The collaborative Cottonwood Creek Daylighting project is picking up momentum. The creek design shaping up and a new generation of Black Cottonwood trees are growing.This ambitious project will move Cottonwood Creek out of the buried flume where it has flowed for decades into an engineered creek channel on the east end of Julia Davis Park…. Read more »
News
Category: Instream Habitat
Barber Dam: The Hydropower Project in our Backyard
By Mary Lucachick The Barber Dam Hydroelectric Project is the closest hydroelectric power plant to Idaho’s capitol. It’s located about 1/3 mile above Eckert Road east of downtown Boise. Fulcrum, LLC, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power North America, Inc., and Ada County are co-licensees. The 40-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for the… Read more »
Cottonwood Creek: “A Great Source of Trouble and Expense”
A deep freeze had clenched the Boise valley for weeks and snow lay thick on the foothills. In mid-January the temperature shot up to a balmy 50 degrees and rain began to fall. Day after day the rain continued. On January 21, 1866, according to the January 23, 1866 edition of the Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman,… Read more »
Parma Rancher Tackles Water Quality
The Pintail Ranch straddles the Boise River near the Highway 95 bridge by Parma, ID. Doug Bates bought the the beautiful property, in part, to create and improve wildlife habitat on the ranch. Little did he know what was happening on his ranch was harming the fish and wildlife that live in the Boise River…. Read more »
IBO’s Boise River Research Station
By Gregory Kaltenecker, IBO Executive Director Most people know about the Intermountain Bird Observatory’s Lucky Peak Station high in the Boise foothills. Volunteers help band hundreds of migratory birds there each year. But IBO has a new research station on the Boise River on the pool created by the Barber Dam. This area of the… Read more »
Plant List for Riparian Enhancement
By Roger Rosentreter PhD, plant ecologist and river lover: High water! Means you have an opportunity to improve your little bit of the Boise River. Control of invasive species to improve the function and value of critical riparian habitat is a top recommendation of the Boise River Enhancement Plan, and now’s the time everyone can… Read more »
Floodplains Are Refuge for Fish in High Water
by Michael K. Homza, PE It’s humbling to stand on the banks of the Boise River as it roars by above its official flood discharge of 7,200 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs). It’s deep, cold and fast. I wonder if I could survive an attempt to swim across to the other bank. I shudder at the thought. Luckily,… Read more »
Boise: A River Runs Through It
By Charlie Woodruff, Building A Greener Idaho Our theme of From Snow to Flow continues this week with a conversation about the Boise River with Idaho Fish and Game Regional Fisheries Manager Joe Kozfkay and Freshwater Trust Idaho Program Manager Christy Meyer. Our beloved Boise River brings life to the high desert and flows through… Read more »
Volunteers Protect Enhancement Project from Rising River
A dozen hard working volunteers pitched in on February 22 to install coconut fiber erosion control mat over topsoil at a new habitat enhancement project on the Boise River by Eckert Bridge. The $45,000 aquatic habitat enhancement project was finished late last year, but there hadn’t been time to replant vegetation and stabilize the soil… Read more »
BREN Assembles Collaborative Teams for Multi-Benefit Enhancement Projects
The Boise River will have better habitat for fish and wildlife and cleaner water and more community members, including refugees, will participate in stewardship activities if funding is awarded to two BREN-facilitated collaborative enhancement projects. Cottonwood Creek Daylighting Project BREN partnered with the Ted Trueblood Chapter of Trout Unlimited, City of Boise, Idaho Department of Fish… Read more »