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HomeMy Public PortalAboutLittle Salmon RiverThe Star-News 2/27/97 Flood victim blames logging for damage BY ROGER PHILLIPS The Stu -News Wayne Canon's property was one of many along the Little Salmon River that was damaged during the New Year's Day storm, but it came as no surprise to Canon. He has been watching mud roll down the hill above his property since 1988 when logging started there on 570 acres of private land. Canon blames the logging for the severity of the slides during the floods. Canon's 3.5 acres near Pinehurst have been hit by four mudslides in as many years, and several other times in the past, he said. He estimates about 40 percent of his land is now covered with mud from slides resulting from the New Year's Day storm. The slides washed out Canon's irrigation system, which provided wa- ter to his and his neighbors' properties and also silted in his one -acre trout pond. "This has been a complete decima- tion of this property," Canon said. At age 80, he is too old to try to clear his land again and it is worthless to sell, he said, so come spring he's selling all his personal belongings and abandoning his home of 16 years. His situation is bad enough that the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave him $1,500 to help re- store his property, but Canon said it's not nearly enough to remove the mud and he can't afford to do it on his own. Canon' s only recourse would be to sue the land owners and the compa- nies that logged the property, which he can't afford to do. "The burden of proof is all on me," he said. "It costs too damn much money and I'm old and tired and don't have that much time." He said he has waged a continuing battle since 1988 with the property owners and loggers, but the 570 acres has changed hands three times and it has been logged by each land owner. "They look everything that would make a four -by- four," Canon said. He reported his problems to the Idaho Department of Lands, which twice cited a logging company for improper road drainage. A citation issued in January 1995 noted failed culverts on logging roads, inadequate drainage and poorly con- structed cross ditches on roads that allowed surface erosion, according to the citation. John Lillehaug, forest practices advisor fob- the McCall office of the Idaho Department of Lands, said after each citation repairs were made to the road system. But it's been a trouble- some area for erosion, partially due to an old road system and repeated log- ging, Lillehaug said. "It's an area that's frustrating to work with," Lillehaug said. "This one's been kind of an ongoing trouble area." "If they had done things properly from the very beginning, we probably wouldn't have the problems we've had through the years," he said. Lillehaug explained that logging and road building was not solely re- sponsible for the slides. Other slides occurred on nearby state lands that haven't been logged for 30 years. But the logging was likely a contributing factor, he said. "When you're in there three times in 10 years, that's a lot of disturbance to a piece of ground," he said. State forestry practices laws apply to private land the same as public land, Lillehaug said. The lands de- partment agency can only supervise how to log an area and cite a company for infractions. Citations force a company to fix existing problems, but the lands de- partment cannot stop someone from logging private lands, assess fines for infractions or award any damages. Any monetary recovery from an affected adjacent land owner would have to be awarded by the courts, not the state, Lillehaug said. The Idaho Statesman 3/16/97 Page #1 of 3 Pages Could it happen in Boise? Maybe this spdngl The Little Salmon Measures that ins ate L u se itve . rValley an illusion that may melt along with record By Rocky Barker The Idaho Statesman orm and Dorothy Olsen are moving to higher ground. The retired Pinehurst couple watched as the Lit- tle Salmon River under- cut their dream home and washed it downstream during the New Year's Day floods. "When this river comes up, it moves boulders as big as cars around. It just shakes the ground like an earthquake," Olsen said, standing on the edge of the steep river bank where his bedroom once sat. "I know it's going to happen again and I want out of here." People are coming to the same con- clusion throughout Idaho and the West. Nature is exacting a high price for the logging roads through the forest, dream homes on the hillsides and restaurants on the river that reshape its most attractive settings. It's a price being paid by everyone, as tax money subsidizes flood insurance, pays for