Restoring streams post-fire with low-tech structures in Idaho

[Music] so we're up here long ball Creek in the little Wood River drainage and talking about a conservation project there was a whole team of different agencies working together to put in about a hundred and twenty beaver dam analogues and other kinds of structure similar to those and the whole idea was to try to restore the stream course up here on ba Creek Sheep Creek parts of the little would in the aftermath of the Sharps fire so the idea what these structures was to slow down the water slow down the sediment and prevent the stream from blowing out in a year when you have a lot of snow melting on top of blackened landscape in addition experts saw the Sharps fire as an opportunity to test the application of using B das and similar structures to restore streams following a large wildfire they liked the results so far I'm extremely happy with this project it's not like we were just restoring the stream we were doing it after the fire and and that had never been done before I would say these look great the fact that this especially post fire with the uncertainty of what runoff was going to be runoff in sediment delivery post fire having to still be intact at about the same level as the dam was pre is a really great sign the landowners are happy to Rebecca Patton and her husband Tom bought 5,000 acres in Ball Creek to improve it for wildlife habitat we were very interested in the intersection of that working lands orientation and conservation and wanted to show that we could do restoration that would benefit wildlife and livestock and be a healthy sustainable way to manage the land but it looks to us as though they performed the tasks they were set to do which was to slow down the water and creating pockets where sediment could get caught which would again begin the process of creating that meandering beautiful stream that allows a lot of riparian habitat to grow the landowners have planned a stream restoration project on Ball Creek previous to the Sharps fire but after the 65,000 acre fire occurred restoration experts decided to expand the scope so it presented what we think is an opportunity to actually accelerate the restoration of a degraded system because we're gonna have more flow coming down because of reduced infiltration rates after the fire we're can see more water delivered to the channel more sediment deliver to the channel and ultimately those are the tools for that it needs to help heal itself with a little help from us after the Sharps fire was extinguished by the BLM Minear worked with numerous agency partners to put a large-scale stream restoration project together in a matter of weeks the nation's leading experts on Beaver Dam analogs who are professors at Utah State University and run a private sector company Anna Brandt solutions were available to work on project design following the landowners objectives a big priority and that was this Creek ball Creek this three miles of Creek that had been channeled historically to try to provide more pasture land it there was no repair very little riparian habitat it was old it just went and one kind of big canal as opposed to what it could be doing or historically would have been doing which is to have really vibrant meadows and riparian habitat around it which would not only support wildlife but raise the water table and provide a lot healthier grasses for all animals upstream and downstream of the project area there were natural beaver dams functioning just fine so they worked on stream restoration in the middle Anna branch experts prescribed six different types of in stream structures including Beaver Dam analogues debris jams Bank attach jams and mid channel jams the partners went to work in early November oh it took an army to get this done and it's kind of the All Hands all lands approach where we bring everyone in and it was a multitude of partners who were able to make this happen the team of partners and volunteers installed more than 120 structures in just seven days staffers with Fish & Wildlife Service in Idaho Fish and Game provided 450 posts for the be das and Fish and Game had a hydraulic post pounder Fish and Game officials also cut up dead aspen trees killed by the fire to use for in-stream structures willows and other branches were used for BDS as well the structures self seal was sediment and debris over time we had somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to twelve on any given day we had volunteers funneling in and out ball Creek here we had agencies out of out of Haley Trout Unlimited Wood River Land Trust in the winter of 2018-19 Mother Nature provided deep snow in the Pioneer mountains a tower above in the early spring snowpack experts predicted 150 percent of normal runoff in the Littlewood River area fortunately the snowmelt occurred slowly and nearly all of the BDA s and in stream structures held in place going up and down ba Creek to check on results in summer 2019 Shaw Verdean likes what he sees I think things look pretty good I'm actually surprised that as many of the structures we have are looking as you know intact I would have frankly expected a few more to be rearranged for us so to speak that's why we built so many in the upper ends of ba Creek we have very healthy beaver communities because it was not as damaged as this part of the creek and our hope and expectation is as as this recovers the beavers will recolonize down here you know once we get some additional Aspen growth and because it'll be really prime habitat for them we have beavers to the north and beavers to the south and this is a huge stretch a mile and a half or two miles which would be great for them and then they could accelerate the restoration process the project also should benefit sage-grouse and wildlife in some of these they call them emerald islands in the state brush sea that's where all the critters congregate and so sage-grouse in particular they're very dependent on these these these riparian habitats in this very arid environment we live in water is that a scarcity and so they will bring their broods down into these areas and like I said they'll forage and they'll utilize the water sources of machine and it's a place for them to go and so it benefits the sage-grouse and the 350 other species that utilize these sagebrush habitats they also provide late season water for producers if we can build these systems up and build that water table and build that riparian area and and create create that sponge if you will that will hold that water longer in the season then it's not just a benefit to the sage-grouse but it's also a benefit to like I said cattle producers wild ungulates that may come down to get a drink and other critters that use these areas as a refuge in the hottest times of the year beaver dam analogs are becoming quite popular as a stream restoration tool in Idaho it's really taken off over the last year so we've got little hot spots all over the state the more error we can affect the more benefits there are to to the wildlife people [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Idaho Conservation Commission

Views: 91,954

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Id: fjS9-bhAfiQ

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020