Cottonwood Creek Sediment Budget
Land managers and owners need to predict how land management practices/land use has and will alter erosion and sedimentation rates. Also, they need to know the relative importance of different sediment sources in order to assign priority for erosion control. Where sediment will be deposited, how long it will be stored, and how it will be remobilized are also important questions to be answered.
Severe streambank erosion along the main channels, particularly in the lower watershed, is prompting landowners to implement piecemeal "emergency" responses to which can include significant bank armoring, may cause new problems or exacerbate existing problems elsewhere along the channel. A coordinated stream restoration/management effort that emphasizes watershed-wide processes and is supported by the most recent geomorphic analyses tools is needed now. A report that is understandable and accessible to individual landowners and the watershed group is a necessity for informed and appropriate restoration actions to take place.
The goal of the project is to develop a sediment budget for Cottonwood Creek based upon geomorphological data from 1939 to present; quantify spatial and temporal characteristics of sediment supply, storage, and transport in the system, and to identify the effects of sediment transport dynamics on perceived channel and watershed changes. The project will include the collection of needed additional data; and synthesis of currently available data and the collected data needed to complete the sediment budget and answer the questions posed below.
A comprehensive synthesis of previously existing, in addition to supplemental data would be conducted incorporating the most current geomorphic analysis methods. The interpretation would call on cross-disciplinary expertise and will target specific questions of practical interest to local stakeholders such as: 1) How "stable" is the stream channel given historic and current natural conditions and land management?; 2) What roles do in-channel islands play and how might the practice of moving these islands affect the upstream and downstream channel and habitat conditions?; 3) Is current channel configuration a limiting factor to aquatic or terrestrial organisms of concern?; 4)Is the channel instability due to the amount of aggregate being removed by gravel mining?; and 5) Are current land use practices affecting the sediment budget in such a way as to create channel instability, and if so, how? The main concern is the channel instability of the lower watershed and how the bed material budget may be affecting channel response to differing flow events.
CCWG is working with Graham Matthews & Associates (gmahydrology.com) to insert three separate gages into the Cottonwood Creek system to take readings from. Other portions of the creek will have sporadic samples taken to also assist with the project.
Work is currently underway in this project; the first gage went into creek January 18th 2010. As results and data reports come into the CCWG office, they will be shared throughout this website and the CCWG monthly Newsletter, Watershed Watch.
Severe streambank erosion along the main channels, particularly in the lower watershed, is prompting landowners to implement piecemeal "emergency" responses to which can include significant bank armoring, may cause new problems or exacerbate existing problems elsewhere along the channel. A coordinated stream restoration/management effort that emphasizes watershed-wide processes and is supported by the most recent geomorphic analyses tools is needed now. A report that is understandable and accessible to individual landowners and the watershed group is a necessity for informed and appropriate restoration actions to take place.
The goal of the project is to develop a sediment budget for Cottonwood Creek based upon geomorphological data from 1939 to present; quantify spatial and temporal characteristics of sediment supply, storage, and transport in the system, and to identify the effects of sediment transport dynamics on perceived channel and watershed changes. The project will include the collection of needed additional data; and synthesis of currently available data and the collected data needed to complete the sediment budget and answer the questions posed below.
A comprehensive synthesis of previously existing, in addition to supplemental data would be conducted incorporating the most current geomorphic analysis methods. The interpretation would call on cross-disciplinary expertise and will target specific questions of practical interest to local stakeholders such as: 1) How "stable" is the stream channel given historic and current natural conditions and land management?; 2) What roles do in-channel islands play and how might the practice of moving these islands affect the upstream and downstream channel and habitat conditions?; 3) Is current channel configuration a limiting factor to aquatic or terrestrial organisms of concern?; 4)Is the channel instability due to the amount of aggregate being removed by gravel mining?; and 5) Are current land use practices affecting the sediment budget in such a way as to create channel instability, and if so, how? The main concern is the channel instability of the lower watershed and how the bed material budget may be affecting channel response to differing flow events.
CCWG is working with Graham Matthews & Associates (gmahydrology.com) to insert three separate gages into the Cottonwood Creek system to take readings from. Other portions of the creek will have sporadic samples taken to also assist with the project.
Work is currently underway in this project; the first gage went into creek January 18th 2010. As results and data reports come into the CCWG office, they will be shared throughout this website and the CCWG monthly Newsletter, Watershed Watch.