disaster relief and funds the "WE THOUGHT WE WERE PERFECTLY SAFE. WE NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAPPEN." Norm Olsen house in Pinehurst. have created snowpack ew Year's Day ins teret Nfloods taught on low -cost rebuilding many people loans. that living well in the What's more, the rice is risin P g• West means living Idaho lawmakers eliminated a within nature's limits. raise r state workers to help pay The rest of us may the co of flood damage. The tiny get the message this Boise rounty community of Lower spring. Banks was declared so dangerous A record snowpack last month that no building will be in the mountains rais- allowed there. And with the threat es the prospect of of sprg flooding more damaging floods and mudslides than Winter's, some people on the so big they can't be Boise (River might soon share the contained — even by Olsen fate. a massive reservoir system such as the Changing weather Boise River's. One reason the stakes are rising is The Statesman spent two months weather patterns. Since 1900, the surveying the toll of numbeir of severe storms has jumped the winter storms and 20 per' ent. You can see the hand of looking what spring man the changes, too. Roads have might bri ng. been craped, trees cleared, wild-The findings: Peo fires d used and homes erected with ple are beginning to tncern little for what happens change the way they when the snow melts. live. And there is a Offii als at the Federal Emer- growing realization gency anagement Agency say that that human hands 5,055 people, 1,055 homes and 121 should keep off other buildings occupy the Boise places that are too River Mood plain in Ada County. high, too low, too steep or too slippery. The Idaho Statesman 3/16/97 Page #2 of 3 Pages More are coming with the planned development of such pro- jects as the 3,500 -home Harris Ranch east of Boise on Idaho 21. Since the New Year's storms and floods, the Statesman has traveled through southwest Idaho to examine why floods and land- slides are causing more damage. Here's what we learned: > U.S. Forest Service studies show that roads and clear- cutting trigger landslides and may wors- en flood damage, but the agency keeps rebuilding roads and ap- proving clear -cuts. > Federal dam operators rou- tinely are faced with the Hobson's choice of flooding homes or bank- rupting farmers. > A federal program to control development in flood plains back- fired in Boise, putting thousands more homes in harm's way. > Levees and dikes often pro- vide no more than an illusion of protection and actually add to damage costs when they are breached. > Rural counties can't afford to fix many roads in slide areas, so people living and playing in the backcountry may find themselves cut off. Reservoirs to the rescue People living near the Boise River were saved in January by the three reservoirs that captured heavy rains and melting snow above Lucky Peak Dam east of Boise. But this spring, the runoff from a record snowpack — more than 10 feet deep in areas — may be more than even this system can handle. One week of 80- degree temper- atures in April 15 or cool weather into June could send a torrent of water through Lucky Peak such as Boise hasn't seen in 50 years. The average temperature in April is 61. Engineers are confident that the dam will hold whatever the flows. But that doesn't necessari- ly mean they can prevent flooding along the river from Boise's ex- pensive riverfront neighborhoods to cornfields in Canyon County. More than 2.7 million acre -feet of water — enough to fill Lucky Peak, Arrowrock and Anderson Ranch reservoirs three times — is perched as snowpack in the 2,680 square -mile' area that drains into fa2qN #Z "j-3 1 ages the Boise River. That's an area in January, they made room by duced steady, predictable flows about the size of Delaware. pouring water out into the Boise that lowered the reservoirs by 24 River at a rate of 7,000 cubic feet percent and the snowpack from Windows for flooding per second — enough to flood a- nearly twice the normal level to There are two periods within dozen homes and businesses in about 50 percent more than nor- p E gle and other low -lying areas. mal, where it stands today. this e River is window when the e damage estimate from the One flood that's not included in Boise River is most likely to flood. .The first is in mid - April, when corps is $349,000. federal officials' calculations is the runoff begins. Once it starts, These two federal agencies weighing heavily on their minds. it t monitor snowpack by satellite, The year was 1862 and the story rarely stops. If it were to coin- then factor in .history and in- is told by Boise historian