Projects

Bender Creek Restoration

Project Description

Over two decades ago, the Mussigbrod fire burned a large amount of forest around Bender Creek and its tributaries. Because of the active beaver populations in the meadow bottoms, these areas did not burn, and the next summer they were the only places where healthy pasture could be found. Large numbers of cattle congregated in the area, far beyond its carrying capacity. With no forest to uptake water, spring snowmelt and rains led to the equivalent of a 100-year event worth of water entering the Bender creek system. The water overwhelmed beaver dams and the stream power caused headcuts that quickly migrated upstream, channelizing the stream into a fire-hose. The combination of heavy cattle use and incision of the channel have left the stream in the project area in a 7-foot deep hole, with banks that collapse annually. Beaver eventually returned to the upper portion of the watershed, but the stream channel below the dams is confined and continuously eroding.

Proposed Improvements

In partnership with the US Forest Service, this project will construct 1 mile of new stream channel on the opposite side of the floodplain from the existing channel, in order to connect the less degraded sections of stream above and below. The approach is rather simple. Instead of trying to fix this degraded stream in place, which we were quoted by a contractor to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, our solution is to simply carve a channel of the correct dimensions through the meadow, connecting in-tact riparian areas above and below. In 2017, in partnership with the US Forest Service and Montana FWP, we installed a fish barrier on Bender Creek, preserving a native WCT population in this same basin that will utilize the restored reach we create.

The project has been cleared by the US Forest Service’s environmental review (NEPA) process and has the backing of the state’s fish biologist for the area.