Summit Daily News
www.summitdaily.com
August 31, 2013
Ten Mile Creek near Copper Mounatin is somewhat featureless. Its channels are straight. The banks are dotted with lodgepole pine and few other species.
However, humans have impacted this area, along the east side of Highway 91, for about 150 years.
Over time, mining, timber harvest, development, railroads and highway construction have altered the course of the creek, norrowing its floodplain and creating widespread depostis of sediment.
“In a different condition, there would have been richer soil, wetland species, willows, shrubs and sedges,” said Justin Anderson, U.S. Forest Service hydrologist.