Baker Lake Restoration

Fallon County – Baker, MT
Watershed Restoration Group was contracted to Fallon County, Montana for revegetation work at Baker Lake, an EPA-mandated restoration and wetland mitigation site. Our contract included plant procurement, woody shrub plantings, herbaceous wetland plantings, installation of weed suppression and browse control materials, broadcast and drill seeding, construction of a suspended grid system as a goose deterrent for wetland plantings, and shoreline treatment applications.

The shoreline treatments included bioengineered soil lift construction, willow harvesting and installation into soil lifts, substrate treatment applications, and geotextile fabric installation. While these were built to be functional, there was also a high esthetic component given the public visibility and location within the town. We successfully located and managed a local construction subcontractor to provide heavy machinery support for these activities. The region is absent of native willow stands – we scouted hundreds of miles, located willow collection sites, secured permissions, and established a collection proposal.

Planted 61,830 10 cu. in. wetland plugs

Planted 620 40 cu. in. shrubs

Installed 620 weed mats and 620 browse protectors

Harvested 8300 willow cuttings

Constructed 2750 linear feet of vegetated soil lift