Hailey greenway
project set to start
Earth Day
cleanup
To
celebrate the kick-off of the Hailey greenway project and to mark Earth
Day, the Wood River Land Trust is leading a trash cleanup effort at Lion’s
Park on Saturday, April 20, from 10 a.m. to noon.
After
the cleanup, Smokey Mountain Pizza and Albertson’s will provide lunch.
Garbage bags and means for disposal will be provided. The land trust asks
only that volunteers bring their own gloves.
The
goals of the restoration project include improving water quality of the
Big Wood River, making river access easier and safer for residents,
decommissioning Hailey’s old sewer plant, restoring wetlands, improving
aquatic habitat and creating a pond for recreation and flood control.
By GREG
STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Lion’s
Park, Heagle Park and the Big Wood River in Hailey are about to receive
significant makeovers. And with the planned changes, the first steps
toward a potential south-valley green belt will be realized.
This
summer, the city of Hailey and the Wood River Land Trust will work to
restore natural characteristics to sections of the Big Wood River, which
has been managed and channeled for 100 years. The city’s old sewer plant
adjacent to Heagle Park will be decommissioned and replaced with a
settling pond and wetlands.
The high,
unnatural river bank in Lion’s Park will be leveled, creating at least
the semblance of a natural flood plain. Several stone and log ledges will
be installed in the river to give it pool-drop characteristics and improve
fish habitat.
"What
we’re trying to do here is restore or replicate the natural
system," said Scott Boettger, executive director of the Wood River
Land Trust. "That’s the beauty of this. It will reduce maintenance
costs and flooding."
The
projects are possible this summer because of a $200,000 federal clean
water grant channeled through the Idaho Department of Environmental
Quality. In the grant application process, Idaho labeled the project its
highest priority last year, Boettger said. The entire project should cost
about $350,000.
The project
is unique in that it provides a jumping-off point toward preserving a
potential river-side green belt between Hailey and Bellevue. Lion’s Park
and Heagle Park are about a mile and a half from one another, and the Land
Trust owns a parcel in between the parks. In addition, Idaho owns a
sizable portion of the river bottom.
Only two
private properties block the area from becoming the first river-front mile
of what ultimately could be a four-mile-long green belt between the valley’s
two southern cities.
"We
want this to be a starting point," Boettger said. "We want to
continue this operation, both north and south, for resource protection.
The idea is to continue protection of the river, not just achieve
stand-alone areas."
This summer’s
work will consist of two phases.
One will
consist of grading the stream bank on the west side of the river in Lion’s
Park and adding the ledges to slow stream flows and create fish habitat.
More than
5,000 cubic yards of material will be removed from the Lion’s Park
stream bank, tapering it 80 to 90 feet from the river bank. Existing
plants will be preserved, and native vegetation will be planted.
The other
project will involve construction of a holding pond just south of Heagle
Park, partially on the site of the old sewage treatment plant. The
one-acre pond will help slow river flows and create a wetlands.
The holding
pond will be designed to function similarly to the Hulen Meadows pond
north of Ketchum.
Hailey
Public Works Manager Ray Hyde said decommissioning of the sewage plant has
already begun, but won’t be kicked into high gear until mid-June. Hyde
said he hopes the entire project to be concluded by October.
"I
think it’s going to be a huge benefit, not only to the county, but it’s
also going to help some of the spring flooding problems," Hyde said.
Bruce Lium,
director of the American Water Resources Co., which will help with the
project, summarized: "This project is a wonderful benefit to the
river system. We will provide resting areas for fish, prevent erosion
along the banks and restore the natural habitat to benefit wildlife."
Boettger
pointed out that the river originally meandered through the Hailey-area
corridor, but was channeled using a berm on the east side of the river to
protect property investments in the early 1900s. The city of Hailey has
used Lion’s Park as a fill area for debris from construction sites,
further channeling the river.
"We
obviously can’t take the berms out and put the meanders back in,"
Boettger said. "But we want to get it as natural as possible."