Presentation description

Park City is the host of a beautiful 9.0-mile long stream known as McLeod Creek. About a year ago, man-made beaver dam analogs (BDAs) were constructed along McLeod Creek to make up for the removal of natural beaver dams. The intent behind these BDAs was to increase the natural riparian vegetation and fauna surrounding McLeod Creek as soil erosion by the creek and increased human interference had started to degrade the natural habitat. These analogs help by slowing water flow, increasing sediment retention, increasing the flood plan in the vicinity of the dam, and promoting natural beaver recolonization, allowing for much more reliable access to the water of the creek. We hypothesized that the implementation of these BDAs would affect the diversity of the local mammalian population. We predicted that by allowing the local flora more stable access to water, these BDAs would promote growth that will eventually lead to bottom-up increases in the local mammalian populations. To measure the changes in mammalian biodiversity in response to these restoration efforts, we established a network of trail cameras and acoustic monitors along both McLeod Creek and the Swaner Nature preserve, which was used as a natural control. These monitors were active throughout June 2025 to detect ground dwelling mammals such as deer, elk, coyote, etc., whereas the acoustic monitors were set up to detect bats. Through analysis of these images and audio logs, which is currently ongoing, we should be able to determine the impacts of low-tech process-based riverscape restoration on mammalian biodiversity.