Great Salt Lake Audubon faults SLCs Miller Park restoration

(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Small terraced waterfall along Red Butte Creek in Miller Park. The park in Salt Lake City's Yalecrest neighborhood will undergo a restoration project to begin this summer after bird nesting season and peak flows of Red Butte Creek whch runs the length of the park. The park will be closed during the restoration work from July through November to remove invasive species and establish native trees, shrubs and plants. The project will also restore the creek bed, reduce water velocity, stabilize the stream bank and make minor improvements to the walking trail and signage.

Great Salt Lake Audubon has forwarded scathing criticism and a warning to Salt Lake City concerning its restoration plan tree thinning and streambed fortification for the east sides Miller Park that straddles Red Butte Creek.

The criticism: Tree cutting in the park that runs from 1500 East to 1700 East at about 1000 South should not take place during the April-through-August nesting season.

The warning: Such activity could risk running afoul of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act that prohibits taking any migratory bird, its nest or its eggs without a permit.

Nesting season could find western screech owls, American kestrels, passerine songbirds and other migratory birds sitting on eggs or feeding fledglings in Miller Park.

In the wake of the Audubon complaint, the project has now been pushed back from a planned April 15 start to July, according to city officials. It should take about six months to complete.

The operation would remove 275 non-native trees about 30 percent of the canopy along the small creek-side park that is a favorite among residents of the Yalecrest area. It also would re-establish native ground cover and shrubbery, as well as restore the streambed and shore up its banks.

Funding for the $765,000 undertaking comes from Chevron through the Utah Division of Water Quality as mitigation for Chevrons ruptured pipeline in June 2010 that sent oil down Red Butte Creek.

Great Salt Lake Audubon faults the project in a number of areas, most notably its timing.

Scheduling tree removal during nesting season and streambed work during high flows reveals a lack of expertise, said Audubon acting president Heather Dove.

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Great Salt Lake Audubon faults SLCs Miller Park restoration