STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Rev. Kathleen Bean regularly recharges herself walking through the Draper Preserve near her Hailey home.

“I feel like the muskrat that I see and the other wild things are my family, my community.  And I want to do what I can to protect them,” she said.

Bean did just that, lending her voice to an 18-minute film focused on the Big Wood River that streamed across the screen at The Argyros Thursday night.

The film was commissioned by the Wood River Land Trust to convince supporters of the need to preserve and protect the river. And some of the crowd raised their paddles twice, even three times, during the gathering, which featured a buffet of hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer.

“The river is a story about unconditional love. You can give, but you will never outgive the river,” auctioneer Kevin Troutt told the crowd, as he listed the hundreds of bird and wildlife species that benefit from the river. “I know many people in this room have sat down by the river and let it wash their troubles away. And, tonight, we have a chance to give back.”

The headwaters of the Big Wood River start at Titus Lake near Galena Pass.

“The mountains are the face of the valley, but the river is its heart,” said Bean. “Everyone in the Wood River Valley has a relationship with the river, whether through fishing, swimming, walking their dogs along the bank or even skipping stones,” she added. “Life wouldn’t be the same without the river.”

Gravity takes the river skipping over rocks between the Smoky Mountains and the Boulder Mountains, where it’s bolstered by tributaries like Prairie Creek and Warm Springs Creek.

The river brings food to the valley, providing a source of nourishment, as it irrigates farms south of Bellevue before flowing under the Sheep Bridge to Magic Reservoir and through canals into crop sprinklers.

But today’s river is not the river that the Native Americans enjoyed and the first white settlers encountered, Bean noted in her narrative.

During the past hundred years people have tried to tame the river. Today half of it is disconnected from its natural floodplain. Rip-rap and poor planning has straightened it, reducing the meandering that slows the river, lessening the risk of flooding. And 23 bridges span the river, constricting it making the river less resilient to flooding.

The stretch of river running through Hulen Meadows is the most degraded part of the river, according to Ryan Santo, the Land Trust’s restoration specialist. The creation of the pond has created problems, and sediment deposit have raised the river two to three feet, flooding homes downstream during periods of high snowmelt.

Trail Creek provides critical trout habitat.

But the wooden dam built at Sun Valley Lake Dam in the 1930s has kept trout from being able to access 15 miles of spawning habitat and the main channel of Big Wood River. Originally, the dam boasted a fish ladder, but that ladder was decommissioned when Dollar Road was built in the 1950s.

It was reestablished in the 1990s, but the lake hasn’t been high enough for fish to utilize it so the Land Trust and Hemingway Chapter Trout Unlimited are working with Sun Valley Company to address the problem.

The Hailey Greenway is a heavily channelized portion of the river, but the recent acquisition of the Simons/Bauer Preserve will help the Land Trust restore the floodplain there.

Colorado Gulch is beginning to look healthy, thanks to the preservation efforts of the Land Trust, Bean said in her narrative. But more work to be done. Rip-rap needs to be removed and a bridge lost during the 2017 flood needs to be replaced with a longer spanning bridge that will provide a healthier ecosystem and more recreational access.

The Land Trust recently removed 4,000 cubic yards of material at Howards Preserve to open a side channel. It also removed material to connect the floodplain and constructed woody debris structures to enhance the fish habitat.

Since its inception 26 years ago, the Land Trust has protected 19 miles of Big Wood River and its tributaries, preserved 26,765 acres, created 16 preserves and established 41 conservation easements.

But there’s so much more to do, said Executive Director Scott Boettger.

“The impact from COVID was unprecedented,” he added. “Two-thirds of the county has yet to be developed. We know we can’t stop growth—people love this place. So, we know we’re going to have to accelerate our activities.”

When the last paddle was lowered, the Land Trust had raised at least $145,200, with the help of double and even triple matching challenges by the Land Trust Board Chair David Woodward and others.

Boettger noted that the Land Trust’s mission is to protect treasured landscapes and the river. While we have much to celebrate, we also have much to do to ensure our lands, our water, our wildlife and our home last forever, he added.

“To make sure this place remains as special as it’s always been, we must continue to work together to protect the things that make this valley our home,” he added.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR YOURSELF

Go to: https://vimeo.com/654649448?blm_aid=35372