Silver Creek in Idaho is the result of two glacial events reaching back, well a long time ago. The interaction of glacial events, several lava flows and the depositing of sediments in the alluvial fan resulted in the now Big Wood River shifting back and forth several times to exit the lower valley to the Southwest and Southeast. The Big Wood now exits through the lower Southwest corridor of the Valley. The mountain valley is underlain by the alluvial Wood River Valley aquifer system, which consists primarily of a single unconfined aquifer that underlies the entire valley, an underlying confined aquifer that is present only in the southernmost valley, and the confining unit that separates them. The pressurization of the deep confining aquifer pushing up on the unconfined layer causes the water to push up through the ground forming all of the springs that create Silver Creek. This complex aquifer system is very fragile. The water moving through this small aquifer system moves fairly quickly (by aquifer standards) usually 30-90 days and this forces the creek system to react to influxes of water in and out of the system also very quickly. Silver Creek is very susceptible to drought and groundwater extraction for agriculture thus bringing the flows in Silver Creek sometimes to very dangerously low conditions. Low flows in Silver Creek cause high water temperatures and large swings in Dissolved Oxygen both causing stress on fish and the aquatic life in the stream. Silver Creek is a fragile stream that has in the past been abused and not very well understood. Livestock grazing, agriculture and wind has deposited sediment into Silver Creek for over 100 years and caused the gravels to become covered in turn clogging spawning habitat for fish and raising water temperature in this slow moving system. It has been these issues and the recognition of the importance of Silver Creek as a unique Eco-system that lured the Nature Conservancy into purchasing the most important piece of property around Silver Creek in 1974. In 2005 SaveSilverCreek.org was formed to bring all past, current and future scientific studies and data to the public and all stakeholders to assist in the restoration, preservation and understanding of Silver Creek. Silver Creek is one of the most unique spring creek systems in the world. Very few cold water streams are like it and it is our mission to assist in anyway possible to preserve it.
Thank You,
SaveSilverCreek
