Trustees back bioengineered, 'light-touch' fixes for Fraser River bend near Safeway

John Ewart, the local fisheries biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the Board the Safeway bend on the Fraser River has begun to lose bank material and is developing an eddy that could progressively threaten the bend’s habitat and, eventually, infrastructure. He recommended a series of bioengineered measures — willow transplanting, toe-wood or cobble toe reinforcement and modest recontouring of an adjacent point bar and cutoff channel — before pursuing larger engineered river-movement projects.