Restoring Watersheds One Meadow at a Time

To better understand our lands and waters, sometimes it is useful to take a different perspective. 

That is why Trout Unlimited recently hosted a flight tour to see, from the air, watershed restoration work they are undertaking with corporate, state, and federal partners in the headwaters of the Salt River. Dubbed the “Thompson-Burro Meadow Project” because Thompson Creek, Burro Creek, and the West Fork of the Black River all converge in this one meadow, this effort aims to restore what was once a common sight in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona—lush, riparian “wet meadows.”  

The work that Trout Unlimited is undertaking to restore the natural function and health of wet meadows in the White Mountains is supported by a diverse set of funders. Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Cooperative Watershed Management Program, Trout Unlimited was able to design and scope the project, which then allowed corporate funders to see how restoring the 128-acre meadow and 3.5 miles of stream could help them meet their water replenishment goals. On top of that, the U.S. Forest Service, the federal land management agency of the area, significantly invested in this project to maintain and protect public lands for wildlife and for the public’s enjoyment.  

Representatives from the offices of U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and U.S. Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ Congressional District 3), as well as the office of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs joined this tour from the sky to learn about these crucial efforts to protect and restore the landscapes that provide communities, birds, fish, and other wildlife with the water we all need. 

Wet meadows serve as natural fire breaks. They contain meandering creeks that spread water across the meadow, which in turn supports healthy groundwater levels for willows and other riparian plants to thrive. They support birds like Western Meadowlark, Wild Turkey, and Loggerhead Shrike. And these meadows act like nature’s sponges, soaking up water then slowly releasing it year-round.  

But years of fire suppression in western forests led to overgrown forests, which fueled catastrophic wildfires in vital watersheds across the Colorado River Basin. The Wallow Fire was an intense and massive fire that burned more than 500,000 acres in Arizona and New Mexico in 2011. It damaged Arizona’s White and the Black Rivers and their watersheds (the surrounding land that drains into the rivers), including the wet meadows. It’s important to note that the Salt River, a vital water supply for the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, forms from the joining of the White and the Black Rivers.  

When a meadow is damaged, a stream may become incised, meaning it no longer meanders slowly back and forth in a curving fashion. Instead, an incised stream cuts into the earth and erodes the stream banks, transporting dirt and sediment downstream and making it difficult to reestablish habitat along the banks of the stream. Furthermore, this meadow has become a “thermal barrier” to trout in the summer months—meaning they cannot swim through the meadow to seek refuge in the headwaters due to the stream’s higher water temperatures. 

But thankfully, the techniques are rather simple to restore these meadows: slow the water down with woody debris structures. In other words: act like a beaver! 

Trout Unlimited is currently working through phase one of the Thompson-Burro Meadow Project, which is installing more than 200 wood log jam structures, or “beaver dam analogs,” and 70 sod plugs (meadow grasses that have established roots) to slow down the water flowing through the meadow so it can once again meander, spread out on the landscape, and replenish groundwater levels. Phase two will be to install an elk “exclosure” around the whole meadow (to successfully reestablish native plants the elk will need to be kept out of the meadow until the plants reach a certain level of maturity). Finally, Phase three includes work to replant all native riparian vegetation.  

Trout Unlimited will monitor the impacts of the restoration work overtime and use that data to inform future wet meadow restoration projects in the area. Additionally, Trout Unlimited is collaborating with the Salt River Project (a power and water utility that serves the Phoenix area) to measure stream flow data downstream of the meadow. 

Scaling up these types of watershed health projects and restoring forests is crucial to sustaining our water supplies and restoring habitat for wildlife.