Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie | Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-2.0
Wet meadows, a rare and threatened part of the sagebrush landscape that is critical for deer, elk, migratory birds, pollinators, livestock, and the threatened Gunnison sage grouse, have doubled in treated areas since a 'low-tech' volunteer program began in 2012 in the high desert outside Gunnison, Colorado. Volunteers weave willow branches into protective barriers and build dams with sagebrush and stones to slow and spread water flowing in Munson Creek. The collaborative Wet Meadows Restoration Resilience Building Project addresses a problem that began long ago with settler wagons. As well as providing sage grouse with habitat to raise chicks, the meadows are natural sponges, and that resilience will be ever more important as the area warms and dries. Munson Creek is one of many watershed restoration projects in Colorado and other western states such as Utah, Nevada, California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
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