ICRRR Director Featured in TV documentary 'Green River: Divided Waters'
ICRRR Director Featured in TV documentary 'Green River: Divided Waters'November 2009
Big Bend Gets Bi-National Boost
August 2009
Washington, D.C. and Mexico, D.F.—
Progress on the Provo River
July 2009
Sampling work by the Intermountain Center for River Restoration and Rehabilitation on the recently restored section of the middle Prover River has been completed. Samples were collected measuring transport, bed load, suspended sentiment, water surface slope and surface water velocity.
"One of the main missions of ICRRR is to evaluate the performance of previously constructed restoration projects," said Jack Schmidt, program director.
Transport was measured at two locations along the Provo River: Midway, downstream from the covered bridge and Charleston, downstream from the Heber City Railroad crossing. Preliminary analysis of aerial photography indicates that the reach between these two sites has undergone substantial geomorphic adjustment post-construction. Susannah Erwin, lead researcher on the project, hypothesizes that the adjustment was driven by the relatively large influx of gravel supplied by the never-channelized area that is immediately upstream from the Midway sampling site.
With the assistance of Daryl Devy of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, releases of water from the Jordanelle Dam was done in a way that were conducive to project strategy. Bed load samples were collected at each of the following discharges (in cfs) during both the rising and falling limbs of the hydrograph: 800, 1000, 1200, 1600 and 1800. Suspended sediment samples were also collected at selected discharges. Bed load samples were collected using a Toutle River (TR-2) bed load sampler, lowered from a cataraft-based sampling platform into the channel. At each discharge we collected 3-4 samples per site. At each of the 8-9 sites, the sampler remained on the bed for 5 minutes. For the majority of samples collected, all nine stations were combined in a single bag to speed up the sampling process and facilitate the collection of a greater number of samples. However, for some samples, we bagged each station individually, to capture the variability in the transport field across the channel.
Ancillary data collected includes water surface slope at each discharge, a cross-section survey at both sites, and limited surface water velocity data.
"I look forward to focusing my efforts on processing the large amount of data collected and sharing the results," said Erwin.
The Provo Restoration Project was conducted from 1998 to 2008 by the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission. The project focused on the middle section of the Provo River between Jordanelle Dam and Deer Creek Reservoir and sought to restore the straightened river channel to a more natural, meandering channel similar to historic conditions. The Intermountain Center for River Rehabilitation and Restoration began studying the river in 2008.
Big Bend Workshop Works Out Solutions
June 2009
The Intermountain Center for River Rehabilitation and Restoration is part of a bi-national team that is working together on a variety of conservation initiatives in the Big Bend region of the Chihuahuan Desert. Resources dedicated to addressing the drought related issues have been lacking.
Jack Schmidt, ICRRR director recently attended a workshop that brought together scientists, protected area managers and conservationists to discuss the research needs, priorities and lessons learned. The workshop led to a finalization of key questions to be addressed, improved coordination and the development of objectives, a work plan and timetable for conducting investigations.