Intro to Birch Creek, Idaho & Jay Wilde
Birch Creek, Idaho in southeast Idaho has become a poster-child case study for LTPBR. Birch Creek is a left-bank tributary to Mink Creek, which is tributary to the Bear River just downstream of Oneida Narrows.
For a virtual tour, meet landowner and rancher Jay Wilde, or see his talk further below.
The goals of this project were to improve riverscape health and restore perennial flow. The means to achieving this were reintroducing beaver and letting the process of beaver dam activity take over. As of Fall 2020, there are over 165 beaver dams in the creek now.
Jay Wilde's Story: Reintroducing Beaver to Bring Back Perennial Flow
We have had the privilege of working with Idaho rancher Jay Wilde since 2014. For a more elaborate version of what Joe explains here, it’s best to hear directly from Jay what happened. Jay tells his story about bringing beaver back to the creek he grew up on to restore flow.
See Life on the Range's condensed version of Jay's story here.
Jay's Story - The Longer Version
Jay started going on the road in the summer of 2018 and helped spread this message to participants of SGI Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration Workshops. He’s now told his story to thousands of workshop participants across the American West.
This video is from the Logan Workshop:
If you'd like to see part of the story in a virtual field trip, check out the Birch Creek Virtual Field Trip.
Birch Creek Lectures
Nick Bouwes gave an abbreviated version of the Birch Creek story in Virtual Workshop Module 2.
Video Part 3
Slides Part 3
Slides PDF
Story Told by Others
Range Magazine
“Return of Nature's Hydro Engineers” in Spring 2021 Range Magazine.
Beef Magazine
"Beaver power provides year-long water to Idaho ranch"
Life on the Range
"Rancher Jay Wilde Realizes a Longtime Dream to Bring Beaver Back to Birch Creek"
National Wildlife Federation
“Nature's Ecosystem Engineers" — Catherine Arnold, 2020.
Eager (2018)
Award-winning book by Ben Goldfarb:
"Eager - The Surprising Secret Life of Beaver and Why They Matter"
USU Today
Birch Creek Albums
These albums are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license for reuse:
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Birch Creek Resources from Capstone Class
- Birch Creek 2020 Class Intro
- Conservation Planning Resources for Birch Creek
- Design Resources for Birch Creek