A River Eats Through It: Channelizing the Yellowstone

From New West Magazine comes a well-written article about the Yellowstone River, which is under siege from a host of channelization (mostly rip-rap) projects - projects which are a direct result of skyrocketing real estate prices, mushrooming development, and a desire to live right on the floodplain of a very dynamic river.

The basic premise is this: channelization confines a river that’s spent thousands of years doing largely what it wants. Restricting it to a narrow riverbed increases flow rates, forcing more channelization projects downstream with predictable consequences:

Once confined, the river can only scour down its own channel, deepening it, or disperse its concentrated energy onto a point downstream. If you are a landowner downstream or across from a riprap project, you may be in trouble. “Riprap begets riprap,” said Missoula hydrologist and river consultant Bruce Anderson. “A river like the Yellowstone is a completely dynamic system. If you pin it down in one place, the energy moves somewhere else.”

Delving into the recent history of the river’s management, the story also delivers some gripping accounts of the 1996 and 1997 floods, including this passage:

“The front page of local papers showed a 4200 square foot home, hanging out over a massive newly cut bank, being torched by the firefighters before it could collapse into the flood, spin downstream and take out the bridge.”

Naturally, underlying the drama are the usual trappings of any modern Western land/water dispute: skyrocketing land values, growing demands on a finite water resource, and a hint of a class war between natives and far-wealthier newcomers. A must read.

Technorati Tags: Yellowstone River, riprap, Missoula