CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — A Boise River property owner and engineers have completed a $77,000 bank stabilization project to prevent erosion that threatened both private land and a critical drainage system serving Meridian-area residents.
Mark Phillips, who owns property along the Boise River between Star and Middleton, watched high-water events erode his riverbank by several feet each year. The erosion posed a dual threat: Phillips was losing his property line to the water, and the advancing river threatened to breach a nearby drainage ditch that carries water toward Meridian.
WATCH: See how a property owner teamed up with engineers to prevent erosion on their property
"Bottom line, our property line was getting taken away by the water," Phillips said. "It would just be washing sediment into the river and just moving this bank to the north— our land disappearing."
The greater concern extended beyond property loss: a drainage canal sits just beyond the riverbank, and Phillips worried about potential flooding if the river breached that system during high-water events.
"If you get the river in a high water event, the threat is not really the river—the threat is the river water getting into the drain and heading for a subdivision," Phillips said.
Zack Billingsley, manager of engineering and construction services at Rivhab Engineering and Earthworks, explained the canal's importance to the area.
"The canal is really tough to see. This is not a main irrigation canal, but more or less a lateral that feeds the surrounding areas around here. So it's just right on the other side of this berm," Billingsley demonstrated.
With the bank eroding several feet annually, engineers determined the canal would soon be consumed, eliminating water supply to numerous local landowners.
The solution involved 360 feet of newly stabilized riverbank using volcanic rock anchoring and hundreds of future willow trees. The project's key innovation lies in three rock structures called barbs positioned in the river itself.
"We're pushing the thalweg, which is essentially the deepest, most powerful part of the channel, away from this bank. So not only are we armoring this bank, but we're pushing the problem into the center of the channel," Billingsley said.
The barbs deflect water away from the bank and into the main channel, protecting the land from future flooding. Phillips implemented a similar project upstream in 2022, which has shown successful growth and stabilization.
The $77,000 project cost was split evenly between Phillips and a state flood management grant. For Phillips, the investment was essential.
"Did not think twice. Needed it, wanted it that bad," Phillips said.
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