Silver Creek in Blaine County, Idaho is a fisherman’s paradise and famed trout fishery with stunning clear water. But since the USGS began recording flow data in 1974, there has been a significant decline in the flow rates in Silver Creek.
Over the past few decades, the fish habitat has also been adversely affected and diminished.
In partnership with the Silver Creek Alliance and Idaho Fish and Game, private landowners and The Nature Conservancy have restored several miles of stream channels, rehabilitated side channels, enhanced and constructed wetlands, removed sediment build up at targeted sites, and improved acres of wildlife habitat.
Because the adjacent landowners appreciate the importance of preserving the stream conditions, some parts of the restoration projects in the Silver Creek watershed have been with the landowners’ own funding.
Landowners adjacent to the Silver Creek Preserve are part of a conservation effort that protects an additional 12,000 acres through conservation easements.
One such privately funded project was on lower Chaney Creek. Chaney Creek is a near-three mile-long creek located in Blaine County, Idaho that lies a little over 100 miles east of Boise. Surrounded by acres of farmland, natural woodlands and sagebrush prairie, the creek is a major tributary in the Silver Creek watershed.
When the ENVIROdredge team started work on Chaney Creek, there was a severe lack of water depth and an excess of plants and sediment restricting water flow.
Knowing this, the team aimed to clear the creek of any sediment that had collected from upstream, while simultaneously clearing aquatic plants and brush. In doing so, the creek’s natural depth and bank were restored.
The results were easy to see, with the water once again crystal clear and with a visibility of around six to seven feet. The removal of the sediment and plants was apparent, and the aesthetic of the creek was once again pristine.
As soon as the work was completed on lower Chaney Creek, the Versi-Dredge was moved to Loving Creek, another major tributary to Silver Creek. At Loving Creek the nutrient-rich sediment was discharged directly into farm fields to later be tilled into the soil.