When a landscape won’t hold water anymore and its riparian habitat disappears, how do you bring it back? Two words: planning and action. That was the challenge in remote reaches of eastern Nevada about 230 miles north of Las Vegas. In response, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other partners, including the Nevada Department of Wildlife, supplied funding support for a series of projects on Bureau of Land Management land in the South Spring and Hamlin valleys.
In one location, workers built more than a dozen beaver dam analogs (BDAs)—manmade structures created by removing encroaching pinyon and juniper trees and placing them in a stream bed. The results mimic the effects of a natural beaver dam. BDAs slow water flow and, by doing so, raise the water table leading to saturated soil, which triggers the growth of accompanying life-sustaining riparian vegetation for wildlife even in such a hot, arid desert region. The funding also helped to build a series of rock dams designed to stop headcutting on Table Mountain, a process where concentrated water flow creates a vertical drop in a stream bed, which then migrates upstream.
Such drastic erosion washes away topsoil and the vegetation that grows in it. Crews used heavy machinery to place boulders in waterways to stop headcutting, which helps restore the stream and its riparian habitat to its historic form. Add to that the installation of a trough to serve as a wildlife water source, and it’s a win for elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, sage grouse and other species.
At RMEF, we’re not just conserving what’s here today, we’re creating what’s possible for tomorrow. That means more access, healthier habitats and a stronger future for all big game.
One square mile a day. Over 10 million acres by 2030.