SaveSilverCreek.com
Title
Silver Creek Monitoring Site
Description
Located about 25 miles South East of Sun Valley Idaho, Silver Creek rises from the ground as dozens of small feeder spring creeks. These small streams flow for short distances of anywhere from a few yards long to a few miles into the property now known as The Nature Conservancy of Silver Creek in Idaho. As Silver Creek flows from the Nature Conservancy it enters a checker board of private and public land. It is in the upper reaches (about 25 miles of stream) that Save Silver Creek is monitoring. It is in the upper half of Silver Creek that conservation efforts have been concentrated over the years and future conservation efforts on Silver Creek will most likely be conducted in these upper reaches. Silver Creek is famous for it's diverse eco-system and world class fishing. Trout have fooled fisherman for many years on Silver Creek. Many species of birds frequent Silver Creek or call it home. The natural attractions of Silver Creek are magnificent. But time and humans have changed Silver Creek over the years. If left to it's own, without human intervention, Silver Creek would be a small narrow stream with a mix of gravel, weeds and natural silt under the surface and lush riparian vegetation on it's stream banks. But this is not how Silver Creek is today on much of the stream. Granted, much of the stream is as it was hundreds of years ago, some of it is not. When cattle where first introduced in the area, Silver Creek suffered. The cattle over grazed the riparian areas and trampled the stream banks causing the soil to erode into the stream. Farming has also been a contributor to the loading of windborne soil into Silver Creek. The high winds of Winter and Spring carry dust for many miles eventually ending up in Silver Creek. All of this soil in the stream over time has covered spawning gravel and displaced native species if insects and plants. In combination with the streamside vegetation disappearing, Silver Creek was not the healthy stream it once was. Realizing this, The Nature Conservancy purchased a large parcel of property at the confluence of all the feeder streams. This purchase gave the Nature Conservancy control of a major portion of Silver Creek that needed attention. Since then, TNC has acquired more land and easements to help protect Silver Creek. Through the efforts of citizens and The Nature Conservancy for over 25 years, Silver Creek has improved as a fishery and diverse eco-system. TNC has re-vegetated stream banks, improved habitats and studied in detail the workings of Silver Creek. But there are still problems. Problems that are not necessarily in TNC property boundaries. Problems that exist in all portions of Silver Creek. Thermal pollution, New Zealand Mudsnail and human pressure are threats that still exist or are new problems. This is where Save Silver Creek might be able to help. For over 30 years studies have been conducted on Silver Creek by various agencies and TNC but where never made public or put in one easy spot to find them. This is frustrating when you need information to find solutions. It is our hope to gather as much of this past data and store new data as we can. We wish to bring to the public, information that concerns Silver Creek such as current and future conservation improvements and studies. Silver Creek is a valuable resource in Idaho, we all need to keep an eye on it's health.
Languages
English
Contact
- (FAST-12785295)
-
- Orem Utah
- United States 84097
-
- +1.8014948462
