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Integration of Riparian Systems Management Strategies
Within the Context of Multiple Use Land Management Programs
in Southwestern Wyoming 1
Donald H. Swee~2, J.M. Zilincar3,
Bruce H. Smith ,Rodd V. Hardy3
The extent of multiple use activities on public
lands in southwest Wyoming place significant pressure on
riparian ecosystems. Our experience indicates that by
using an integrated, interdisciplinary management
approach, it is possible to maintain existing healthy
riparian habitat, and improve or recover lost habitat.
INTRODUCTION
The Rock Springs District of the Bureau of
Land Management manages about 6 million acres of
public lands in southwest Wyoming.
TABLE 1
Riparian Habitat Condition (%)
The District is predominately a sagebrush
steppe, a high cold desert ranging from 6,000
feet to 9,500 feet in elevation, with an average
precipitation of 8 to 12 inches a year.
Good
Fair
Poor
16
46
32
Virtually None
6
Table 2 (Smith 1978) illustrates the trends
of the same 607 stream miles of riparian habitat
surveyed in the Rock Springs District.
District-wide stream habitat surveys have
found 1,700 miles of perennial and ephemeral
streams on public lands which drain into five
major river systems. Watersheds feeding these
streams are typically sedimentary basin deposits,
predominately sandy in nature. Riparian ecosystems
within the district comprise less than 1 percent
of the landscape and cross a full spectrum from
montane, foothills, desert, and river bottom
communities.
TABLE 2
Riparian Habitat Trends (%)
Good
Stable
Declining
Table 1 (Smith 1978) illustrates conditions
of 607 stream miles of riparian habitat surveyed
in the Rock Springs District.
42
58
Fair
15
85
Poor
94
6
While 62 percent of the inventoried riparian
systems were found to be in fair to good condition, many of these areas were in a declining
trend. Good potential for improvement and
possible recovery of lost habitat in the 32
percent of riparian systems in poor condition was
identified.
lpaper presented at the Riparian Ecosystem
Management Conference. (University of Arizona,
Tucson, April 16-18,1985). A slide show accompanying this paper is available from the address
below.
2Donald H. Sweep is the District Manager,
Rock Springs District, Bureau of Land Management,
U.S. Department of the Interior, P.O. Box 1869,
Rock Springs, Wyoming 82902-1869.
3J.M. Zilincar, Public Affairs Officer;
Bruce H. Smith, Wildlife Biologist; and
Rodd V. Hardy, Range Conservationist.
Rock Springs District, Bureau of Land Management,
U.S. Department of the Interior, P.O. Box 1869,
Rock Springs, Wyoming 82902-1869.
The BLM is specifically directed in its
Organic Act, the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act (FLPMA 1976), to manage the land
it administers " ... on the basis of multiple use
and sustained yield ••. ".
Multiple use management in the BLM recognizes
the interrelationships between scientific disciplines and attempts to make full use of the
expertise of each discipline in a coordinated
371
attempt to meet specific resource management
requirements.
improve water quality and habitat. Some of these
measures include tree plantings, the use of
beavers, placement of gabions, and proper design
of road crossings. Since introduction at two
sites, beavers have improved the ecological
condition of some riparian areas. Aspen and
other reinforcing material have been trucked into
some sites for use by the planted beaver to
reinforce their dams. These dams have raised the
water table, reestablished a floodplain, and
enhanced riparian vegetation recovery.
The multiple use approach is carried out
through the Bureau's planning system. Management
proposals are open to public review and based on
data obtained from field surveys. After broad
decisions are reached, activity plans are
developed to address specific locations.
An example of this is our development of a
Rock Springs District Riparian Management Policy
(Sweep 1984), which outlines management
strategiesfor riparian habitat within all our
various programs. Over the past six years, this
process has provided the framework for development of numerous riparian projects, studies,
special management areas, and broader changes in
land management practices.
The White Acorn Allotment is located about
67 miles north of Rock Springs. This allotment
was part of an area which, in the late 1800's and
early 1900's, was heavily gra~ed by sheep but
today is used by both cattle and sheep. This
48,000 acre allotment was created in 1969. Ten
years later an allotment management plan was
written after the Big Sandy Grazing EIS was
completed. Before the allotment management plan,
several exclosures were proposed as grazing
mitigation for favorable riparian management.
RIPARIAN MANAGEMENT IN THE ROCK SPRINGS DISTRICT
To successfully manage riparian lands, and to
restore damaged habitat to potential productivity, a total, ecosystem approach is needed.
Depending on the requirements of a specific site,
various management techniques may be needed. A
total view of the riparian ecosystem will combine
specific management efforts into a coordinated
approach with appropriate treatments for specific
sites, with an overall goal of increased riparian
productivity.
The most productive forage areas are the
subirrigated range sites which are found along
perennial streams and in tributary drainages.
These subirrigated range sites also make up about
four percent of the allotment and occur primarily
on private lands.
