Giving the Land Back to Itself: Low-Tech, Process-Based Restoration & Why We Need It for our Wildlands and our Wild Waters.

It’s hard to know, driving dirt roads across the expanse of rolling sagebrush, that just beyond the horizon the Sweetwater River carves through a narrow canyon of granite. It is even harder to describe the feeling of walking up to a free-flowing river vibrantly green with willow, chokecherry, spruce, and fir in the midst of a sagebrush sea punctuated by granite outcrops and not see another human soul. Where the only sounds are of the downdrafts from a looming thunderstorm, riffles in the river, and the songbirds it supports. And possibly harder still, in the quietness and stillness, to imagine that this landscape is the result not only of millenia of natural and geological processes, but also of millenia of human hands sometimes lovingly, sometimes with disregard, caring for and transforming this place. 

For a landscape as invaluable as Sweetwater Canyon, it is a boon that it carries a triple crown of legal and administrative protections: It is protected as a Wilderness Study Area under the Wilderness Act, it is protected as an eligible and suitable river for designation under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, and it is encompassed by the South Pass Historic Landscape Area of Critical Environmental Concern under the Lander BLM Field Office’s Resource Management Plan. These all provide the legal and political framework to help ensure our modern relationship to the Sweetwater Canyon is one of respect. Something worth celebrating; I certainly did as I soaked my feet in the river on a hot July day this summer. 

The Sweetest Waters: 2% of US Rivers & Streams remain free flowing; our very own Sweetwater River is one of them. 13,492 river miles have been protected under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) since 1968 with countless more such as the Sweetwater benefiting from interim protections as eligible and suitable rivers under the WSRA. 435 river miles in Wyoming are designated Wild & Scenic: 20 along the Clark’s Fork & 415 among the Snake River Headwaters. This map is from Hydrolab’s map of the World’s free flowing waters. Check it out here: https://hydrolab.io/ffr/#7/43.014/-106.450/FFR-CNT-NME-CNN-LKE

However, those who live close to the land know, if you care for the land, it will care for you and for itself. If not, then the patterns and processes that should render the land resilient and thriving –including our human relationships with the land–can quickly become negative feedback loops. These negative feedback loops can persist, even with all the legal and administrative protections in the world. The land needs us to be in relationship with it. To know it intimately. And to care for it. We see this in some of the tributaries and ephemeral drainages of the Sweetwater River near Sweetwater Canyon. Ribbons of green wet meadows that once undulated across the low places in the hills surrounding Sweetwater Canyon are, in some places, shrinking.

Riparian and wet meadow systems are referred to as green ribbons across the sagebrush sea. Diagram created by Jeremy Maestas, Ecologist, USDA-NRCS West National Technology Support Center. https://www.partnersinthesage.com/wet-meadow-restoration 

Covering only 2% of sagebrush lands, these wet meadows are disproportionately important for wildlife in this area, especially sage-grouse. When healthy, these wet meadows make up broad swaths of green holding critical moisture year-round from snowmelt. While some flow and flooding in early spring with snowmelt is normal, headcutting, gully erosion, and channel incision have simultaneously increased the rate of flow and decreased wet meadow vegetation. In doing so, more of this water rushes through the meadows without seeping in, which means less water for wildlife during the dryer months to come. Wet meadow plants such as Nebraska sedge Carex nebrascensis dry up too, and sagebrush moves in eventually erasing the meadow from the landscape. Decreased wet meadow vegetation also leads to soil instability with the absence of roots to hold it in place. This leads to deeper gullies, increased flow, decreased absorption, and is how headcuts move upstream, eroding away the next wet meadow, and the next, and the next, until none remain if left unchecked. 

Negative feedback loops resulting from impaired stream channels and vegetation loss. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pub/pnw-773-threat-based-management-creeks-streams-rivers 

“Headcuts are the upstream migration of an incised channel with the “head” at the upstream side and the “cut” at the point of erosion or cutting*”. Headcuts and other erosional features are the result of multiple factors specific to each area. In some places even our seemingly innocuous recreational habits such hiking, fishing, backpacking, etc. can be enough to alter wildlife patterns and movements*. In our arid wildlands, where humans and wildlife flock to meadows and water sources, human presence may result in a greater concentration of wildlife, especially large ungulates such as elk, mule deer, and moose at other riparian areas. This can lead to a decrease in native vegetation and an increase in soil instability, resulting in the negative feedback loop described above. Sometimes our own footprints do the trampling, leading to the same result*. In other situations, unmanaged livestock grazing or high concentrations of wild horses can have the same result*. Poorly functioning culverts upstream, irrigation ditches, wildfire, and drought, are also among the many other factors that can lead to the same negative feedback loops*. If we stand aside and do nothing, the wild in our wild lands and wild waters will erode away with the sedges and soil. 

