STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The claw on the caterpillar carefully deposited large boulders one by one into Rock Creek on the heart of the 10,400-acre Rock Creek Ranch west of Hailey.
Every time a rock didn’t set right, the operator retrieved it and started over. Once he was satisfied the boulders were placed perfectly, a handful of workers added smaller rocks by hand to solidify the natural-looking stone steps.
The small waterfall they created looked as if it had been created by Mother Nature. And the fish and riparian area along the creek will be better off for it.
“It’s fun to watch these guys work because they’re so precise,” said Keri York, Big Wood River Project manager for Trout Unlimited.
“Nice looking fishing hole,” added Lili Simpson, a board member with the Blaine County Land, Water and Wildlife program.
The landscaping—or, perhaps, river-scaping—is among several projects local agencies are collaborating on to open up 90 miles of streams, creeks and tributaries running through the ranch, which was purchased in 2014 by the Wood River Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy.
The work includes repairing and replacing three diversion structures that have prevented fish from getting where they need to spawn. And it includes reconnecting a historic stretch of creek channel.
Last week workers for Blaine County Road and Bridge and the Bureau of Land Management scurried to replace a mammoth culvert ahead of a snowstorm that had been predicted for the valley.
A handful of representatives from the agencies collaborating on the work marveled as Doug Swaner and his workers prepared to remove a dilapidated culvert from underneath the road and replace it with a much larger, longer one.
“I think I put the original culvert in during the 1980s,” he said.
The old culvert sits three feet above the creek on one side—too high for trout and Wood River sculpin to jump into as they swim upstream to spawn.
Blaine County is installing a flat bottom culvert that’s easier for fish to make their way through, said Swaner. And workers will place a rock weir above and below the culvert to deal with the vast differences in elevation at both ends.
Workers had already pulled out a diversion structure that had been obliterated in this spring’s flooding further down the creek.
They’re blocking a ditch in places to allow creek water to go into its historic channel. And they will be replacing diversion structures to allow the creek to function naturally and maintain irrigation water for the ranch.
And a new head gate and drain along one of the creeks flowing into Rock Creek will allow ranchers involved in a University of Idaho cattle research project to control ditch water for irrigation purposes.
They couldn’t do that with older ones because they were in such disrepair, said Cameron Packer, stewardship coordinator for the Wood River Land Trust.
The improvements will help with the ranch’s flood irrigation, which recharges the ground water throughout the Rock Creek drainage.
The restoration is a joint effort between Trout Unlimited, the Wood River Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Blaine County Road and Bridge and the Bureau of Land Management.
Agencies supplying funding for the projects, which started last year, include the Blaine County Land, Water and wildlife program, National Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Environmental Quality.
York says those who recreate on the property will noticed the improvements as willows rebound and other signs of improved habitat appear.
“These restoration efforts reconnect Rock Creek in certain places and improves aquatic habitat and the floodplain,” she said. “We’re restoring it for fish and wildlife and to continue flood irrigation.”
“The Rock Creek Ranch is pretty extraordinary,” added Clare Swanger, program coordinator for the Blaine County, Land, Water and Wildlife program, which was funded by taxpayers in 2008. “There aren’t many 10,400 acre ranches around anymore. There are enormous recreational opportunities here for birdwatchers, equestrians, hikers, bikers and others. So, it’s exciting to see what’s being done to restore the creek.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Rock Creek Ranch ranchers, who are researching sustainable rangeland practices, aren’t letting the old power poles removed by Idaho Power Company this summer go to waste. They will use them to rebuild the corral. Idaho Power Company erected new power poles throughout the valley.