O'Dell Creek
The idea–
A cooperative restoration effort focused on improving O’Dell Creek, a tributary of the Madison River, was recently initiated by private landowners, together with PPL-Montana and state and federal agencies. The upper O’Dell creek was ditched and channelized in the mid 1900’s, which subsequently reduced aquatic and streamside wetland habitat. In 2005, over 6,300 feet of creek frontage was restored by re-routing the stream channel to the historic channel, based on photographs taken in the early 1900’s. Another 2,000 feet of creek frontage was restored in 2006, and more restoration is planned for 2007. With funding from PPL-MT, we are currently using measures of change in bird communities to better interpret the success of this restoration. For the field season of 2009, we have more intense map-based bird monitoring planned for this restoration project.
Figure 1. (a) Pre-restoration photograph of the ‘East Ditch’ area of O’Dell Creek, which was restored in 2005. (b) Photograph of the historic channel that was restored. Photographs are taken from Peters (2005, 2006).
Results–
Overall, species richness was greater in areas of reference and those that had undergone restoration as compared to control (conditions similar to pre-restoration) areas. Only Western Meadowlarks, which are dependent on open grassland habitat, occurred in significantly greater densities in control areas than in restored areas. For most of the species showing significant increases in restored areas, these species also had higher average densities adjacent to restored areas than in other adjacent land use types (e.g., common yellowthroat, song sparrow, yellow warbler), suggesting that restoration may affect the adjacent area at least 200-300m away from the actual restoration. An interesting finding in 2007 was the detection of the Willow Flycatcher and the Sora in restored plots, two species not seen before in this area and considered indicators of healthy riparian systems in this region.
In 2009, preliminary results indicate further improvement of the quality and quantity of habitat established by restoration efforts in the O'Dell Creek area. Specifically,
1. The diversification of habitat types in the O'Dell Creek area led us to expand our monitoring methods. In 2009, we initiated marshbird playback surveys, waterfowl counts, and area search methods, in addition to our already established point-count surveys.
2. The first detection of an Eastern Meadowlark in the State of Montana, pending acceptance by theMontana Bird Records Committee.
3. There was a further increase in species richness this year. We detected 81 species based on point count data alone, as compared to 77 species detected in 2007.
4. Waterfowl numbers and nests have increased significantly with the available pond habitat, which was created along the original channel.
Annual Reports for this project–
You can download our 2007 report HERE
You can download our 2006 report HERE.
President Obama visits with partners in
2009 from the O'Dell creek project. For the
full article, click here.
Funders–
PPL-Montana
Contact–
For more information, contact Kristina Smucker.