BY KAREN BOSSICK

Learn what Wood River Valley residents can learn from Pocatello’s Portneuf River on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

The Wood River Land Trust is bringing Hannah Sanger, science and environment diviision administrator for the City of Pocatello, to make a free presentation at 6 p.m. at Ketchum’s Community Library.

The presentation will be repeated at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, at the Hailey Public Library.

Sanger will talk about Pocatello’s history of flood control efforts and how the community is now working to undo some of those efforts.

She will offer examples of past “best management practices” for flood mitigation that have had unintended consequences for the river and the community.

After the presentation, she and Scott Boettger, executive director of the Land Trust will discuss how to apply those lessons to the Wood River.

The Portneuf River originates in the Portneuf Range. The 111-mile-long corridor drains 1,300 square miles of land.

Heavy alternations have compromised the health of the ecosystem and reduced benefits to wildlife fish and the community.

Sanger has led an effort to reimagine the Portneuf River, culminating in the 2016 Portneuf River Vision Study.

 The effort includes interpretative signage, plans for setting back a levee and creating river access by Centennial Park.

The presentation is being made in partnership with the Community Library, the cities of Hailey and Ketchum, The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited.