SUnlight Creek stream restoration

Wyoming Game and Fish Department - State of Wyoming

Sunlight Creek, at the Wyoming Game and Fish Sunlight Basin Wildlife Management Area, was suffering from rapidly eroding channel banks, a severely altered sediment transport regime, and a largely disconnected floodplain, leading to negative ecological and aquatic impacts. Additionally, resulting infrastructure issues included the eminent threat of the creek destroying the historic WGFD cabins located on the property and the loss of public access roads. This project was initiated to tackle these interacting issues through realignment and reconstruction of the stream channel, followed by revegetation efforts.

This site offered many challenges due to project installation history, challenging substrates, high-volume and -velocity flows during runoff, its remote high elevation location, heavy moose browse and the lack of existing harvestable willow stands. We were contracted to reconstruct soil lift structures, for revegetation efforts, and consulted with for better-practice installation methods. Throughout the project, we were solicited for our guidance on material selections, specifications, quality standards, budgeting, vegetation planning, and revegetation implementation strategies.

Over a four year span, our crews constructed 4000 linear feet of coir-wrapped soil lifts, and harvested and installed 30,000 willow stakes. We also led a 3-day willow installation work event for approximately 40 Wyoming Game and Fish Department employees.