Hayden Creek is Hayden Lake’s largest tributary stream. It drains a well over half of the lake’s watershed. Nearly all of the watershed is on federal land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The health of Hayden Lake’s water quality is dependent on the health of Hayden Creek. Recognizing these facts, the Hayden Lake Watershed Association has assessed the watershed to find water quality problems and worked with the Forest Service to address those problems. Three identified problems occur at the two junctions of the Ohio Match Road (FSR 206) and the Hayden Creek Road (FSR 437), just a couple of miles above the mouth of the creek at the northern end of the lake. These three areas have suffered damage from off-road vehicle use and “mud bogging.” Off road vehicular traffic has destroyed native vegetation, some vital riparian plants, caused barren area susceptible to surface erosion during rain events, and allowed vehicles to drive directly into Hayden Creek. Mud bogging splashes sediment-laden water directly into the stream.

The Hayden Lake Watershed Association has long pressed the Forest Service to address these areas with little success due to the agency’s funding restraints. The Association prepared a section 319 Clean Water Act funding grant to address at least one of these areas and demonstrate a method to end vehicle encroachment and revegetate these areas. A plan was submitted to the grant process in which upended logs would be placed in a pattern that would make any vehicle travel impossible. However, before the logs were placed, the ground would be plowed to a depth of about a foot to allow natural seeding and planting of trees after the logs were placed. The funding was granted by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in late summer of 2024.

Work began on one of the three areas along Hayden Creek at the upper junction of the two roads in late April 2025. The ground, in a roughly single acre area was plowed up to a foot in depth and logs were placed in the ground at a roughly forty-five-degree angle in a density that ended vehicle access. Dock float logs collected by the Hayden Lake Watershed Improvement District were repurposed to block access. In early May the Association sponsored a tree planting effort at the site. During a Saturday morning, 200 larch seedlings were planted on the site by volunteers. Plastic guards were placed around the seedlings to protect them from predation from rodents until they can grow in size. The few surplus trees were taken upstream and planting on the fire scar of the recent Ridge Creek fire.

The site addressed, pictured before and after the restorative work, is but one of three sites requiring this treatment. To address the remaining two, the Association made application for RAC Funding (Recreational Resource Advisory Committee Funding) available through a Forest Service community outreach program. If the funds are made available this fall, ground loosening and log placement will be completed if weather permits at a second site just across the road at the upper junction. The tree planting effort would be scheduled for next spring. If funds do not become available this fall, all the work will occur next spring with planting to follow. If enough logs area available, the third site at the lower junction will be completed next year, if not, then in the Spring of 2027.