floodplain restoration project. Project treatments include the installation of engineered log jams, floodplain benching, installation of over 100 riparian plants, and excavating the entrance of the side channel along Della Mountain.
PROBLEMS, LIMITING FACTORS & HISTORY
This reach of the Big Wood River has been directly altered by anthropogenic activities that include development encroachment on the floodplain, channel straightening, dredging, and armoring. Anthropogenic system alterations have resulted in highly unstable conditions prone to excessive deposition, bank erosion, and residential flooding. The large magnitude flood (greater than 50-year return interval) experienced in the Big Wood River in 2017 resulted in widespread flooding, erosion, and woody debris recruitment across the basin. Excessive sediment supply and insufficient transport capacity in the project area resulted in sediment and woody debris deposition within the Big Wood River channel. These changes within the river channel have resulted in increased flood regime within the project vicinity.
In response to an increased awareness and desire to implement flood mitigation efforts, the scope of the Hailey Greenway Master Plan (HGMP) was revised in July 2017 to include additional analysis and information on river system management throughout the greenway corridor. This project near Heagle Park was identified in the HGMP river management recommendations technical memorandum.
PROJECT GOALS & BENEFITS
As stakeholders look to find solutions to flood mitigation and enhancing riparian and floodplain habitat within this reach; this project will look to increase bank stabilization to critical infrastructure and increase riparian and floodplain habitat by removing rip rap and fill material.
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Objectives:
1. Remove rip-rap and fill material and return project area to natural elevation, including sloping the bank to allow for riparian habitat enhancement and recruitment of vegetation and large woody materials. Return the project site to natural elevation to increase floodplain connectivity.
2. Provide bank stabilization in the northern end of the project area to increase protection of the City of Hailey’s pump station. We want to improve bank stabilization while providing the opportunity for riparian habitat enhancement within the northern end of the project area.
3. restore inactive side channel function to increase floodwater conveyance and help reduce flood regime within the area.
4. Evaluate if proposed project will alleviate flood waters to recede from the Della View Neighborhood. High flooding events like the one that occurred in 2017 had impacts of sheet flooding to this neighborhood. Stakeholders are interested in decreasing the impacts of sheet flooding and how this project could address this issue.
