Spring Creek Farms Restoration and Future

Our Montana Conservation Corps crew installs the initial posts for building a Post Assisted Log Structure (PAL).

Last spring and fall, many hardworking volunteers and a Montana Conservation Corps field crew got their hands dirty at Spring Creek Farms. We planted, 160 quaking aspens and chokecherries 3,700 willows along a half-mile stretch of Spring Creek near Manhattan. Volunteers and MCC crew members also did their best beaver impressions and built 20 post-assisted log structures (PALs). Additionally, the landowners have begun removing cattle and agricultural facilities from the stream banks. Thanks to all of these dedicated folks, the fish, bugs, and birds in the Lower Gallatin Watershed will enjoy a more complex habitat with lush vegetation and cleaner, colder water.

This year, GWC will be working to reconstruct 1.3 miles of Camp Creek’s channel. We will move a whole lot of dirt: adjusting the banks and width of the stream, reconnecting the creek to its floodplain, and adding habitat complexity such as wetlands, large woody debris, pools, riffles, and meanders.

While we don’t need volunteers to help drive excavators, but we will need your help with even more low-tech work, including planting thousands of willows, cottonwoods, and wetland plants. On June 4th, volunteers returned to Spring Creek farms to plant 18 dogwoods, 9 cottonwoods and 24 willows. We will also be returning this week to stake 2,500 willows.

*Funding for this project is provided by Montana DEQ, Montana DNRC, NRCS, and the landowners.