Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our spring member drive has ended, but it's not too late to give. You have the power to help fund the essential journalism that keeps us all informed. Help us close the gap on our spring fundraising goal! GIVE NOW

Logan River Restoration Continues With Increased Public Input

The Logan River Task Force, a group of concerned citizens, hydrologist, and recreation specialists have formulated a plan to improve environmental and social ecosystem services along the Logan River. 

Last week there was a public meeting at the Logan River Golf Course to learn about a follow -up restoration of the Logan River at Rendezvous Park.  Sean Keenan, environmental analyst at BIO-WEST Consulting spoke about the motivations for the new project.

“There was some experience with flooding in 2011 and Logan City got some emergency funding to take quick action to deal with flooding issues and so they acted on them quickly," he said. "I think that angered a lot of citizens because there wasn’t a lot of citizen involvement with it so that lead to the formation of the Logan River Task Force.”

The city of Logan recognized the concerns of citizens and spearheaded the creation of a long-term restoration management plan with over 20 collaborators. The group was led by the city of Logan, hydrologists at Allred Restoration, and scientists and extension staff from Utah State University.

“One of our first tasks working with this group was to help them develop a conservation action plan.  It’s basically a planning framework where you identify what you want to improve about the river.  So you have a long-term plan, and then you can start whittling away at it,” said Keenan.

Sediment load from Blacksmith Fork entering the Logan River.

One of the major pitfalls of many river restorations is the absence of post-monitoring efforts after projects are completed. Follow-up monitoring is important to assess if the restoration was effective at meeting the original goals of the plan. 

“We are going to monitor the restorations before and after and try and see what improvements were made," Keenan said. "Then we will look back to the conservation action plan and we’ll say how many improvements have been made and what we should we do next. So it helps you organize your efforts over time and it’s something you can hand down to future people which they can improve.”