Riparian Restoration

Russian olive trees along the Escalante River threaten populations of numerous native animal and plant species. These non-native trees constrain the river channel, change flooding dynamics, and alter water temperature and chemistry while also restricting access for visitors. Since becoming established on the river as a dominant tree in the mid-1980s, Russian olive has been channelizing the river, trapping sediment, and shading the river. Russian olive also directly impacts fish habitat by reducing riffles, deepening channels, and burying rocky stretches. Russian olive provides poor quality habitat for most Neotropical birds, and will degrade and even eliminate native vegetation as it invades riparian zones. Several candidate and Utah Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) species occur in these riparian communities and the river itself, including Flannelmouth sucker, Bluehead sucker, Roundtail chub, speckled dace, Bell’s vireo, Lucy’s warbler, Virginia’s warbler, and northern leopard frog. Neotropical migrants, such as Lucy’s warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Bell’s vireo, and Bullock’s oriole will benefit directly from this project as native riparian vegetation is restored through removal of Russian olive. Virginia’s warbler and several hummingbird species use the Escalante River corridor for foraging and migration and benefit from this ongoing work. 

Riparian ecosystems comprise a very small portion of the landscape of the Escalante, yet they are disproportionately important to wildlife and plants, typically supporting far greater species diversity than the surrounding upland ecosystems. This work preserves and protects the diversity of a naturally functioning watershed for future generations. Removing the impenetrable thickets of Russian olive allows for visitors and wildlife to move through the frontier landscape, enjoying the wilderness as it was historically, before the invasion of exotic species. Without this work, the quality of the Escalante Watershed and its associated ecological values, wildlife and access, would continue to degrade, rendering many canyons virtually inaccessible and the quality of habitat unfit to support diverse wildlife.

ERWP has developed a science-based Ten Year Action Plan and a Woody Invasive Control Plan, which guides efforts to restore the ecological functions and processes of a healthy watershed. These plans identify the vision for woody invasive species treatment in the watershed:

Reduce through various control methods Russian olive and other woody invasive species in the watershed to minimal levels, thereby allowing native plants and animals to thrive and natural (historical) riparian process to function, such that riparian areas become more naturally functioning, sustainable and resilient to change. 

In 2019, ERWP reached an important milestone: the completion of initial treatments on public land for the entire watershed! Following this hard-won goal, the Russian olive project entered the “maintenance” phase. This phase is critical to protecting the 10 years and millions of dollars devoted to the project. We continue to retreat and monitor the riparian areas of the watershed as we move forward with restoration and conservation of the watershed.