Union County Water Rescue Team remove water hazards from Riverside Park
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, November 29th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – The Union County Water Rescue Team, composed of volunteers from the City of La Grande Fire Department and Union County Search and Rescue, were busy making Riverside Park just a bit safer on Tuesday. For anyone that saw the Water Rescue Team members in the Grande Ronde River, don’t worry, no one was in distress, the team were simply undertaking river hazard mitigation.
Specifically, team members were removing hazard trees and some of the rebar sticking up from the concrete debris still in the water near Riverside Park. While the rebar is a self-explanatory obstacle, the trees are a bit more complicated, posing both a more insidious hazard but a potential benefit to local wildlife.
According to a recent post from Union County Search and Rescue, the trees were left over last spring, not being washed out during high water. Instead, the trees had the possibility to create what’s known as a strainer hazard, potentially drowning unsuspecting swimmers and recreationists. As explained by Search and Rescue:
“A strainer is a stationary feature in a river that can trap someone under water, usually with tragic outcomes due to the pressure of moving water preventing self-rescue. The rebar also posed a significant entrapment hazard.”
Despite this, fallen trees and other wooden debris can play a critical role in river-based ecosystems. Prior to hazard mitigation, the team consulted and received approval from the various environmental oversight and management agencies involved with the river. All cut wood was returned to the river once the strainer hazards were removed.
