The Big Picture

Stretching like fingers into the prairie, prairie streams once supported a diverse array of plants and wildlife, including nearly half of all prairie birds. However, over the last century, much of this habitat and its diversity have been lost. Fortunately, American Prairie Reserve (APR) holds several intact riparian sites of impressive diversity. These sites provide both a glimpse of what restored habitat can support and the raw materials with which to renew degraded sections.

American Prairie Foundation’s long-term goal for the restoration of streams and riparian habitats (all areas along natural watercourses) is to achieve high functioning prairie stream systems that support the highest possible species diversity of native fish, amphibians, birds, and vegetation. Restored natural hydrology creates and maintains pools, which are critical to these efforts.

Specifically we focus on restoration of in-stream flows, a multi-story riparian corridor (where conditions allow) and a full assemblage of native prairie fish. Our main objective is to restore the ecological processes of these areas, which create the conditions for establishment and maintenance of riparian plants and the habitat for fish, amphibians and the aquatic invertebrates upon which they rely.  We will remove blockages to fish passage allowing fish to repopulate greater watershed areas and possibly reintroduce native fish species.

Project to Date

APF, working with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and stream specialists, has initiated several restoration projects. To date, we have inventoried and characterized riparian habitats on American Prairie Reserve that will provide the basis for re-vegetation efforts. Additionally, we have conducted vegetation restoration trials to understand how to manage restoration efforts on a larger scale, and we have documented the ecological importance of beaver in prairie streams. We have surveyed fish populations on the three major creeks on APR providing a baseline for future restoration efforts. As our restoration activities occur, we will continue monitoring stream hydrology and measuring stream flows and precipitation events to improve our understanding of the system and to inform future management decisions.

In April 2007, APF, working with WWF, Oxbow Inc. and Hoitsma Ecological, restored a half-mile segment of Box Elder Creek that had been farmed into an alfalfa field some 70 years ago.  The restoration project involved digging a new channel with a tractor and was supported by a Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) crew who installed 1,500 plants next to the channel and by a grant obtained from Montana Department of Fish Wildlife & Parks Future Fisheries fund. The new channel reconnects Box Elder’s 27 square mile watershed to Telegraph Creek, allowing fish to repopulate the watershed as hydrologic conditions allow. The MCC crew installed 10 species of native riparian trees and shrubs in three different plots along the new channel, including some species we had not yet tried in our vegetative restoration trials (buffaloberry, hawthorne, currant, green ash, sand cherry and snowberry) and others we had (yellow willow, plains cottonwood, rose, and chokecherry). To improve plant survival rates, all plants were irrigated and protected with weed mat. Finally, we fenced all three plots to protect the plants from browse by deer, elk and bison. We will be monitoring how the channel adjusts as it naturalizes with flows as well as how the plants survive.

In the summer of 2007 WWF restored natural flows on all three major creeks of APR by opening up in-stream dams.  By modifying these structures we hoped to restore flows to the creek, remove major fish barriers, allow for natural transportation of sediment, re-establish natural processes of erosion and deposition and increase the number of establishment sites for riparian vegetation. Monitoring conducted by WWF in 2008 has documented fish accessing areas where they had not been in 2006, and had likely not accessed for 60 years.   Fish numbers increased since 2006.  WWF is also monitoring changes to instream habitat, riparian condition, and flow volume as a result of the flow restoration efforts.

Next Steps

WWF will continue monitoring the results of the dam removal on the channel and riparian area over the next several years. Other upcoming projects include monitoring bison utilization and impacts on riparian areas and evaluating opportunities for native fish restoration.  We are also evaluating possible reconnection of oxbows cutoff for farming purposes and other stream restoration activities.