Colorado Parks and Wildlife crews on Wednesday cleared an unprecedented 100-yard logjam completely blocking the Arkansas River surface at popular rafting and fishing spots, breaking up a cement-like raft of debris in time for Labor Day recreation.
After “letting the river do its work” for a few days to pick away at the jam, which included tree trunks up to 20 inches in diameter locked in by pine needles and mud, CPW sent in crews with hand tools to finish the job.
Boat crews on the upstream side pulled and poked at the debris, while others wielded long poles and river paddles while perched on massive boulders lining the river near Hecla Junction, in the stretch of the Arkansas between Buena Vista and Salida. While the state fielded dozens of amateur recommendations on how to break the jam, CPW possesses neither explosives nor accompanying pyrotechnic expertise, the agency said Thursday.
The debris was washed out of side gullies by heavy rainstorms Aug. 22. The logs and branches were not from a recent burn scar, just from years of accumulation inside canyons waiting for a blowout storm, CPW said.
The jam was one of a few major challenges for the Arkansas River in recent days, as Lower Arkansas health and agriculture officials 100 miles downstream dealt with the toxic aftermath of a major sewage spill from Pueblo into the river stretching all the way to Las Animas.
River force in the Upper Arkansas had reduced the logjam from 100 yards long to about 20 yards when the crews started their work, Arkansas Headwaters park manager Tom Waters said. Poking and pulling with the poles and paddles dissipated some of the needles-and-mud debris downstream, freeing up larger logs for more movement.
The jam eventually cleared through steady chipping and redirecting logs, not a massive, sudden unplugging, Waters said. Crew members use the river themselves for floating and fishing, and clearing the jam between popular rapids was a big satisfaction for all involved, CPW officer Connor Dady said.
CPW sent boat crews down the rapids after the jam was cleared to make sure no major logs had snagged again farther down.
“It was like a weight lifted off all of our shoulders. People are going to be happy about it. You know, people are going to be excited about it,” Dady said. “And now we can go float it, too.”