Icicle Creek Work Group: Working Toward a Sustainable Future

The Icicle Creek Work Group is hosting an open house to update the public on various projects it has cooking.

The event kicks off with a 30-minute presentation. According to Mary Jo Sanborn from Chelan County Natural Resources, the group's recent undertakings are lofty, as are its future plans.

The group was established 13 years ago. Its end game: resolving water supply issues, whatever they may be, for the betterment of fish habitats, agriculture and domestic water consumption. Here's the group in its own words:

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The Icicle Creek Work Group (IWG) seeks to increase community and ecological resiliency through implementing collaborative solutions (Icicle Strategy) for water management within the Icicle Creek drainage to provide a suite of balanced benefits for existing and new domestic and agricultural uses, non-consumptive uses, fish, wildlife and habitat while protecting treaty and non-treaty fishing interests.

Right now the group is preoccupied with irrigation work (pictured above), as well as improvements to the Eightmile Lake Dam and Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery.

Additionally, the Icicle Creek Water Smart Gardens Program, launched in 2024, offers reimbursements to participating landowners:

This program will reimburse landowners on a price per square foot basis to decrease outdoor water use by replacing existing water intensive lawn with drought tolerant native plants and other landscaping materials that require less water.

The WSGP will reimburse landowners $2.00 per sqft of lawn removed, with a maximum reimbursement amount of $3,000 (1,500 sqft). Landowners interested in the program will need to submit an application containing the necessary information (see below) before any work has commenced. Applications are reviewed by the WSGP team, who will schedule site inspections to verify lawn size and health.

The open house is scheduled for Feb. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the firehall on Chumstick Hwy in Leavenworth.