Project Details

The Duchesne River near the town of Hanna is considered a blue-ribbon fishery and has access provided by a fishing easement created during the development of the Central Utah Project. This stretch of river is used frequently by many anglers making use of the fishing access points. Over time, the stretch of river we propose to work on has exhibited changes in the path of the river and has also been affected by various bank reinforcement activities. In the past, landowners located near this stretch of the river installed various structures in an attempt to reduce bank erosion. Additionally, the river has developed a point bar that has pushed the flow of the river to the north bank in the project zone. As this bar developed, stream velocity and depth increased along the north bank creating an unstable bank that has exhibited erosion. Such erosion in this area is an issue as it is currently threatening a landowner's access road that runs through an easement of one of their neighbors.

The landowner whose road is being threatened attempted to place gabion baskets and streambank armoring in the form of rectangular formed concreted filled with rock and sandbags. This previous work failed during high flow events such as those back in 2019 and again in 2023. If left in its current state, the bank reinforcement will likely fail further which would lead to loss of access to their property and increase the amount of sediment loading in the Duchesne River.

Here, we plan to begin by removing the old bank reinforcements followed by the addition of new structures and armoring that have been shown to work in other locations on the Duchesne River. We plan to implement the addition of rip-rap as the primary armoring along the landowner's bank. We considered the use of a more natural material, such as toe wood, but there is not enough space in order to properly anchor such a structure. In other words, toe wood would likely fail here if implemented. We will also install a j-hook on the upstream end of the rip rap and a cross vane structure at the downstream end of the rip rap. The j-hook will help remove the erosive power of the river along the bank while maintaining the pool located on the outside bend of the pool. The cross vane will be installed to help increase the level of the outside bend pool which will further help reduce stream power along the bank while also helping to direct the flow of the river down the center line of the channel. Implementation of such structures will ensure that erosion will no longer threaten the access road while also helping to maintain or even improve the fish habitat here. Further, this work will improve the aesthetics of this section of the river which will benefit adjacent landowners and anglers who frequent this stretch.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

Duchesne River Watershed Restoration Plan
- Improve water quality by decreasing TDS and suspended sediment loading to reach TMDL
This project will help address TDS and suspended sediment loading through arresting streambank erosion. Arresting the streambank erosion will reduce TDS and suspended sediment loading. Although localized, this work will have downstream benefits.

Duchesne County Resource Management Plan
Objective: Duchesne County desires to protect and enhance the quality and quantity of usable water by promoting and expanding the efficient management and use of water.
- "The management of the watershed should allow for continued multiple use. It should preserve the quality and quantity of water as well as environmental values and allow the watershed to support existing as well as future uses."
This project will benefit water quality through the reduction of suspended sediment loading caused by the eroding bank. As such, there will be benefits to water users downstream of the project. Additionally, this project will support multiple use through the enhancement of fish habitat. In its current form, this bank provides limited fish habitat.

Utah Wildlife Action Plan: Threats
Channelization/Bank Alteration (direct, intentional) - This project will use structures to increase the heterogeneity of instream habitat and limit bank alteration through erosion. Additionally, post-project planting in interstitial spaces will allow for increased willow growth.
Sediment Transport Imbalance (sediment rich) - This project will reduce the amount of sediment entering the Duchesne River through arresting bank erosion.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

We will reinforce the eroding bank using rip rap rock. Although this is not the desired choice, land ownership prevents the use of other methods such as toe wood reinforcement. In order to reduce energy while flow hits the rip rap, we will leave the rip rap fairly chunky rather than making it smooth. This should allow for better fish habitat in interstitial spaces while also slowing the water. Additionally, we will install a j-hook structure on the upstream end of the armor. This will help pull energy away from the rip rap armor while also creating additional fish habitat in the form of a small plunge pool. Lastly, we will install a crossvane structure at the downstream end of the armor. In part, we are doing this to further reduce the energy of the water before it continues downstream while also re-centering the main flow of the channel. This will help reduce erosion risk downstream. Further, the crossvane will create more fish habitat in the form of plunge pools.

Willow planting will occur during the spring following implementation. We will harvest willows locally from the property to plant in the interstitial spaces of the riprap.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.