“All erosion is due to running water. So, if you can step back for a moment and take the time to look at the landscape–how it evolved, how it was formed–and make ourselves think like water: ‘What would water do if it were in sync with its environment?’ That’s been my approach to stream and wetland restoration…When it stops getting worse, it starts getting better.”

–Bill Zeedyk

Evolution of riparian area degradation and water table drop over time due to erosional forces and vegetation loss with no intervention. Bottom image assumes a non-erosional surface has been encountered to halt erosional forces or restoration structures have been installed to halt said forces. Degraded riparian areas are unlikely to return to recovering functional status without intervention. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pub/pnw-773-threat-based-management-creeks-streams-rivers

Not all forms of restoration are made equal. And not all forms are appropriate for our wildest lands and waters. Decades of research have led to the development of low tech, process based restoration methods specific to wet meadows in sagebrush wildlands. These techniques embrace natural processes and wilderness-inspired minimal tool ethics to create highly effective, long-lasting results. These processes involve utilizing rock terracing techniques to halt head cutting and erosion, decrease flow velocity, and induce sheet flow by dispersing water across the landscape or channel. Doing so allows native riparian vegetation to repopulate the area, including in and amongst the rock terraces. Increasing vegetation and slowing water means more water stays in the area and wet meadows have a chance to return and thrive once again. These simple features allow the land to heal itself and return to the positive feedback loops that keep the wild in our wildlands and wild waters.  

Below: Array of rock structures used to address degraded meadows & stream channels fom the Quivira Coalition Erosion Control Field Guide. These are often referred to as ‘zeedyk’ structures after their creator Bill Zeedyk, who encourages us all to think like water. Check out this 5 part series on Zeedyk by R3 Productions “Think Like Water.” Right: White polygons show extent of wet meadow vegetation pre-restoration in 2012 compared with post-installation of zeedyk structures in the following years, 2014-2016. 

This is good news for those ribbons of green meadows surrounding Sweetwater Canyon. It isn’t too late to change our relationship with the land, to help it heal itself, and continue to provide a wild, working, and thriving landscape for us all to enjoy for generations to come. 

Looking forward to seeing you out in our Wyoming Wildlands. 

–Lauren Marsh, WWA BLM Program Manager. 

Interested in helping us care for our Sweetwater River Wildland? Join our upcoming projects, including a day out by the Sweetwater building Zeedyk structures!

Stewardship Outings

References:

Anderson, Avery C. and Sponholtz, Craig. Erosion Control Field Guide. Quivira Coalition. 2010. https://quiviracoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Erosion-Control-Field-Guide.pdf 

GreenMoney. “Thinking Like Water-’water wizard’ Bill Zeedyk teaches people how to work with nature to restore degraded watersheds.” Featuring “Thinking Like Water.” Docu-series. Roberts, Renee. R3 Productions, Inc. 2024 https://greenmoney.com/thinking-like-water-water-wizard-bill-zeedyk-shows-people-how-to-work-with-nature-to-restore-degraded-watersheds/ 

Hydrolab. Free-Flowing Rivers. https://hydrolab.io/ffr/#7/43.014/-106.450/FFR-CNT-NME-CNN-LKE

Maestas, J.D. et al. Handbuilt structures for restoring degraded meadows in sagebrush rangelands: Examples and lessons learned from the Upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado. Range Technical Note No. 40. USDA-NRCS. Denver, CO. 2018. https://issuu.com/quiviracoalition/docs/co_nrcs_range_technical_note_40_gun#google_vignette 

Partners in the Sage. Wet Meadow and Riparian Restoration. 

https://www.partnersinthesage.com/wet-meadow-restoration 

Reed, Sarah “Don’t Hike So Close to Me: How the presence of humans can disturb wildlife up to half a mile away” Colorado State University. July, 2021. https://source.colostate.edu/dont-hike-so-close-to-me-how-the-presence-of-humans-can-disturb-wildlife-up-to-half-a-mile-away/ 

Renner, Dick et al. “Threat-based Management for Creeks, Streams, and Rivers: A Manager’s Guide for Managing and Understanding Flowing Waters in Sagebrush Ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Extension Catalogue: A PNW Extension Publication. December 2023. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pub/pnw-773-threat-based-management-creeks-streams-rivers