NRCS and Walker River Paiute Tribe Work Together to Reign in Walker River to Protect the Community, Enhance Water Quality

In the Great Basin, on the eastern slope of the Sierras, lies the small town of Schurz, Nevada, which is surrounded by the Walker River Paiute Tribe Indian Reservation. As the reservation’s name implies, the Walker River meanders through the area, making its way through Schurz, and eventually spilling into its terminus Walker Lake at the southern tip of the reservation. At high flows, the river chooses its own course as it meanders through the soils. Picture an inner tube ride at your local water park: as you start making your way through the tunnels, you pick up speed and start bouncing higher and higher from one side to the other as you splash through the course.

With the Walker River’s high velocity, it carves away at embankments made of sandy loam soil—a soil perfect for local area farmers to grow their alfalfa, but easily erodible when faced with the power of the river. The river pushes off of sand bars created by soil deposits and then cuts into the area where private landowners and farms exist, placing their livelihood and even their families in jeopardy. Through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, the Nevada NRCS teamed up with the Walker River Paiute Tribe to help them control the sedimentation issue.

The Tribe has been implementing a Nonpoint Source Pollution Program since 2004 to reduce nonpoint source (NPS) pollution and improve water quality within the Tribe’s portion of the Walker River. NPS pollution occurs when snowmelt, rainfall or irrigation runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants such as sediment, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, and coastal waters or introduces them into ground water. NPS pollution also includes adverse changes to the vegetation, flow and shape of streams and other aquatic systems. Imagine the path taken by a single drop of rain from the time it hits the ground to when it reaches ground water, a river or the ocean. Any pollutant it picks up along its journey becomes part of the NPS problem.

The Tribe has just completed its third river stabilization project with NRCS, so it’s easy to look at the newly constructed project to see what it entails, and then go downstream to see what the result will look like months or years down the road. The treatments differed a bit at the three sites, but typically included stabilizing eroding river banks with rock revetment, willow

revetments, and revegetated seedings. Revetments involve sloping structures placed on river banks in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water.

The primary objective for the latest project was to reduce non‐point source pollution by improving bank stability. Although the area is suffering its fourth year of drought, it did allow for easier accessibility to the project area, since the river is dry. The project involved placing large rocks at the channel bottom where the greatest amount of energy normally occurs from river flow.

“The river’s existing banks are primarily held together by willows, which are critical. In addition, rock tie-backs are installed to link the large toe rocks back into the project’s soil benches,” explained Bill Conlin, soil conservation technician for NRCS Nevada’s Yerington Field Office. “The soil benches use bioengineering fabric that looks like mesh and acts as both mulch and structure to protect the banks from erosive wind and to hold moisture for newly planted seedlings which help stabilize the soil.”

Willow poles are punched through the fabric down about four feet to hold everything together in wet soil, in addition to the seed mix.

“These projects have done a lot to open the community’s eyes to how the river system works. Kids now understand why the work is done and all the people that helped with the project can spread the word,” said Roy Begay, NPS Coordinator

for the Tribe’s projects.

The Tribe hires its own people to do the construction work on the projects to keep the funding in the local economy.

“For the years I’ve worked with NRCS, I’ve been very satisfied, and we want to continue working with NRCS as a partner into the future,” said Begay.

Stumped by the stump in the photo?

A cottonwood tree in the project area was undercut and leaning toward the channel, about to fall in the river. The engineer for the project prescribed cutting it down to the stump, and relocating the stump and its roots to a different area. Will it take root and grow? Only time will tell. . .

Website photo within a photo: The large background photo is of the newly completed project area in the Walker River. From left to right: Ed Biggs, district conservationist for NRCS Nevada’s Yerington Field Office; Roy Begay, NPS Coordinator for the Walker River Paiute Tribe; and Bill Conlin, soil conservation technician for NRCs Nevada’s Yerington Field Office, assess the outcome of the latest streak bank stabilization project on the Walker River, May 2015.

The smaller picture in the lower left-hand corner in the foreground: Bill Conlin, soil conservation technician for NRCs Nevada’s Yerington Field Office, waves from a winter 2011-12 nonpoint source pollution stream bank project above NV state hwy 95A bridge that is completely filled in with stabilizing vegetation only 3 years after project completion, May 2015.