Riverscape and Rangeland Recovery in the Middle Bear River

Riverscapes are some of the most important, but also the most fragile of environments. In the intermountain west, these "emerald islands" in a sea of sage brush are critical for wildlife - and also sustain ranching and farming practices that have become a way of life.  Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration  (LTPBR) has emerged as a practice that can be used to address degradation of aquatic habitat over large areas like the Bear River Watershed. LTPBR uses simple, mostly hand-built methods to mimic log jams and beaver dams - and where appropriate, beaver themselves to promote natural processes that heal the land. However, for these (or any restoration actions) to help promote sustainable recovery in such a vast region, the scale of restoration implementation needs to be large (100's - 1,000's of miles treated). Within the Middle Bear Watershed, a diverse group of partners is implementing LTPBR in an effort to demonstrate how small scale restoration projects can be scaled up to address watershed wide recovery.

Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration practices, and specifically the use of structural treatments like beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS), offer an approach to mitigate habitat degradation at the whole watershed scale.

This story introduces the Middle Bear Watershed and the ongoing efforts to plan, implement, and learn about riverscape restoration. This story highlights three projects where LTPBR practices were initiated in 2015, and future projects planned for 2024 and beyond. It is our hope that the promising results will inspire new partners and funding sources to join us in an effort to improve riverscape health while demonstrating that conservation and agricultural practices can coexist.

Located in a sparsely populated section of southern Idaho and northern UT, the Middle Bear Watershed encompasses a diverse set of ecotypes that range from picturesque mountain meadows to broad windswept valleys.

Implementing aquatic habitat restoration over such a vast area requires a long - term strategy and reliance on natural processes inherent of the system.

Following the planning effort, several pilot projects were initiated within the Middle Bear River catchment.

A simple timeline of projects that Middle Bear River restoration partners have helped initiate to demonstrate how LTPBR practices can be effective and that larger efforts can be used to attain watershed recovery.

Beginning in 2015, work in the Middle Bear River has promoted the expansion of beaver dams to over 200 structural elements, installed over 250 LTPBR structures, and improved over 7 miles of stream channels within the network (see timeline and project details below).

In such a large watershed, the progress toward healthy riverscapes is far from finished. Additional locations for restoration actions have already been established and implementation is expected to commence at novel locations in 2024.

The progress that has been made so far on the Middle Bear Watershed is promising with a greater retention of water, significant geomorphic complexity, and growth of riparian vegetation. The response of beaver dam building and propensity to establish colonies has also been astounding and evidence that with just a little help, beneficial processing can become self sustaining. Though there's light at the end of the tunnel for the Bear River Watershed, there is still a lot of work to be done, and a vision of healthy riverscapes will only be achieved through continued cooperation and building partnerships.