Benefits of Biodiversity: Valuable wet meadows

This post was originally published on YVSC’s Substack newsletter, Climate Corner, and is a collaboration with the Creative Climate Action Substack by Jill Bergman. Subscribe here to get future stories like this one sent right to your email inbox. To read the first part of the biodiversity series, click here.

A group of volunteers poses with a Zeedyk structure.

In Northwest Colorado we are surrounded by a diverse array of plants and animals on public and private lands, and even living in backyards in town. This life we can see, as well as microscopic bacteria and fungi, form different habitats and interact in complicated ways. Together, all life makes up what we call biodiversity.

Wetlands are one type of rich, diverse landscape that have been getting more attention in recent years. The various forms of wetlands — coastal, inland rivers or lakes, floodplains, and swamps — are important havens for biodiversity and water storage, and are also great carbon sinks needed to fight climate change.

Since the 1780s, half of wetlands in the lower 48 states have been lost, according to a report released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These losses have happened mostly because of drainage for agriculture and development. Conserving or repairing the functionality of wetlands is ultimately a tool to fight drought and climate change, benefitting biodiversity, wildlife, agriculture, and even recreation. 

What are wet meadows?

There is a type of landscape in our region that may only be seasonably wet, called a wet meadow.

Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) Natural Climate Solutions Project Manager Ryan Messinger described wet meadows as forming “in valley bottoms, usually in sagebrush ecosystems, where runoff from snow and rain accumulates.” He explains that “The water runs through the valley bottoms in what is called sheet flow, very thin and spread out. When water moves in sheet flow, it seeps into the soil, creating lush wetland ecosystems.”

Sandhill Crane, linocut with gouache by Jill Bergman

Messinger said these wet meadows act like sponges. They soak up water from spring snowmelt and slowly release it throughout the year. But when ungulates, hoofed animals like elk, pronghorn, cattle, and sheep, travel through the valleys, they form trails, which the water then follows.

“Over time, these trails start to degrade, forming channels and eventually gullies,” Messinger said. “So now, instead of water moving slowly in sheet flow, it falls into these gullies and rushes off the landscape. The wet meadows start to drain as they lose water to these gullies, and eventually the ‘sponge’ is lost.”

In California Park in Northern Routt County, Colorado, Messinger and YVSC work closely with Routt National Forest (RNF) Wildlife Biologist Jeremiah Psiropoulos. They also coordinate with other area organizations, including Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition, Keep Routt Wild, and Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. 

“Wet meadows provide valuable brood-rearing habitat for many sensitive species. Sandhill cranes, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, and greater sage-grouse chicks rely on wet areas to produce insects and young forbs that are critical forage while in their early life stages.”— Jeremiah Psiropoulos, Wildlife Biologist

The wet meadow restoration work in California Park improves the way water travels through the area, along drainages and into Elkhead Creek. The goal is to better match the way water lingered on the landscape before soil compaction and overgrazing by cows and sheep that happened between 1870 and 1940, and before beavers were hunted out of the region.

“This work is needed to repair damage to riparian areas caused by overuse and misguided historical land management practices,” said Psiropoulos.

When water carves a channel as it travels downhill, this drains wet meadows quickly and dries out the soils, reducing the biodiversity dependent on wetlands. 

“Often, invasive weeds take advantage of this and colonize the area, outcompeting native vegetation,” said Psiropoulos. “Upland plants replace wetland plants and change the community of organisms that rely on wetlands.” 

A pronghorn family. Photo by Jeremiah Psiropoulos.

There is a much larger variety of plants and animals dependent on the water that creates a wet meadow than those that will remain if the area dries and is degraded. Wet areas support native wildflowers, called forbs, which are broad-leafed annual or perennial plants that aren’t grasses.

“Wet meadows provide valuable brood-rearing habitat for many sensitive species,” said Psiropoulos. “Sandhill cranes, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, and greater sage-grouse chicks rely on wet areas to produce insects and young forbs that are critical forage while in their early life stages.”