The overall goal of this AMP is the maintenance or improvement of the rangeland through
grazing management. Riparian range sites, because
of their great value for many uses, are considered
to be of utmost importance for maintenance or
improvement in rangeland condition. Six pastures
have been created. The three most northern
pastures are in a rest rotation grazing system.
The three southern pastures have been placed in a
deferred rotation grazing system. Use of the
riparian range sites has been about 55 to 65
percent of the herbaceous species. Willows and
other shrub use has been light and upland sites
have been used considerably less. Use of grasses
in big sage brush communities within one mile of
water during 1982 and 1983 was only 15 to 35
percent.
For example, a few small riparian monitoring
exclosures provided us with specific information
that established response or recovery time and
site potentials. This information was then used
to expand these findings into larger riparian
special management units, in which special
management techniques, trial grazing systems, or
habitat enhancement measures could be tested. To
date, these monitoring and special management
units number about 60 district-wide, and are
providing the basis for our next step into full
scale riparian management on a broad basis.
Our Huff Creek and Little Muddy Creek
monitoring units help to illustrate stream
stabilization and recovery under complete rest
from livestock grazing. Along with this habitat
recovery, Wyoming Game and Fish Department cooperative monitoring has observed an 182 percent
improvement in numbers of fish per mile and 334
percent increase in weight of the rare Bonneville
cutthroat trout, a candidate species for
threatened status designation.
The permittee is pleased with the resulting
improved vegetation and increased livestock
productivity.
In the Bone Draw special management unit,
consisting of four large riparian exclosures, a
riparian habitat was also improved and perennial
flows were extended. Stocking assistance from
the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and public
participation have helped create a nursery area
on the Big Sandy River. This has created a
nucleus for the development of a seasonal run of
rainbow and brown trout up the Big Sandy River,
providing a new source of recreation.
However, we prefer to manage riparian areas
by the use of a rest rotation or deferred grazing
system rather than fencing off riparian areas.
Fencing off extensive riparian areas is expensive
and the cost of annual fence maintenance would be
prohibitive.
Designing and implementing habitat management plans (HMP) to improve riparian habitat has
also proved useful in certain areas. The Thomas
Fork and East Front HMPs, designed to improve
stream habitat and benefit two rare subspecies of
Some riparian areas that are depleted due to
past misuse received intensive management. The
key is to first stabilize the riparian area by
encouraging shrubs and other vegetation growth to
372
'.
the cutthroat trout, date back to the late 1970's.
improving one.
The Red Creek Watershed Management Plan was
completed in 1982. This plan was designed to
reduce siltation, provide fisheries habitat, and
stabilize stream banks by promoting riparian
vegetation recovery.
Riparian areas will continue to be managed
for multiple use. Use will be controlled in a
way not to impair the riparian ecosystem.
Livestock grazing will continue, but not in a
manner to cause harm to the vegetation-watersoil riparian resources. Using grazing systems
as a way to improve riparian areas will be
encouraged instead of using fenced exclosures. A
major objective is to work with, and show the
benefits of, sound riparian management to
livestock operators and other users of, the public
lands and elicit their cooperation. Emphasis is
on a total ecosystem rather than scattered sites,
with the goal of returning entire watersheds to
productivity. This will continue through the
multiple-use planning system, open to public
view, that the Bureau uses, and with the
interdisciplinary approach we are expanding upon
in the Rock Springs District.
Some of the major pressures on riparian
habitat in southwest Wyoming result from energy
and mineral development. To mitigate these
pressures, we are minimizing surface runoff and
accelerated erosion effects on drainage hydrology,
and crossing streams with small prefab metal
bridges or open bottom culverts to prevent
accelerated stream flows, gully cutting, and a
lowered water table, which would eliminate
riparian habitat.
In addition to minimizing adverse impacts,
recovery of riparian habitat in poor condition
can also be achieved. This can take many forms,
including construction of riparian meadow forming
structures such as trash catchers or gabions in
ephemeral drainages, and the opening of wet
meadow riparian sites through the use of pothole
developments in order to improve habitat diversity
and productivity. Direct planting of lost
riparian canopy trees or shrubs is another means
being employed in an effort to reestablish not
only the condition of riparian habitats, but
their structure and function as well.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors express their appreciation to the
Rock Springs District Resource Area Managers and
their staff for their Riparian Management programs
which provided the basis for this paper.
LITERATURE CITED
Smith, B. 1978. Completion Report, Rock
Springs District Stream Survey,
1975-1977. BLM Rock Springs, Wyoming,
U.S. Department of the Interior.
FLMPA 1976. Public Law 94-579 October 21, 1976,
90 STAT. 2743, Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976.
Sweep, Donald H. 1984. Instruction Memorandum
No. WY-04-84-136, Rock Springs District
Riparian Management and Monitoring
Program. BLM Rock Springs, Wyoming,
U.S. Department of the Interior.
A CONTINUING CHALLENGE
The process we are beginning is, of necessity,
a long-term one. Riparian habitat in southwest
Wyoming did not decline overnight, but over the
course of decades of misuse; and will not fully
recover overnight.
The direction of riparian habitat is turning,
slowly, from a declining condition to an
373