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NRCS Helps Protect County Museum from Flood Damage

​“It was exactly what we needed,” says Bob Flath, a LaMoure County commissioner, of the funding and technical assistance that the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service of North Dakota provided in 2021 to keep the county’s museum from sinking into the James River.

The riverbank next to the LaMoure County Museum collapsed during the 2019 flood of the James River
The riverbank next to the LaMoure County Museum collapsed during the 2019 flood of the James River. (Photo: NRCS)

NRCS is known mostly for helping private landowners adopt conservation practices to protect the soil, water and other natural resources. But in this situation the agency was able to help a community protect part of its history.

The LaMoure County Museum is located in Memorial Park near Grand Rapids, N.D. The 45-acre park is bordered on three sides by the James River. Normally slow and shallow, the James River flooded in fall of 2019 and remained high for much of the following year. Pressure from the deep water quickly eroded the riverbank next to the museum’s main building, a two-story structure filled with artifacts donated by area residents.

The museum was originally built to serve as the county courthouse, but Grand Rapids lost the fight with LaMoure to be the county seat. In 1883, the courthouse was sold and moved to Edgeley. In 1981, the county bought the building to serve as the county museum and moved it back to Grand Rapids, setting it within a mile of its original site. A country church, a one-room schoolhouse and an annex are also part ​of ​the museum.

“If we hadn’t done something, we were going to have to move the museum or lose it,” Flath says.

A construction team installs a geogrid stabilizer on the riverbank before the excavated area is backfilled with soil
A construction team installs a geogrid stabilizer on the riverbank before the excavated area is backfilled with soil. (Photo NRCS)

Memorial Park is popular with county residents. Besides the museum, the park includes a campground, baseball field and basketball court. A bunkhouse and kitchen/dining hall in the park a​r​e available to rent. Weddings are sometimes held in the country church. An auditorium on the site hosts annual musicals and children's theatre. The auditorium can be rented to host large groups. There’s a 9-hole private golf course next to the park, too.

“Everyone seems to have ties to the park,” says Flath, who as a county commissioner also serves on the park’s board of directors.

In 2015, LaMoure County had invested more than $200,000 to stabilize about 2,500 feet of riverbank in the park. The money came from county taxpayers and grants from public and private organizations.

In 2021, the county didn’t have enough money in its budget to repair the riverbank next to the museum. Nor were grants the county had used before available. That’s when the county contacted NRCS. The agency administers the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. Congress created the cost-sharing program to help communities recover after natural disasters such as floods​, ​tornadoes and fires. EWP focuses on things that pose an imminent threat to life or property.

In North Dakota, EWP has been used to repair dams and their auxiliary spillways; purchase floodplain easements; restore sites stripped of vegetation by fire; and remove storm debris clogging streams, ditches, road culverts and waterways under bridges.

The EWP program is a good fit for responding to local disasters because NRCS can act quickly, says Erica Althoff, NRCS lead engineer, Jamestown. She was the inspector on the Memorial Park project.

Technicians secure the turf reinforcement mat to the logs that had been previously placed in the riverbank to stabilize it. Rock riprap was laid below the logs to prevent the current from eroding the bank.
Technicians secure the turf reinforcement mat to the logs that had been previously placed in the riverbank to stabilize it. Rock riprap was laid below the logs to prevent the current from eroding the bank. (Photo NRCS)

EWP does not require a disaster declaration by federal or state government officials for work to begin. The NRCS state conservationist can declare a local watershed emergency and initiate EWP assistance in cooperation with an eligible sponsor such as a city, county or tribal government.

EWP is a cost sharing program. EWP provides 75% of a project’s cost and the sponsor covers the remaining 25%. The museum riverbank project cost about $90,000 and LaMoure County provided its 25% share mostly with in-kind contributions of equipment, labor and materials.

NRCS is not often called on to protect a museum, but engineering and geotechnical teams were enthusiastic to pitch in. “It was especially rewarding to help save something that a community is passionate about,” Althoff says

For more information about EWP and other NRCS programs, contact your local NRCS office.

With construction complete, grass seeded on the riverbank grows through the geotextile fabric. The vegetation will help prevent the soil from eroding.
With construction complete, grass seeded on the riverbank grows through the geotextile fabric. The vegetation will help prevent the soil from eroding. (Photo NRCS). 


 

 





 

 

 



 

 

Media contact:

Lon Tonneson
for the NRCS - North Dakota
Lon.tonneson@gmail.com
701-361-1105