Fading Pack River Delta to be restored

SANDPOINT — A cutting-edge project is in the works to restore the Pack River Delta on Lake Pend Oreille.

“We are green to go,” Kathy Cousins, the Idaho Department of Fish & Game’s staff mitigation biologist for the Panhandle, told the Pend Oreille Basin Commission last week.

The form and function of the 574-acre delta has been changed and muted by the Albeni Falls Dam over the last 50 years. The multi-million dollar project, which is anticipated to begin this winter, aims to “get the delta acting as a delta again,” said Cousins.

The project is being funded through a North American Wetland Conservation Act, which was passed in 1989 to conserve wetlands throughout the nation. More than a dozen agencies, organizations and individuals collaborated with Avista Corp. grant writer Ruth Watkins to craft the restoration proposal and $1 million in funding was awarded last year.

The goal of the project is to halt erosion, stabilize the delta and raise the profile of small islands and islets so they can be planted.

“I have to admit it’s a unique project. There hasn’t been a project in North America like this,” Cousin told basin commissioners during a presentation on Wednesday.

To underline how the delta’s dynamic has changed over the years, Cousins displayed photographs of the delta taken before and after the dam was constructed. The pre-dam photo showed a tight collection of meanders snaking through verdant land forms. The post-dam photo showed dramatically fewer meanders and hardly any islands.

“Sooner or later, we’re not going to have any islets in the delta,” said Cousins.

The plan is to install a complex network of log vanes, root wad structures and engineered log jams to slow and deflect flows. As many as eight islands will be recreated and planted with native vegetation.

The restoration features will be protected from wake from the lake by a “geo-tube,” a concealed, wave-deflecting breakwater. The breakwater is a semi-permeable membrane which is filled with a slurry of water and soil. It’s towed into position and covered with plantings and dirt.

“You will not see the geo-tube after it’s done,” said Cousins.

Cousins said another project is being planned to restore the fading Clark Fork Delta.

Commissioner Linda Mitchell, who operates a local charter service, said she has seen the changes in the Clark Fork Delta firsthand and they’ve been rapid and dramatic. Boat racing through the delta have only exacerbated the problem.

“I physically see the changes that are happening with the delta,” she said, adding that

Partners in the Pack River project include Idaho Fish & Game, Ducks Unlimited, the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Conservancy, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the American Bird Conservancy and a host of others.

The project also has a local match of funding, property and in-kind work, which pushes the project’s value to $2.5 million, according to basin commission spokeswoman Kate Wilson.