The best example of avoiding disturbance to vegetated areas on a mean- 

 dering or sinuous river occurred at the Shaviovik River study site (Figure 

 72). This river flowed in a medium width, single channel and in a sinuous 



*™i^^^^3cr 



Figure 72, View of both undisturbed (background) and mined 

 (foreground) reaches of the Shaviovik River. Note that 

 gravel removal maintained natural point bar contours and 

 shapes and did not disturb riparian vegetative zones. 



configuration. With these characteristics the floodplain consisted of broad 

 (averaging approximately 40 to 50 m in width) unvegetated point bars at 

 every inside bend and numerous unvegetated lateral bars located between 

 point bars. Gravel removal consisted of shallow scraping on every point bar 

 and lateral bar over a distance of several river kilometers. Small quan- 

 tities were taken from each location, however, a total of 116,000 m was 

 removed. 



The actual scraping of unvegetated gravel deposits throughout most 

 of the Shaviovik River site was conducted in a manner that caused minimal, 

 or no biological disturbance. Gravel bars were scraped only in their unvege- 

 tated portions and riparian shrub thickets were not disturbed. Also, the 

 mining operation maintained natural contours and shapes on gravel bars and 



240 



