Restoration work helps mend Haskill Creek

Work to restore a quarter-mile portion of the Haskill Creek streambank is nearing completion. The work is part of a larger effort to return the creek basin to a more natural state.

John Muhlfeld, owner of River Design Group, said the project’s goal is to reduce sediment loading in the creek. Work includes regrading the floodplane and planting vegetation.

“We’re addressing bank instability,” he said. “We’re trying to stabilize and restore the floodplane function along the section of Haskill.”

The work is being completed on the Reimer property east of Whitefish. The current project is downstream of similar work done at the Voermans/Klungness site that was completed in 2007.

Portions of Haskill Creek are marked by eroding banks and an altered channel that contribute to erosion. Patti Mason, the watershed coordinator with the Flathead Conservation District, noted that agriculture practices in the 1920s impacted the streambank.

During this time it wasn’t unusual for landowners to channelize the waterways on their land. Streams were straightened to improve farming by increasing the speed of the water, therefore increasing the rate of drainage on the land. Modifying the stream’s path also made the fields more workable because farming could be done along a straight waterway.

“When you straighten out the stream and change the gradient it has more erosive energy,” she said. Thus making the streambank unstable. Channelization also reduces the amount of vegetation along the streambank, which can impact the riparian habitat.

Mason said there are several more areas to be addressed, but the focus has been on some of the more critical areas.

“We want to address as many of those recognized as priorities given landowner cooperation,” she said. “We’ve been trying to tackle the worst ones and tried to work from top to bottom.”

The restoration work is part of a larger goal, noted Muhlfeld.

“The main objective is for sediment and nutrient reduction in Haskill Creek which is a tributary of the Whitefish River,” he said. “This project aims to reduce nutrient-loading to Haskill Creek, the Whitefish River and ultimately the Flathead River.”

The project has brought together several groups to improve the stream including the landowners Kent and Kurt Reimer, the Flathead Basin Commission, the Haskill Basin Watershed Group, the state Department of Environmental Quality, volunteers from Flathead Valley Trout Unlimited and Montana Conservation Corps.

Whitefish High School students have been involved through participation in FREEFLOW (Flathead River Educational Effort for Focused Learning in Our Watershed). FREEFLOW is an extracurricular program that allows students to study science in the field and has focused primarily on Haskill Creek.

Muhlfeld calls it a grassroots effort.

“It’s been a great project given the participation from so many stakeholders, and the volunteer component from the high school was one of the key reasons we received the grant from DEQ to complete the work,” he said. “Everyone’s given time.”

Mason estimates the project cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $90,000 with funding coming from local, state and federal sources as well as in-kind donations.

Earlier this week FREEFLOW students were planting vegetation along Haskill Creek as work wraps up on the four-week project.

FREEFLOW students have a long history of working in the basin. They spent time working in the previous restoration site. They have been collecting data on the stream for roughly 20 years and continue to monitor the stream.

“It’s really a good feeling to see it come together and its a good feeling that it’s going to achieve its purpose to making a contribution to improving water quality in the bigger watershed,” Mason said.