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These students are building dams over the summer — with hopes to lure beavers back

Idaho Conservation Corps, Northwest Youth Corps, Partners, Young Adult Programs /

Trout Unlimited’s Northeast Oregon Hand Crew members establish beaver dam analogues to create a habitat for the animals Laura Potter, left, and Kalon Shelden helped drive a fence post in along Sheep Creek at the headwaters of the Grande Ronde River, Aug. 7, 2024. (Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB) (Originally posted to OPB.org on August 31, 2024) By Kristian Foden-Vencil Sheep Creek, a few miles west of La Grande, feeds the headwaters of the Grande Ronde River. Over the years, the area — nestled in the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest that encompasses northeastern Oregon and western Idaho — has been trapped for beavers, logged for timber and farmed for cattle. A group of a dozen young adults, from 18 to 28, just spent their summer trying to return the creek and its surrounding land to a more natural state. “We’re making habitat for beavers,” said Luke Hurley, a forestry student at Southern Illinois University. On one recent Wednesday, the crew pounded a row of six fence posts into the stream then threaded fir boughs in between. On top, they poured river rock and mud to weigh everything down and keep it in place. They were building, in essence, lots of little dams, […]

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A Summer of Service at Grays Lake

Idaho Conservation Corps, Partners, Young Adult Programs /

(Originally posted to CaribouCountyNews.com on June 27, 2024) The Grays Lake Refuge includes both riparian areas, which are muddy and wet, and these meadowlands, which are where the cattle are part of a management strategy. This summer, the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles north of Soda Springs had a new group of visitors.  While the area is set aside as a refuge for wildlife with, in many cases, seasonal migratory habits, it also hosted a group of young people from around the country for several weeks.  In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Grays Lake Wildlife Specialist Dana Duran, the Idaho Conservation Corps sent a group of seven individuals to help with projects related to the area’s mission to preserve the local ecology and wildlife. Conservation is also something that Fish and Wildlife’s Dana Duran places a high value on.  As the primary overseer of the Grays Lake area, she’s committed to making sure that the area stays well managed for both human and wildlife needs.   Dana Duran began her work at Grays Lake last October, and she’s still getting to know the Gray’s Lake Marsh and the ecosystem, though she seems to have

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