Additionally, elk, pronghorn, boreal toads, northern leopard frogs, and cattle and sheep that still use California Park benefit from improved water retention on the landscape.

A simple solution

To help water in a meadow slow down and soak into the soil there are simple structures that can be built along the gullies. These are called one rock dams or Zeedyk structures after Bill Zeedyk, the co-author with Van Clothier of the book, “Let the Water Do the Work: Induced Meandering, an Evolving Method for Restoring Incised Channels.”

Messinger describes Zeedyk structures as being divided into two categories: restoration structures and headcut control structures. 

Restoration structures use a single depth of rocks placed side-by-side in the bed of a gulley where water wants to flow downhill. This acts like a speed bump to slow the water and cause it to drop the sediment it’s carrying between the rocks.

A Zuni bowl, one type of headcut control structure. This is the same place before restoration (left), right after (center), and one year after.

“Over time the sediment builds up and fills in the channel, reintroducing sheet flow to the wet meadow,” Messinger said. “Eventually, wetland plants will start to re-establish on the structures, and you’ll never even know they were there.”

If you head uphill in a gully, you may find the place where water falls into the channel. There will be meadow landscape above, and a ditch forming as water changes from sheet flow to dropping into the channel. When this happens, soil is washed away from the roots of plants, leaving them exposed to die. If left untreated, the beginning of the ditch will keep moving uphill as more soil is washed away from the transition area. This is where you will want to add in the other type of structure, a headcut control structure.

“Headcut control structures armor these places by causing the water to fall onto rocks rather than eat away at the soil,” said Messinger. “The rocks will eventually be covered in sediment, and wetland vegetation will grow.”

So far, YVSC has built 141 Zeedyk structures along three miles of ephemeral streams since 2022. This equates to 11.13 acres of wet meadow habitat restored, with the help of over 100 volunteers, including Rocky Mountain Youth Corps.

Diverse benefits

There are vegetation and wildlife benefits to restoring wet meadows, but in addition, “more water in the streams means ranchers can irrigate their fields for longer,” said Messinger. “The cattle and sheep herds that still use California Park also use wet meadows for high-quality forage.” 

And hunters and anglers also benefit from the improved habitat for game species and fish in the creeks and rivers.

Psiropoulos describes one goal of this project as fighting erosion in the ephemeral streams and draws feeding Elkhead Creek. Streams that are eroding the landscape are carrying a lot of sediment, meaning the water is removing the valuable soil from the area. If there is less sedimentation in the creek and less being deposited into Elkhead Reservoir, it will instead be available for wetland plants. At the same time, less sedimentation will improve our drinking water quality and conditions for fish and wildlife in the stream.

Northern leopard frogs have been found at the site of past restoration work in California Park. Photo by Chelsea Johnson.

Another goal of the restoration work is to help the soil become more saturated with water and recharge groundwater. This will “make these areas more hospitable to wildlife during the drier parts of the season,” said Psiropoulos.

Already in California Park, Psiropoulos and Messinger have seen animals taking advantage of the areas they have been working to improve. They even found a northern leopard frog in one restoration site the year following Zeedyk structure installation. 

“This was an interesting observation,” said Psiropoulos. “We had not recorded any northern leopard frogs within several miles of this location previously and the habitat was no longer considered quality habitat for them. Too soon to say if it was a result of our restoration efforts, but it was a promising sign.”

Zeedyk structures and restored wetlands help reduce drought and store carbon to fight climate change. Special beneficiaries are the wildlife that use wet meadows like boreal toads, northern leopard frogs, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, greater sage-grouse, sandhill crane, pronghorn, elk, and beaver. Simple one rock dams can benefit the biodiversity of people, plants, and animals in the Routt National Forest and surrounding areas.

Sign up for YVSC’s newsletter to be notified about chances to help with wet meadow restorations projects this summer.

To learn more about YVSC’s impact on wet meadows, check out the annual report here. For additional information on one rock dams, visit Partners in the Sage, One-Stop Shop for Zeedyk Resources.