Merle hide with an extended heat wave, stint, to decide how much water Wells. Homesteader I.N. Coston heavy rains, both the reser- they will run through the river reported that on July 4, all land in voirs would fill l quickly. frm January until the end of the river bottoms "extending from Once the reservoirs filled, dam' bluff to bluff and from the resent operators would be forced to send the '�in runoff. te January, hydrologists isiW of Boise westward t o the all the incoming flows down the h the corps and the bureau Lyon near the present site of Boise River. t., that the massive snow - dwell "was under water. The second pressure point ism made it necessary to drain Engineers estimate that the June. If the spring is cool, and the ll the water out of the reservoirs Ayer ran at 100,000 cfs, or nearly runoff is late, dam operators have by Aril 1. 15 times the flow today. another factor to consider: filling ut to meet that goal, they,, "That's the crapshoot," said the reservoirs to store water would have had to turn up flows Susan Stacy, author of "When the through the summer for irriga- into the river to 8,300 cubic feet R�er Rises," a history of flood tioWith the reservoirs nearly full, per second. That would have control hattthe odds are but no- • quick spurt in runoff caused by flooded a wider area along the ]Mow , knows a odd how much a heat wave or heavy rains could river, causing from $760,000 to $mow was in the mountains in be impossible for dam operators $ " million in damages. 1862 and what conditions led to to control. Again, the would be `You don't want to make an ar- „ forced to send the incoming flows tificial flood unless you know you'that. down the river. are going to have a real flood Ong ready "When you get down to the end later, said Lori Postlethwait, aV -7 The spring threat seems dis- of the runoff season, the flexibili- bureau hydraulic engineer. p g t is one," said John Keys, re- The agency's hydrologists Cant in Boise, where the only sign giona g director with Bureau of looked at the worst flooding year 4wsouble is th b users nor of this century —1943 — and de- may see when the cottonwoods — termined that they might bey able are lush and fragrant — not gray ON JULY 4 1862 to skate by releasing only 7,'000 tinter sticks. cfs. Any more and they knew,they „ People along the Payette, Weis - ALL LAND IN THE would be causing twice the dam- errand Little Salmon rivers only ale downstream. hove to look out over mud - covered RIVERBOTTOMS The decision to go from 7,000 fields, broken levees and houses to 8,000 is a bigger decision blian dangling over riverbanks to see "EXTENDING FROM going from 8,000 to 9,000," Keys that the threat is real. �� said. I—. : " 'hey have little or no protection BLUFF TO BLUFF ... In 1983, dam operators h&ed their rivers, though the AND FROM BOISE TO river flows to 9,500 cfs, the hith- Deadwood and Cascade reser- est flows since Lucky Peak was voirs provide some margin of CALDWELL WAS built in 1955. saafety on the Payette. UNDER WATER. Homesteader I.N. Coston's account of Boise's worst flood eclamation for the Pacific orthwest. Rolling the dice The Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, the two federal agencies that con- trol the dams, have tried since the beginning of the year to make room in the three reservoirs for the runoff. Wlen runoff starts f runoff starts coming quicly, dam operators won't wait for the reservoirs to fill before they begin spilling water into the river. They will use what space they have- to hold back the peak runoff; in- creasing flows into the river,,as high as they must to capture what what's left in the mountains. They also will get help when canals start draining off river water as irrigation season begins April 1. The month of February was Un- usually dry, and nearly perfect weather for reducing the threat. Warmer days and cold nights pro- The Idaho Statesman 3/16/97 Page #3 of 3 Pages Photos by Ketnenne Jones / i ne iaano 0MIM rnmi Evidence of flood's power. Car -sized boulders were carried hundreds of yards across flat ground in Janu- ary as rain and melting snow swelled a small tributary of the Boise River's South Fork. So all around Boise, people are rebuilding levees and shoring up riverbanks scoured out by the last floods. They're doing the same thing throughout Idaho — along the Big Wood River, in Rexburg, Coeur d'Alene and St. Maries, as well as in Oregon, Washington and California. Lives changed Throughout the West, where people live near rivers and hills saturated by the winter storm, lives await the flood next time. "People are not making deci- sions except to ride spring out," said Stephen Hackler, a neighbor of