These piles of rocks are reshaping and revitalizing eastern Colorado
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KARVAL, Colo. –– Driving through the plains of eastern Colorado, you might notice a winding path of stones snaking through the grass, or a clump of rocks tucked in a dry riverbed resembling a small amphitheater.
These are called Zeedyk structures. Stonehenge or Red Rocks they are not, but these skillfully sculpted stone formations play an impactful role in the hydrologic and ecological sustainability of natural areas, particularly in places with limited water flow, like Colorado’s eastern plains.
As both water sources and federal dollars dry up, Zeedyk structures exemplify the low-cost, high-impact conservation work that researchers hope will help sustain the state’s short grass prairies and inspire further cooperation from private land-owners and budding environmentalists.
“Grasslands are a very threatened ecosystem, especially in areas like Southeastern Colorado,” said Emma Califf, a wildlife habitat biologist with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies based in Karval, Colorado. She helped lead a Zeedyk structure workshop and field session earlier this year.
“And so we’re seeing that adopting adaptive measures to private lands in order to mitigate the effects of drought and stabilize some of that erosion can be really impactful.”
Califf said that low-cost, low-effort practices like Zeedyk structures offer another way that biologists can introduce environmentally beneficial features to what might be otherwise skeptical landowners.
“It can be a hard concept to explain sometimes, but in the end it’s sort of just a bunch of rocks piled up together and making a huge impact on the land for biologists like us, and for ranchers and farmers… so that’s pretty cool,” said Califf.
Zeedyk structures — pronounced “Zee-dike” — also known as rock erosion control structures, are named for wildlife biologist Bill Zeedyk, a lifelong naturalist whose extensive writing championed nature-based water restoration projects.
After leaving a 34-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, which included stints with the Soil, Water and Wildlife and Fisheries team, Zeedyk turned his attention to the American Southwest, where he focused on developing “low-tech, low-cost, low-risk methods” of habitat restoration.
In the arid deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, Zeedyk’s rock formations — which required little more than a few workers carrying football to basketball-sized rocks sourced from the surrounding area — helped slow the little water flowing through the land, which in turn increased soil moisture and encouraged plant growth.
Zeedyk and his wife, Gene, built a habitat restoration consulting business in 1994, through which Zeedyk trained everyone from environmentalists to hunters to road maintenance crews on sustainable wetland and meadow restoration practices until finally closing the business in 2021.
Now 90 years old, Zeedyk is still an active conservationist, and appeared last year in a five-part documentary series about his work.
With a Rock Mulch Rundown Zeedyk Structure, rocks help fill in a headcut pour-over and stall some flowing water, allowing streams to continue through a floodplain while allowing new roots to gain a hold on the soil. Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
Wildlife biologists typically choose between one of four different types of Zeedyk structure designs. Roughly speaking, the overall purpose of most structures is to prevent, and sometimes reverse, channel incisions formed in a floodplain.
A channel incision is when a stream loses access to its floodplain, the typically flat expanse of land surrounding a river or stream. These bodies of water help hydrate the surrounding plant life, like the grasses that carpet much of eastern Colorado.
However, when a stream headcut forms — visible breaks in the otherwise flat land that lead to small pools or waterfalls — that much-needed water stays in one area, depriving other flora and creating dry, eroding soil.
Zeedyk structures repair erosion and help encourage balanced water flow to restore vegetation in the area.
The One Rock Dam (ORD) structure stalls water flowing quickly through a channel, allowing sediment to accumulate and prevent further erosion. Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
For example, the Zeedyk structure called the “One Rock Dam” — built with dozens of rocks placed next to each other, each standing one rock tall — slows water flow moving through a steam channel. As the water slows, it leaves behind sediment that help fill the channel.
When the surrounding plants hydrate, they strengthen their grip on the soil, preventing further erosion.
The process of building Zeedyk structures is much less complicated (when directed by a trained naturalist) than the science behind them, meaning many citizen volunteers and outside industry partners, such as those in construction, can participate.
Zeedyk structures are currently shaping parts of Gunnison in western Colorado, where in 2019 volunteers as old as 70 assisted in building one-rock dams across the meadows.
More recently, team members from the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife gathered a crew of 30 federal and district wildlife partners to learn about and build structures near Karval, Colorado, a township of just over 600 people located in the Eastern Plains.
Califf, the 26-year-old Bird Conservancy of the Rockies wildlife habitat biologist who helped coordinate the Zeedyk structure workshop, taught participants how to identify threatened soil and build the appropriate structures to address the needs of the land.
She frequently works with private landowners, like ranchers and farmers, to build mutually beneficial partnerships between landowners and environmentalists.
The Bird Conservancy and the participating organizations sourced rocks from a landscape company in Colorado Springs, and in just two days of Zeedyk structuring, the team moved over 50 tons of rock to construct 60 total structures.
NextEra Energy, a private energy solutions company based in Florida, funded the project through a grant. However, about 75% of the Bird Conservancy stewardship biologists’ salaries — including Califf’s — are paid for through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Trump administration's federal funding cuts are razing many USDA staff jobs and USDA-funded programs and projects, including those made possible by the NRCS.
“We are being negatively impacted by the administration and the policy changes… there’s lots of uncertainty right now,” said Brandt Ryder, the chief conservation scientist of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.
According to Ryder, about 50–55% of the Bird Conservancy’s funding comes from the federal government, and a lot of the organization’s work is done in partnership with the USDA and the NRCS.
“Bird Conservancy is a resilient organization, and we’re working to diversify and decrease our dependence on national funding as much as we can to bolster against potential impacts,” said Ryder.
Califf hopes to continue coordinating similar workshops and further educating both professional and non-professional biologists alike about the significance of Zeedyk structures.
She mentioned workshops designed for high school classes and the possibility of federal and district biologists, like those from the NRCS and the USFWS, incorporating Zeedyk structures into their private land partnership work across the state.
“[Zeedyk] said that these structures are as much of an art as they are a science, and I think that’s so cool,” said Califf.
“It can be hard work, but finding the rocks, finding the right fit and seeing a finished structure… you can really take pride in that work and in the impact that you’re making on the world around you.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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