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<br />s <br /> <br />tendency to migrate laterally at a relatively fast rate. <br />The river through most of this section has migrated to the far left of the valley bottom, and is <br />now virtually against the valley wall. The cross section of this section of river shows that the <br />flood plane of the river is very large. There are also at least two abandoned, but recent river <br />channels. <br />The river in this area suggests the river has migrated over to the far left bank over the last eigh~y <br />years. This migration of the river occurred through natural tendencies, and through the help <br />riverside land owners who have done allot of work along the river. <br />This area has seen allot of human activities. There was a gravel mine located near the area of <br />Phil's Auto. This gravel mine apparently mined Gravel all through Phil's Auto Property. This <br />gravel mine built levees that still hold strong today. There are at least two abandoned river <br />channels on the other side of Phil's auto. These river channels become apparent in photographs <br />taken in the year of 1912. The river is 1912 along this section was apparently flowing in two <br />channels. During the 1912 flood this area was the scene of24 hour a day seven day a week <br />emergency work for some of the land owners. These land owners spent there time during that <br />flood moving flooding bams, and even houses. <br />The river is not a wide or and dangerous looking as it was in 1912, but still causes problems <br />for the land owners in the 1990's. In 1993 the river took approximately six acres of Campbell's <br />property. The land the was eroded away was in the same location of the 1912 channel. When <br />the ground was eroded in was a stand of veteran cottonwood trees (all of ten feet in <br />circumference). The river might have recaptured the entire 1912 channel. causing havoc down <br />stream, but the flood ceased. <br />The Midway section of the river has several different characteristics than the section of river <br />that located by Heddles bridge near Paonia. The section of river through Midway has less slope <br />than section found upstream. The river is also much wider and braided (known as a D3 type <br />river system.) The reaches of river through midway are found adjacent to the study reach I havt: <br />looked at are not downcutting, and getting channeled like the areas adjacent to Paonia. The <br />areas through midway are actually filling in with bed material or agrading. The in-stream gravel <br />mine that was found in the river in the section of Phil's auto has decreased the agradation <br />through the section where I have researched. In fact during the preliminary assessment there was <br />a measurement of degradation where erosion pins were placed <br />The type of river system through midway is very destructive. It spreads out over a large <br />area, and gets very shallow (an increasing width depth ratio), The wide low energy river then <br />deposits its bedload and agrades. The agradation if the river bed causes serious erosion <br />problems oftt~n for the river side land owners on both sides of the river. One of the largest <br />problems that most of the people who live and work on the river will testify too are the large <br />mid-stream bars that form during high flows. These midstream bars usually. fonn because of <br />lodged cottonwood trees that were eroded off the bank some where up stream. When these <br />cottonwood trees lodge the gravel starts depositing behind them, and within an eight hour period <br />a gravel bar can form large enough to change the course of the river completely. <br /> <br />Conclusion: <br />This paper was not meant to give an answer to the river restoration project. There are simply <br />no easy answers that one paper can reach. <br />The late Norman Pierce on said" What we need to do with the river is put it in a channel <br />similar to the black canyon. Make the banks so high the river will never get out. Norman has a <br />