Rebuilt stream a secret paradise Twenty Mile project creates hidden gem
—Photo by MIKE WELAND<br>Ken Swift moves the ball ahead as Badgers young and old gathered Friday for their annual alumni game at Kenny Mendenhall Stadium. Despite a few creaky old bones that could be heard clear to the stands, both teams played hard, scored well and, most important, had a great time.
By ELAINE SANDMAN
Staff writer
By the time the Twenty Mile Fish Passage project was finished by the Boundary Soil Conservation District it looked like a picture postcard.
It is a hidden but easily accessible beauty on a site that thousands regularly pass by on their way South to Sandpoint or coming north to Bonners Ferry.
The restored stream site is at the corner where Twenty Mile road meets with Highway 95. A recent farm tour stopped at the site to learn more about it.
"I've gone by this spot for five years and never knew it existed just five yards away," Shinji Imoto said.
Others in the group commented how great it was that the landowner had thought to coordinate with the state and participating organizations to create a place that benefits everyone and the environment.
Rene Riddle of Boundary Soil Conservation was the driving force that tracked down the funding and completed the permits and many other tasks necessary to get the project started and completed.
"A piece of what we love most about our Boundary County has been brought back to its glory," Riddle said.
Jody Walters a Fish Research Biologist with the Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game, along with Michael Gondek and many others were also a critical part of bringing this section of stream and land back to its natural state.
"It's hoped that soon Rainbow trout will be migrating up the new stream bed and spawning and in the future when the trout's numbers are enough fishermen will have a pedestrian bridge to fish from and hikers a place to stand and look down into the crystal clear waters watching the trout swim by," said Walters, a fish research biologist with Idaho Fish and Game.
The land has been restored, the Twenty Mile road still crosses the stream easily and people who need a rest on their travels now have a parking lot to pull into that when they get out to stretch their legs leads them to a place just two car lengths away from the parking lot where they can find peace, quiet and beauty and in the future get a look at fish who will find this restored stream a sanctuary to come to," said Gondek, district conservationist with the United States Department.
This project has accomplished other goals as well; reestablishing water quality, enhancing stream habitat, and reducing sediment by stabilizing stream channel and banks, he said.
The project funded the labor and materials to replace the existing culvert with a new bridge. The stream channel under the new structure is natural, consisting of boulders and cobble to dissipate energy and provide resting pools for migrating fish. A series of grade control structures (rock weirs) created the needed step-pools, and removed the elevation difference between the stream channel and the old culvert.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supplied the engineering design for the drop structures. Boundary County Road and Bridge supplied the engineering design for the bridge itself. The county road supervisor supplied 120 administrative hours of county time to plan and initiated the project, 1,093 hours of county employee labor for actual construction, and 609 hours of equipment time.
The district will plans to have high school volunteers plant the willow bundles in the spring.
Land owners and others interested about more projects underway or thinking of projects on their lands can call Riddle or Gondek at 267-3340.