The Nature Conservancy and the Purdy family have signed an agreement to restore Kilpatrick Pond on Silver Creek, an impounded area that has trapped sediments for decades.The agreement focuses on restoring the stream to a more natural path, creating wetlands and lowering water temperatures.
The Kilpatrick Pond project will be the largest restoration effort ever undertaken on Silver Creek. The project is also the most significant action that can be undertaken to reduce water temperatures at Silver Creek, recognized by ecologists as the main long-term threat to this world-class trout stream.
Because of the size and complexity of the project, in addition to extensive planning through the next several months, the University of Idaho will be building a model of the pond. Interested people will be able to see in real time how the newly designed reach of Silver Creek looks as water flows through it.
Kilpatrick Pond is the impounded portion of Silver Creek that includes parts of Silver Creek Preserve and the Purdys’ Double R Ranch. Due to an irrigation diversion dam on the Purdys’ property, sediments have been trapped in this pond.
These sediments have filled in the historic stream channel, creating a mostly wide and shallow pond where water heats up quickly in the summer sun. Such conditions are not good for the long-term health of the stream or the fishery.
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