Pinehurst flood victim Norm Olsen. "We see the worst is yet to come." Olsen, 65, isn't Waiting around. He never wants 'to live another night like Jan. 1. "If the mountain doesn't get you sliding down, the river gets you coming up," he said. The Caldwell native served in the California Air National Guard for 43 years before retir- ing. He moved to Pinehurst in 1992 and remodeled the house on the bluff into the home he and Dorothy had dreamed about. The house was perched more than 20 feet above the Little Salmon until a landslide shoved the river out of its course, sending its swelling waters into the bank under Olsen's floor. His son, daughter -in -law and grandchildren were visiting for the holidays and he quickly moved them away. At 2 a.m., with the power out and house collaps- ing, Olsen carried out everything he could reach. Suddenly, A was gone. "As I walked in the door the floors dropped out. It washed away as fast as it hit the water." He didn't have flood insurance. Like many people in Boise, he never thought he would need it. "We though we were perfectly safe. We never though this would happen." The Idaho Statesman 3/16/97 Page #1 of 2 Pages Big Flood on Little Salmon 'The river will always go where it wants...' The Trading Post in Pinehurst has served as a nerve center for flood in- formation. State and federal officials also gather here to make plans. From left, Ery Ballou, state coordina- tor for the stream protection pro- gram; Gene Gibson, stream protec- tion specialist for the Idaho Depart- ment of Water Resources; and Richard Spencer, from the U.S. Nat- ural Resources Conservation Ser- vices, coordinate efforts for bank re- habilitation along the Little Salmon. The Little Salmon River washed out part of the Indian Creek bridge in January, stranding five families, in- :cluding Mike McCoy and his 50 cats. A temporary pedestrian bridge ,5erved until the bridge was re- opened March 7. Survivors hope the next flood does less damage By Rocky Barker The Idaho Statesman ■ INEHURST — People are rolling rocks off the river- bank in front of their houses, hoping to prevent the spring flood from washing the bank away. Never mind that in January, during a winter flood, the Lit- tle Salmon River pushed car - I boulders past Pinehurst they were Ping -Pong balls. &at else are you going to asked Stephen Hackler of ,hurst. "If you don't do ething, you go crazy." �ople throughout rural Idaho — places such as Payette, Council, Emmett, Pollack and Pine - hurst — are turning their attention from repairing the dam- age to preparing for the next flood of '97. More than 10,000 ,people were strand- ed during the New Year's Day floods and mudslides. But few suffered in such I 000 Riggins Salmon River Little Pinehurst Salmon River Boise .q Pollock Pinehurst isolation as tney did in the Adams Coun- ty community of Pinehurst, where 140 people were trapped without or water. power, telephones A series of landslides slammed into the river and forced it out of its banks, turn- ing waterfront property into islands and destroying or seri- ously damaging more than 10 homes. U.S. 95, the link be- tween northern and southern Idaho, was washed out in three places, and a bridge was destroyed. Huddled together in the dark, the people of Pinehurst The Idaho Statesman 3/16/97 Page #2 of 2 Pages felt the earth shake as the floodwaters carried giant boul- ders down the river. They watched helplessly as their homes floated by. "People felt abandoned," said Kim Hackler, who with her husband, Stephen, owns the Pinehurst Trading Post. Today, U.S. 95 is temporari- ly fixed. Crews are working up and down the river to stabilize the banks with rock and riprap in anticipation of a spring flood. People are regaining their morale and putting their lives back together. Mike McCoy now can easily get to and from his home with the reopening of the Indian Creek bridge March 7 — nine weeks after the flood. The washout left five families, in- cluding McCoy and his 50 cats stranded. "The agencies have been wonderful," said McCoy, a re- tired meat wholesaler who has lived along the river for 31 years. "They've bent over back- wards to help us." Since January, the Trading Post — a store and restaurant — has served as the nerve cen- ter for emergency aid pro- grams and the rebuilding ef- fort. State and federal officials spread maps across booth ta- bles with coffee cups as they plan how to protect the area from the next flood. Officials at the Idaho De- partment of Transportation decided in February to rebuild a six -mile stretch of U.S. 95 through the canyon at a cost of $8.3 million. The project will raise the roadway above the level of the last flood and let vehicles trav- el faster through the winding canyon. But no one who saw the force of the river on Jan. 1 believes people will win this contest in the narrow canyon of the Little Salmon. - Hackler said, "The river will always go where it wants." spy /9r `Persistent rain, warm weather and landslides caused the Little Salmon to rise, change course, scour deeper channels and severely erode banks. It could happen again during spring runoff. ,This barn hangs on the brink of the riverbank north of Pollard. 