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[Holly Suchy]

I work for a natural resource consulting (ranch management) company so the scope of my projects are spread out across different properties which each have their own unique approach. Typically we are looking at degraded and incised stream channels due to over-grazing and poor management practices. Overall, my goal with this course is to offer a different approach to heavy dirt work/completely restructuring stream channels for a cost effective way to use materials on site and store water for improved wildlife habitat and increase native vegetation.
For now, I will focus on one particular project located east of Sheridan, MT. The area is quality habitat for elk, deer, and antelope. It is a coulee that flows ephemerally during spring runoff, and it’s voracity depends on snowpack levels. The channel is mild to moderately incised the entire length, with scattered areas of moderate to severe head-cuts. Many of the smaller head cuts have already been reinforced with non-living rock structures, but there is one particularly large head cut (think sedan-sized) near the top of the coulee that we cannot manually haul enough rocks in to reinforce. The slope is too great for me to have high hopes of creating a wetland oasis, rather my goal is to build BDA to withstand the spring runoff so we can reduce further erosion, and store some modicum of water for the critters and plants. This area was treated extensively for conifer encroachment and although we are seeing a higher number of native plants repopulate, there are still the ever-present noxious weeds. So, if we could store enough water to drown the weeds along the channel or give the native plants enough water to compete, that would be a bonus!