The Lower Fleshman Creek Flood Control and Restoration Project in Livingston – a five-year effort for PCEC - finally came under the shovel in 2013 and was successfully finished in 2014.

Before his retirement in early 2014, Executive Director of PCEC Kerry Fee spent years of painstaking research and concerted involvement and collaboration with a variety of individuals and agencies on the Fleshman Creek restoration issue in Livingston. By facilitating communication and informing the discretion of local, state and federal agencies and individuals involved, Kerry Fee contributed considerably to the facilitation of the project by informing the discretion of the collaborators on the potential project and the community where the project would take place.

Leading up to the start of the project the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performed a detailed hydrologic analysis of the Fleshman Creek watershed in 2005. They determined the 100-year discharge of 856 cfs was higher than the capacity of many culverts through which the creek flows throughout city. Fee and PCEC members encouraged the City of Livingston, Park County officials and state and federal agencies to take a holistic approach in restoring Fleshman Creek to a more natural and flood-resistant state as well as improve fish, aquatic and riparian habitat.

The project became a collaborative, multi-year approach uniting partners from multiple federal, state and local agencies and groups including United States FEMA, Montana Department of Natural Resources, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Park County, the City of Livingston, Trout Unlimited, Livingston School Districts 4 & 1, Park County Conservation District and the Yellowstone River Conservation District Council.

After reviewing scientific research and encouraging extensive community participation, a project plan came into existence which would address many of the issues PCEC deemed of great importance. Culverts would be replaced with hydraulic structures designed for high water events and water movement while reducing stream velocity and aiding fish movement by the prevention of debris jams at pipe inlets. Newly contoured streambanks would be replanted with native vegetation aiding in bank stabilization, riparian protection, flood energy dissipation, pollutant filtration and improved water quality. Eventually, long-term conservation and monitoring methods were also developed to manage the improved stream channels and riparian areas.

Head on down to the east side of Livingston and see for yourself what a tremendous example this project represents for both the community of Livingston and the natural resource of this little tributary of the Yellowstone River.