River enthusiasts are dismayed and alarmed by Kern County’s plan to use riprap – boulders and chunks of rock – to shore up the bank along Kernville’s Riverside Park, which was damaged during the 2023 flood.
Dumping riprap on the bank of an otherwise accessible and heavily used section of the Kern River is a huge missed opportunity, according to local boaters and others. It can also be dangerous, they say.
People will still scramble over the rocks to get to the water, so riprap isn’t a deterrent and can cause injury, according to Tom Moore, owner of Sierra South, a whitewater rafting company.
Besides, he said, the county put riprap on that same bank in the early 2000s and it got “blown out” by the river in 2023…