The Sublette County Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department, in partnership with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program and The Nature Conservancy, Wyoming, are offering an opportunity right here in in Sublette County to learn how to use natural processes to heal erosion on rangelands.

This free workshop offers a unique three-part opportunity! On Aug. 4, a virtual workshop will discuss the underlying principles of Zeedyk structures and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs). These low-tech structures are built by hand and use natural materials such as rocks and wood to control erosion and allow stream systems to naturally restore themselves.

This session will provide you with the foundation of knowledge to help you recognize opportunities for these structures on the landscape and prepare you for the field sessions. The Aug. 4 workshop will be recorded for later viewing. Viewing of the virtual workshop is required for attendance at the field workshop.

On Aug. 11-12, the field workshops will be held in Sublette County that focuses on restoration techniques for ephemeral streams (streams that flow for brief periods after rain, snowmelt, etc.). Participants will learn to construct Zeedyk structures such as One Rock Dams or ORDs, and Zuni Bowls.

On Aug. 13, a final field workshop is offered concentrating on techniques used in intermittent (streams that contain water for only part of the year or seasonally, during years of normal precipitation) and perennial streams (streams that have constant flows throughout the year) with participants constructing BDAs or Post Assisted Log Structures (PALS).

Restoring land can be intensive and expensive, but low-tech structures offer a back-to-basics approach to help slow rangeland erosion. These techniques let the water do the work to restore riparian and wet meadows by increasing soil moisture and vegetation growth. Research indicates that these methods can effectively increase vegetation productivity by 25 percent and keep plants greener longer, which results in greater resiliency against drought and climate variability.

To learn more visit, https://www.sagegrouseinitiative.com/tag/wet-meadows/.

For more information, contact:

Melanie Purcell, Sublette County Conservation District, [email protected], 307-367-2364 or Kerry Gold, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, [email protected], 307-367-4352. 

– This event has been made possible by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. government or the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and its funding sources. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. government, or the National Fish and wildlife Foundation or its funding sources.