July 23 - Wetland Reserve Project (WRP) Gillette, Wyoming

In recent years the Yankee family had a longtime goal fulfilled with the help of the Natural Resource Conservation Service, WWNRT, Wyoming Game and Fish, and Equip for a Wetlands Reserve Project on their ranch. The operation started in 1916 with 640 acres of land owned by Nancy Yankee’s father. Around the 1940’s Mr. Yankee rerouted a new channel of the Wild Horse Creek to increase production on a hay meadow. At the time this worked well, but since then erosion and velocity of water through the new channel has created many problems for the landowners and the environment. About 2,000 feet of creek was lost in the process of rerouting the channel and at times of high water the creek runs about 125 – 200 CFS over bank full. An issue was recognized, fixed and the habitat has improved tremendously since completion in 2011.

Looking over the restored creek bed and surrounding area.

The Yankee’s called the Gillette NRCS field office about a concern with sagebrush on their property and the conversation quickly changed to the Wild Horse creek and the amount of erosion that was shown.  From that point, the process started to change the landscape for the better. A riparian buffer (CRP) was put into place, the first continuous CRP in Campbell County, along the creek covering a total of 60 acres that became fenced off to cattle grazing for a total of 15 years until the contract is complete. An Oxbow was put into place to help diminish the effects of erosion as well. Four blocks of concrete at about four ton were set in each side of the creek bank and stacked with a dirt mound covered in tarp and cinder blocks. These cinder blocks will be filled with dirt and vegetation to control velocity of water in times of high runoff. This was placed at the end of the new section of creek joining the original channel.  

Tim Kellogg and Carol Yankee discuss the new creek bed and what to
expect in the coming years if high water comes again next spring.

Erosion from not only water but from cattle also created many issues with vegetative cover and bank erosion. Animal loss during calving months was also common due to the depth of the creek from erosion. With the 150 cow – calf pairs out of the riparian area the vegetation came back and even with the low amount of rainfall this year the grass was waist high and eroded areas were covered in a blanket of grass.

Help from the agencies made it possible to improve this section of land through seeding and planting of trees like cottonwoods, choke cherries, native plumb trees, and buffalo berries. The native grass has grown tremendously since the program started and some of the trees have started to stabilize and grow. Work is still underway to finalize the project with seeding of native grasses in the new area where the new creek and oxbow meet. A large amount of dirt was moved when taking out the old dike, inserting the new, and filling in the rerouted section with fill. Weeds have grown in this area and the local Weed and Pest are taking care of this area. With help of the Yankee’s this project has become very successful with their help, honest opinions, and willingness to work with several agencies.

An Oxbow that was put into place to help diminish the effects of high runoff and higher velocity waters.