The East Canyon Creek Watershed Committee is a group committed to protecting and enhancing the water quality in the East Canyon Creek Watershed, which covers much of Summit County and part of Morgan County. The group is composed of individuals from communities located in the watershed, non-government organization representatives, representatives from local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as representatives from local businesses. This group works to coordinate the individual efforts of each representative organization in order to more efficiently address water quality, natural resource, and quality of life concerns within the East Canyon Watershed.

910 Ranch BDA Maintenance and Weed Pull

Each summer, the committee holds an outdoor meeting to engage with each other in a more casual way and to get out and explore the watershed. 

This year, we went up the 910 Ranch where half of us pulled musk thistle and houndstongue , and the other half did maintenance work on some Beaver Dam Analogs. 

Pulling weeds is something anyone can do to help improve their watershed. The seeds of many weeds travel through stream corridors via wind, water, wildlife, and humans. Having an overabundance of invasive species prohibits the growth of natives and eventually degrades the ecosystem. 

Beaver Dam Analogs are human-made dam structures that are used to improve floodplain reconnection, trap sediment and control erosion, and improve overall riparian health and water quality. Healthy tributaries provide cleaner water to East Canyon Creek. BDAs are not built to last forever and do require maintenance to keep them functioning properly; there may be holes that need patched or sides that need shored up. Beavers are doing maintenace to their dams all the time! This is why we can never build a dam as well as a beaver. But we hope they will move in and take over the job for us someday. 

We hope to see you at our next summer service day!