River Run Network Creek Walk: Monitoring Monsoon Flow Impacts on Creek Restoration

Spend a Saturday morning in the beautiful Empire Gulch creek and help WMG assess the results of our previous restoration work in the area. Our River Run Network Volunteers worked with WMG Staff to plant and build restoration structures along a flowing reach of Empire Gulch this past spring. This work was to slow, spread, and sink storm flows using planted cottonwoods, willows, and native grasses, and wood posts. 

We are excited to invite you back to see the progress of this effort and gauge how these restoration features held up through the rains and other factors. To do this, we will walk along Empire Gulch under the shade of cottonwood trees and count the number of cottonwood and willow pole plantings which survived. We will also explore the lessons learned from this project and how we hope to improve our methods for future projects. 

 

This area flows seasonally, so be prepared to get your shoes wet and navigate uneven ground with about 1-2 miles of hiking along the creek for the assessment. 

 

Empire Gulch is within the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is home to an astonishing array of plants and animals, including lowland leopard frogs, Gila topminnows, turkeys, lions, bears, and coatis, so we may see some of them along the way!

 

This event is organized through WMG’s River Run Network. If you are not yet a member, we will add you to the Network when you register for this event. RRN membership is free and gives you access to a variety of virtual, dispersed, and physically distanced events including creek walks, restoration activities, river clean-ups, and educational workshops.