BLM partners to restore habitat

Big Piney / LaBarge, Wyo. -- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is partnering in a collaborative stream restoration project with three youth crews. The projects are located near the communities of Big Piney and LaBarge. The LaBarge watershed lies within the Upper Green River Basin and contains several tributaries to the Green River. 

The goal of the restoration project is to prevent further degradation, erosion, and habitat loss and, to the extent possible, re-establish, maintain, or improve natural vegetation and ecological functions. To do this, three youth crews, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, Montana Conservation Corps, and American Conservation Experience, constructed Beaver Dam Analogs (BDA’s) and Zeedyk Rock Structures.

BDAs are simple hand-built restoration tools designed to mimic the function of a natural beaver dam. The BDA structures use wood posts driven into the streambed and then pine boughs and willow branches are woven between the posts to slow down and deepen the water. Benefits of BDA’s include improved water quality, ground water recharge, enhanced riparian habitat for fish and wildlife, and reduced erosion. A total of 74 structures were constructed along Pine Grove Creek.

Zeedyk Structures are hand-built rock structures built into gullies and incised side channels to prevent further head-cut migration, disperse runoff, and promote vegetation growth. One hundred Zeedyk structures were constructed within the Birch Creek and Dry Piney Creek drainages.

This work is just the beginning of a large-scale effort to restore stream habitat within the LaBarge watershed. Additional stream work will continue to focus on enhancing habitat. 

For more information on the funds being utilized by the Inflation Reduction Act toward LaBarge Restoration Landscapes, please visit this LaBarge video.