Volunteers working to repair beaver dam analogs on Big Bear Creek, NM (photo courtesy of BHA, NM)
Through pint nights and stream access restoration projects, New Mexico Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is working to promote stewardship of New Mexico’s rivers and streams.
With funding provided by the AFFTA Fisheries Fund and others the project team set to work planning two educational pint nights that brought people together to enjoy each other’s company and learn about such topics as historical and current river access, beaver ecology, and how to conserve and care for the watersheds that give New Mexico some the best fly fishing in the country. A common theme was that everyone can strive to have a positive impact while they are on the river.
Adjusting their plans from the fall to the spring, in response to weather and water conditions, NMBHA scheduled a “Stream Restoration Project and Turkey Hunt” work weekend in April 2022. Following a morning of turkey hunting, volunteers arrived at Big Bear Creek, completed a safety briefing and hiked a mile to the stream sections where several beaver dam analogs (BDAs) needed to be rebuilt after being blown out by high flows.
With a long-term goal of eventually reintroducing the New Mexico State fish, the Rio Grande Cutthroat, to this stretch of stream, the BHA volunteers got to work gathering limbs, rocks, and sediment to build a solid foundation for two BDA structures. The team completed repairs to BDAs at two different locations. While this work was grueling for those hauling heavy buckets of sediment and transporting rocks and large logs, everyone found the work super rewarding. The volunteers found the immediate impact created by the BDAs especially rewarding as they could see the course of the stream change before their eyes. Even the youngest volunteers had a great time with kids, ages 2-10, getting their hands dirty hauling building materials and working in the stream.
The next day, following another morning hunt (with a 9-year-old girl bagging her first gobbler), the crew helped the Forest Service clean up hundreds of feet of discarded hose that had been left in the riparian bottom after a post-fire reseeding effort. Working for several hours, the team removed a huge amount of old hose from the stream as well as any trash they found along the way. The team found it fantastic to see the piles of hose they removed stacked up and ready to be hauled off.
There remains a lot of work to be done but moving so much debris off the landscape was incredibly rewarding!
A volunteer shows off a sample of the hose debris removed from the creek, Note the recently burned forst behind (photo courtesy of NM BHA)
The New Mexico Chapter of BHA extend their sincere appreciation to AFF Fisheries Fund and the U.S. Forest Service partners that made this project possible, and to Broken Trail Distillery for donations of water and cocktails.