Module 1

The reach consists of a slightly curved section of the Logan River. On the north side are a road and houses. On the south side are a park and a restored wetland. While the lower sections appear to have common riparian vegetation, the rest of reach has been stabilized with rip-rap. While this helps protect the park, road and adjacent houses this seems like a channelized section of river and the geomorphic units reflect that. The steep 100 ft walls on either side of the neighborhood seem to indicate the valley bottom margin and extent of the floodplain. There is a reconstructed wetland within the park, but aside from that, most of the floodplain is covered by homes. Prior to human development this valley and before upstream dams were put in place, the channel may have flooded from high spring flows from winter snowmelt. In addition to dams, canals redirecting water also reduce flows. Channel avulsion may have been more frequent, wetlands may have been more widely spread and there may have been a greater presence of side channels. Original hillslope across the Cache Valley was made present by historic Lake Bonneville and after the lake was gone the Logan River carved it's way through the sediment, forming the current valley bottom. Because this reach is found on this lake bottom sediment and because the rock in Utah is so sedimentary, it seems this reach has leveled itself out in terms of elevation. While it presented as a continuous riffle, there was one uniform drop across the channel,  which hints at in-channel modification.