Delta project preserving wetlands

SANDPOINT — Waging battle against time and entropy is almost always a futile effort. However, Katherine Cousins, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, is a peaceable warrior who strikes back with hope, healing and purpose. Tuesday, she received recognition for her leadership on the Clark Fork Delta Restoration Project.

The Army Corps of Engineers awarded Cousins its 2015 Excellence in Partnership Award for the western division. She also placed second in the national division. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions by a partner to the Corps recreation and environmental stewardship programs, according to the USACE website.

Those assembled at the Sandpoint U.S. Forest Service office Tuesday presented her with a mixed bouquet of flowers as well as an official certificate of distinction.

"I couldn't have done it without all of you," a tearful Cousins said to the roomful of applauding colleagues.

Cousins is a mitigation specialist who has undertaken two area restoration projects over the past decade, the first of which took place in the Pack River delta, funded in part by an anonymous Sandpoint benefactor, she said.

The goal of both projects is arresting erosion and loss of wetland habitat while restoring native flora and fauna. In the case of the Clark Fork, located where the river empties into Lake Pend Oreille, hydroelectric dams have caused the majority of the erosion.

"Wave action and water level fluctuations of Lake Pend Oreille due to the operation of the Albeni Falls Dam and the Cabinet Gorge Dam have caused extensive bank erosion of islands and shorelines in the Clark Fork River delta. This erosion has resulted in losses of soil and native riparian and wetland vegetation. These combined impacts have reduced the quantity and quality of fish and wildlife habitat," according to a 2014 IDFG news release.

The Clark Fork delta covers approximately 5,000 acres, making it the largest contiguous wetland complex in the Pend Oreille system, Cousins said in a presentation following the award ceremony.

"Altered hydrology is kind of blowing the delta apart," she said.

The area loses between 10 and 12 acres of land to open water annually due to water surges from the dams. The shorelines of the delta islands are deteriorating, causing loss of habitat to native plants and wildlife, Cousins said. To complicate matters, invasive species like reed canary grass have gained a significant foothold on the islands, choking out the areas where waterfowl traditionally breed.

During the first year of the restoration project, which takes place in winter months because the water levels are low, Cousins and her crew built floating bridges to allow access to various islands. They built artificial peninsulas to shelter some of the shoreline. They also brought in large rocks along the shorelines to slow erosion and 50,000 tons of rip rap rock for use in land reclamation. Then, they embedded 51,000 native willow starts along the rocks, she said.

With the help of local volunteers, the reclamation crew placed 100,000 plant starts along excavated and raised lands. Despite unseasonably warm weather last spring and summer, the plants are thriving, Cousins said.

"As soon as the lake (level) raised up, it was like magic. All the plants took off," she said.

Along with the ongoing battle to stamp out non-native plants, Cousins performs soil testing and monitoring. Several sections of the Clark Fork River have been or are currently Superfund cleanup sites due to mining pollution, according to Clark Fork Coalition.

She said that traces of mining contaminants are still showing up in soil samples.

The first phase of the delta project cost about $7.5 million. Bonneville Power footed $4.5 million of the bill while Avista paid the remaining $3 million as part of a  mitigation settlement, said Cousins.

The Clark Fork delta is a recreational mecca for kayakers, anglers, waterfowl hunters and nature lovers. Feedback from these users on the reclamation project has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.

"I haven't met anyone who is unhappy with this. It's just amazing how people care about these areas so much," Cousins said.