3/27/05 Star News Salmon anglers to find limited access to private land along Little Salmon BY MICHAEL WELLS The Star -News A private landowner along the Little Salmon River nearRiggins has decided to limit access on the river to anglers this year, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said. Regional Fisheries Manager Dale Allen informed about 20 anglers at a public meeting in Mc- Call last week of the change. Ralph Slediger of. Sandpoint owns land on both sides of the Little Salmon River south of Riggins. Slediger has decided to close off about a quarter -mile of ac- cess to his property to anglers on the west side of the river. The east bank of the river on his property is also off limits to anglers. The property extends from south of the confluence with Rapid River to north of the swinging bridge south of Riggins. Anglers will still have access to more than a mile of river front- age on the west bank of the river for fishing during the day. The Pasture and Lower Bluff accesses will be open to anglers on a day -use basis. No camping or fires will be allowed. "I think it is going to be a higher quality fishing experi- ence," Slediger said. "People will rotate in and out, which will allow a lot more people to enjoy it." In the past, Slediger noticed that campers deterred other anglers from pulling into two highway pullouts on his prop- erty. He was also worried about highway safety as anglers parked along the highway on his prop- erty. F &G paid $6,000 per year to Slediger in past years for steelhead and salmon fishing, Allen said. The change in access, coupled with a forecasted high number of salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to Idaho, could mean the Idaho Fish and Game Commission will open more of the Salmon River upstream from Riggins to the Shorts Bar campground for salmon anglers, Allen said. Fisheries managers believe as many as 97,000 chinook salmon will return to Idaho rivers. Upstream fishing Unknown Fisheries managers only have one year of experience with salmon fishing upstream of Rig- gins. In 2004, fisheries managers determined the salmon caught upstream to Shorts Bar were mostly Rapid River salmon that were waiting in the main river before swimming up the Little Salmon to Rapid River. Fisheries managers are also considering a ban on fishing from boats in the Riggins City Park hole on the Salmon River to encourage more bank anglers on the main river to ease access problems on the Little Salmon. Boats would still be allowed to float through the area. Fisheries managers will propose a chinook season on the Salmon River that could begin April 26 to the Fish and Game Commission next month. The season could be open until June 22. Anglers will be allowed to keep three salmon per day, have nine salmon in possession, and keep 20 salmon for the season. Anglers could be allowed to fish for chinook salmon seven days a week from the Hammer Creek boat ramp upstream to either the mouth of the Little Salmon River at Riggins, Mill Hole or the Shorts Bar boat ramp east of Riggins. The salmon season on the Little Salmon could also begin April 26, although fisheries managers believe the fish will not have arrived yet. The season could continue until Aug. 3. The proposals will be pre- sented to the commission next month, along with proposals for the Clearwater and Snake rivers. South Fork fishing area extended to East Fork of the South Fork Anglers will be allowed 18 miles more elbowroom to fish the South Fork of the Salmon River this year. Last summer's record forest fires burned through most of the salmon fishing area on the South Fork of the Salmon River. Anglers normally are allowed to fish from Goat Creek upstream to just be- low the salmon trap operated by the McCall Fish Hatchery. Due to forest recovery efforts planned for the area, anglers will be allowed to fish the river downstream to the mouth of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River, Allen said. Fisheries managers predict that about 2,300 chinook salmon will be in the fishery this year. The season will not be set until May by the Fish and Game Com- mission, but it will likely start mid -June, Allen said.