The Sublette County Conservation District Restoration Project is funded by a Bureau of Land Management National Cooperative Agreement, the Pinedale Anticline Project Office, as well as private funding. As part of this collaborative effort, the Sublette County Conservation District (SCCD) is working with state and federal agencies, private landowners, and conservation groups to identify, plan, and implement more than three dozen projects aimed at restoring and safeguarding streams and rangelands across the county’s private and public lands.
Sublette County contains wild hunting, fishing, and ranching landscapes in southwestern Wyoming that fuel an agriculture, recreation, and resource extraction economy. The Sublette County Conservation District Restoration Project has wide-reaching benefits for the county’s ranchers, irrigators, communities, and wildlife.
First, by creating and installing structures made of natural materials that slow down runoff from nearby mountains, the project will help water spread out across the landscape and soak into the soil. This reduces the risks and impacts of floods, drought, and wildfire while enhancing water availability. Additionally, improved soil moisture combined with denser vegetation and reduced erosion creates more forage for livestock, increasing land productivity and improving water quality for ranchers, irrigators, and downstream water users.
Finally, this project will also restore the area’s many rangeland, wet meadow, and stream habitats, which will support hunting and fishing traditions in communities like Pinedale and Big Piney. This will help fuel the local outdoor recreation economy while enhancing habitat for the area’s abundant and beloved wildlife, including mule deer, sage grouse, and cutthroat trout.
Ultimately, SCCD will install over 850 structures. As of fall 2025, SCCD completed six projects that installed 330 rock structures and 32 man-made beaver dams, known as beaver dam analogs. SCCD will continue to build on this work, which will benefit varied locations across Sublette County, from wetter areas with perennial streams like Muddy Creek to drier landscapes with seasonal streamflows like the Mesa.
