Paradise Found

The Palouse is a dryland environment.  Our drinking water comes from an aquifer, and lakes are restricted to the channeled scablands--the areas of exposed basalt where the Palouse loess was washed away during the Lake Missoula floods.  Prior to settlement, the groundwater was so close to the surface it bubbled up in artesian wells (a primary reason the area was considered a good place to settle).  Now, aquifer levels are much lower and the only surface water in Moscow and Pullman is found in Paradise Creek--and locals joke that the name is a misnomer. 

That sentiment might change, because something amazing happened on the Palouse.  The United States Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible (for better or for worse) for most, of the hydro projects in this country, recently partnered with the University of Idaho and Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute to restore the stretch of Paradise Creeks that runs through the University of Idaho campus to a natural state. The Corps (and private contractors) unburied the creek from its concrete tomb, which ran between University housing and the Campus Recreation Center. 

How did this restoration project come about?  In the late nineties, the University of Idaho decided to restore Paradise Creek as part of their broader long-term planning efforts to reduce the threat of flooding and create a green belt between the University and the commercial area on the Moscow-Pullman highway.  However, the money to fund the project proved elusive.  The Corps and the University applied several times for federal grants, and even had already completed the Environmental Assessments and other feasibility studies to complete the project.  Then the economy tanked--first in 2002, then during the current long recession.  Budgets were cut, and the project was not funded.

However, in an apparent lesson that some clouds do have a silver lining, both the Corps and the University of Idaho applied for project funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--better known as the economic stimulus package.  Because the project was literally "shovel ready," the project was funded (Project W912EF-10-C-0002).  You can watch a short YouTube video with more details about the project here. 

So, what did we get from this taxpayer-funded project?  Over the past several days we've had an intense warming period after weeks of cold and snow.  Coupled with this weather is a "Pineapple Express" weather pattern of heavy rain.  Rain on snow with warm weather equals very fast snow melt, which can trigger flooding.  Paradise Creek flows through our property as well, and is as high as we have seen it in the four years we have lived here.  I drove onto campus today to take pictures of the new streambed near the Rec Center to see if flooding was occurring.

Looking north, the new road bridge.

The area where I am standing was under four feet of water during a 1996 flood when the concrete tunnel backed up.

The new creek bed, diverged from where it formerly went underground.

New bridge for the bike/pedestrian trail that now links Pullman to Troy.

No flooding on campus and the creek is safely within its bank.   Meanwhile, in other parts of Moscow, the creek is nearing or exceeding its banks.  Here are several pictures taken from the Carol Ryrie Brink nature park.  The park has a natural floodplain filled with native plants that can withstand occasional floods.  The creek has crested, and has dropped 4-5 inches from its highest level.

The creek is so high that my intrepid neighbors, Mark and Beth, decided to have a leisurely Sunday kayak on the creek!  They told me the last time they were able to do this was 2003, giving an indication of the relative rarity of such high water events.