Road and railroad construction: The wagon road along Wolf Creek built in 1863 was improved and realigned in the 1930's, to become State Highway 89. The highway was paved and widened along the creek in Greenville. The Western Pacific Railroad was completed in 1931 following Wolf Creek's channel for five miles upstream of Greenville. Altogether, this transportation corridor created a total of 125 acres of hard surfaces that block rain from soaking in, increasing the amount and speed of water runoff during storms, and thereby increasing flooding. Cut and fill slopes along the road and railroad bed also erode when rain falls on areas bare of vegetation.

Urbanization/industrial development: Two lumber mills operated in the Wolf Creek floodplain in the 1940's and 50's. Many homes and commercial business are located along the creek as it winds for two miles through Greenville. Hard surfaces such as streets and driveways don't allow rain to soak into the ground, thereby speeding

up runoff of rain water and increasing flooding.

Timber harvesting: In the 1940's, logging roads were constructed throughout the lower watershed. Since 1963, most Forest Service lands have been helicopter logged. A private timber company also began logging in 1983 on 600 acres, roughly 11% of the watershed. However the impact of timber harvesting is considered small (Cawley 1984). 

Dam failures: In the late 1950's, a cedar mill dam about one and a half miles upstream of the project area blew out, sending a pulse of water through Wolf Creek that carried away creek bottom sediments, lowering the creek in town by an average of six feet. In the 1960's, a 1920's irrigation dam was removed just downstream from the project area which caused scouring of the stream bed.

Previous stream alterations: In 1955, the Army Corps of Engineers dynamited five feet of bedrock from the lower end of Indian Valley, to help ranchers drain marshy fields so livestock grazing could begin earlier in the season. This lead to down cutting of the creek channel in town. The Corps then tried to stabilize the channel by straightening it in 3 places, and removing all riparian vegetation (Little, 1994). In 1978, the county constructed walls along the creek banks, which were undermined during 1980 floods.
 

  In 1987, the Greenville Community Services District, on behalf of urban property owners on Wolf Creek, requested assistance from the East Branch North Fork Feather River (EBNFFR) Coordinated Resources Management group (CRM) to help stop the erosion. The agencies involved in the EBNFFR CRM accepted the challenge to improve Wolf Creek because stream improvement would not only help property owners but would also fulfill agency goals to improve water quality and fish and wildlife habitat, and to stop erosion. Together with 70 owners of creek front residential, commercial, and industrial property, and community members, they initiated the Wolf Creek Restoration Project.

CRM technical experts, consultants, and property owners worked together in town hall meetings, field tours and working sessions to agree on the goal of creating a natural appearing and functioning creek and riparian system in the 100 year floodplain. Their objectives were to:
 

STREAM CHANNEL STABILITY: Changes in the channel structure constructed during the project occurred after the floods of the winter of 1994-1995. In March 1995, eight inches of rain fell on an already soaked watershed in a four day period. Wolf Creek swelled to a volume of 4,400 cubic feet per second, over eight times it's normal flow (Meadowbrook 1995). These flood waters carried an estimated 112,000 tons of sediment through the project area. The majority of this erosion came from roads, new erosion gullies, and unprotected stream banks upstream of Greenville. CRM members estimate that about 6,400 tons of this soil (6%) came from stream banks that failed in the project's Phase III area, leading to a small net increase in

the width and depth of the stream channel.

 Rock weirs installed in Phases II and III, the straightest section of the Creek performed as expected, while channel reconstruction measures in Phase I, the meandering section of the project, were lost. Although the creek's banks did not enlarge in this section, the stream was moved out of the carefully constructed channel into newly formed channels (Meadowbrook 1995). Most of the new meanders and armored stream banks were bypassed. Despite loss of these meanders and the severity of the flood, the majority of the stream banks treated during the project showed little erosion and little private property was lost.
 

Little, Jane Braxton. A current of hope: Saving a small river may be the key to saving a small town. Harrowsmith Country Life. Number 52, September 1994. P. 32-39.

Meadowbrook Conservation Associates. Summary and sediment delivery by source. Wolf Creek near Greenville, California: Flood event of March 9, 1995. Prepared for Plumas Corporation. Unpublished. July 6th, 1995.

Wolf Creek Technical Advisory Committee and the students of the conservation classes of Indian Valley and Greenville High School. 1991 Wolf Creek Phase I Monitoring Report: Results of first year post-construction monitoring. Prepared for the East Branch North Fork Feather River Coordinated Resources Management Group. January 1992.

U.S. Forest Service. Cawley,Ken. Watershed condition survey and restoration plan for the Wolf Creek Watershed. Greenville Ranger District, Plumas National Forest. Unpublished. 1984.