The Big Picture

With miles of prairie streams on American Prairie Foundation (APF) lands, restoration of riparian habitats (all areas along natural watercourses) is a high priority. The long-term goal of stream and riparian restoration on the APR is to achieve high functioning prairie stream systems that would include all the elements of water, species (fish) and vegetation.

Specifically we will 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, to aid in establishment of riparian plants where seed source may prohibit natural regeneration, to remove blockages to fish passage allowing fish to repopulate greater watershed areas and possibly to reintroduce fish.

Stretching like fingers into the prairie, these 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, APF’s land 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.

Progress 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 APF land that will provide the basis for re-vegetation efforts. Additionally, we have conducted vegetation restoration trials to understand how to do restoration efforts on a larger scale, and we have documented the ecological importance of beaver in prairie streams. We have conducted a survey of fish populations on the three major creeks on the 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 and provide baseline information.

In April 2007 WWF, APF, Oxbow Inc. and Hoitsma Ecological implemented the Box Elder Creek restoration project. We restored a half-mile segment of Box Elder Creek that had been farmed into an alfalfa field some 70 years ago with the help of a grant obtained from Montana Department of Fish Wildlife & Parks Future Fisheries fund and the expert talents of Ranch Manager Bill Willcutt. Bill and his trusty tractor dug a new channel and a Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) crew installed 1,500 plants next to the channel. The new channel reconnects Box Elder’s 27 square mile watershed to Telegraph Creek, allowing fish to repopulate the watershed as hydrologic conditions allow. Despite inclement weather, the MCC crew installed 10 species of native riparian trees and shrubs in three different plots along the new channel, including some species we have not yet tried in our vegetative restoration trials (buffaloberry, hawthorne, currant, green ash, sand cherry and snowberry) and others we have (yellow willow, plains cottonwood, rose, and chokecherry). Boxelder, from locally harvested seed, is currently germinating in a local greenhouse and will be planted in the fall (possibly by local youth groups). To improve upon plant survival rates over the last two years, all plants will be irrigated and protected with weed mat. Finally, with the generous help of Melissa Blessing, a volunteer from Bozeman, and APF staffers Noël Twigg, Greg Fagenstrom and Chris Toalson, as well as Bill and his tractor, all three plots were fenced 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.

Next Steps

This spring, Oxbow Inc. will begin two new major hydrologic restoration efforts by removing irrigation structures on two different creeks. Removing these structures will 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. We will be monitoring the results of the dam removal on the channel and riparian area over the next several years. Other upcoming projects include evaluation of stream and hydrologic restoration projects on newly acquired ranches, monitoring bison utilization and impacts on riparian areas and evaluating opportunities for native fish restoration.