Lindsay Creek cleanup shows signs of promise

Lindsay Creek, where the stream crosses Gun Club Road, looks a lot different this year.

The banks are covered with lush vegetation. Saplings supported by blue tubes are starting to take hold. In the future, streamside trees will provide shade that helps keep the creek cool. Brush and grass planted along the banks will help filter out bacteria and keep sediment out of the water.

Rewind to last year and the outlook for this short segment of the stream was much more bleak. Its banks were steep and barren. Cattle were able to reach the water and eat would-be vegetation before it had a chance to grow. Rain washed E. coli bacteria from livestock waste into the creek.

The story is much the same along other stretches of the creek. According to officials from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the stream suffers from high levels of E. coli bacteria and sediment. The department, along with a watershed advisory group made up of local citizens, has written a plan, known as a total maximum daily load, that amounts to a blueprint for fixing the problems.

At the corner of Lindsay Creek and Gun Club roads, the plan is showing the first signs of what the creek could be in the future. With a Clean Water Act grant, the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute teamed with willing landowner Michael Walton and began making changes. The group, with workers from AmeriCorps and Walton, used heavy equipment to soften the slope of the steep banks. They built fences to keep livestock out of the stream and planted the trees, shrubs and grasses to act as both natural filter and shade.

On a recent weekday, Bethany Anderson from Moscow, Cody Dix from Boise, Will Troxler from North Carolina and Rose Bienek from Michigan, all members of Americorps, spent the day weeding and watering the small patch of pasture the creek cuts across. The foursome reflected on what it took to give the spot an environmental makeover.

"It was pretty steep and really difficult to excavate because it was pretty rocky," Anderson said.

Troxler added poison hemlock once invaded the area.

"We've gotten that pushed back to a little pocket," he said.

Officials from DEQ and PCEI hope others who own land are noticing the makeover and will be willing to join in the effort to improve the stream's water quality.

"We can do revegetation projects, bank resloping," said Tracy Brown, watersheds program director for PCEI. "If someone has interest they can contact us and we can do a site visit and evaluate what we can do."

John Cardwell, a water quality official with DEQ, said the plan for Lindsay Creek calls for reductions of E.coli bacteria and sediments, both of which exceed Idaho's standards. The agency has done tests in the watershed and not been able to pinpoint any one source of the two pollutants that rises above the state's standards.

"It's a combination of sources in the watershed that cumulatively lead to the exceedance," he said. "Our hope would be that adjoining property owners would see the attributes of doing this kind of work and we could get more folks to voluntarily help us out."

Brown said her group has more grant money available. Projects do require landowners or others match the grants at a 40 percent level. But the matching funds can come in the form of in-kind services such as labor or the use of heavy equipment.

"The goal is the match up the long-term goal of the property owner with our objectives to restore and meet water quality standards," he said.

Steve Fisher, an aquatic biologist and streamside restoration expert from Missoula, Mont., said he is working with Lewiston developer William V. McCann Jr. on a project to develop the Southern Hills commercial site south of Staples on Thain Grade. Fisher said there is a wetland there that could either be restored or he and McCann could seek to do off-site mitigation on a place like Lindsay Creek.

"We would like to have something that restores wetlands and addresses watershed health and getting septic systems in compliance.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.