Last Fall BVFF volunteers built a landscape timber stairway at the Diane Moore Nature Center (DMNC) for anglers to access the Boise River. This spring, BVFF worked with St. Clair Contractors to complete a bank repair and add stone steps at the site. The initial plan was to add some sandstone slabs down the bank below the landscape timber stairs but we learned that to do work below the highwater mark we requires a stream alteration permit, and as a part of doing that permit we found additional requirements to fortify the bank to keep the river from doing further erosive damage. The final design has rip-rap rock along the edges to prevent erosion with larger boulders in the center that both protect the bank and allow access to the river. It was good to get the bank repair done before this year’s high-water event, which would have further eroded the bank. The bank repair is holding up well. Here is a photo of the bank repair at 6,000cfs this Spring.
To do the work we had to apply for a stream alteration permit from the Army Core of Engineers and Idaho Department of Water Resources, plus get approval from the Idaho Departments of Environmental Quality and Department of Lands. Permitting takes time and every time we do a project we learn a little more about the process. Thankfully the people at our Idaho offices are great to work with and helped us figure out how to get it done. Our thanks go to Katie Dibble and Cass Jones from IDWR, Marve Griffith and Will Shrader from the Army Corps and Derek Kraft from IDL for their help with the project.
Greg Kalteneker from the Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO) has been leading development at the DMNC and has been coordinating plantings at our Angler Access, both along the edges of the timber stairs we built as well as in the open area that was damaged where the Bobcat machinery accessed the river to do the stone work. This fall BVFF will wrap up the angler access project by installing the angler access signs, adding additional path retaining and doing any needed plantings to meet our permitting requirements.
The historic side channel that was recently restored at the DMNC has been giving fish a place to shelter from this year’s high spring flows. Here are photos of the new side channel full of water this Spring, and one of the trout habitat signs that BVFF installed.
BVFF is proud to be working out at the Diane Moore Nature Center. We would like to say Thank You to the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation for their grant to build the Angler Access; To Randy Lancaster for leading the construction of the landscape timber stairway and all of our volunteers for their efforts to build it; To Mike Dimmick and Mark Zirschky from the Flood District for their help designing the bank repair and sharing their knowledge of the permitting process; To Paul Warner for his generous donation of rock for the bank repair; and To Randy St. Clair for donating bank repair work. We would especially like to thank Greg Kalteneker for his tireless work to protect and improve such a special place on the Boise River.
The next time you are out near Barber Park or Lucky Peak, consider stopping at the DMNC and checking it out. For more info on the nature center, see their WEB SITE.
For more information on the Angler Access construction, including photos, see our blog entry: New Angler Access on the Lower Boise River For a video of the construction, see the BVFF YouTube Channel video.
