Chances are you know a healthy creek when you see one.
It meanders through a floodplain, curving back and forth like it has all the time in the world. The banks that guide the creek are crowded with willows. During spring run-off, those willows help to absorb the water’s energy and protect the banks from erosion. As water leaves the creek and moves across the floodplain, it fills seasonal ponds and sloughs where cattails thrive and birds flock. The cacophony of spring gives way to summer. The creek returns to its banks, and now those willows provide shade and habitat for fish and insects on summer’s hottest days. You might glimpse otters diving in a pool or a fox hunting in the marshes. In the fall, birds and bears feast on chokecherries. In the winter, a fresh blanket of snow records the comings and goings of rabbits, voles, deer, moose, elk, and even mountain lions.
Chances are you also know an unhealthy creek when you see one.
That’s what Program and Trails Director Nate Kopp saw the first time he visited Sevenmile Creek after Prickly Pear Land Trust purchased a 350-acre parcel of land in the Helena Valley. “Every bank was bare and steep, and it was at least 12 feet from the top of the bank to the water,” Nate recalls. “The water was cut off from the floodplain. During high flows, there was nowhere for the energy to go except down, so it was downcutting the creekbed and washing tons of soil downstream.”
“The creek now has all the things wildlife need, like cover, food, water, and space. A healthy stream begets the other pieces.”
Sevenmile Creek was basically a ditch. It was one of the top contributors of sediment to Lake Helena, and it was inaccessible to fish and wildlife. Nate oversaw the creek restoration project, which moved it back into the floodplain, added a half mile of meanders, and stabilized the banks with sand, rocks, and vegetation. “The creek now has all the things wildlife need, like cover, food, water, and space,” Nate says. “A healthy stream begets the other pieces.”
The hard work has paid off for wildlife. The creek corridor is now home to brook and brown trout and sculpin, 160 bird species, elk, moose, and deer. Land Manager Natalie Yocum continues the restoration by planting more trees, shrubs, and native grasses.
What will Sevenmile Look Like in a Few Decades?
To glimpse the future, head 10 miles east as the red-winged blackbird flies to Prickly Pear Park. This 240-acre park protects over a mile of Prickly Pear Creek as it meanders back and forth around a cottonwood grove and through wetlands. Dense willow thickets tower overhead, fish rise in the pools, and sandhill cranes return every spring to nest here. This lush and vibrant waterway is irresistible to wildlife and people. When Prickly Pear Park opens this summer, the public will be able to enjoy this stretch of Prickly Pear Creek for the first time in more than 100 years, thanks to the vision of the East Helena community.
In the 1880s, the American Smelting and Refining Company opened a smelter on the banks of Prickly Pear Creek. Incorporated in 1923, East Helena was a proud company town. The smelter was vital to the town’s economy and identity, and ASARCO supported the volunteer fire department, the parent-teacher association, and some city services. In 1984, due to historic lead and arsenic contamination, the smelter was added to the Superfund list. Eventually, the smelter closed, and the ASARCO bankruptcy settlement assigned ownership and responsibility for cleaning and reusing about 2,000 acres to the Montana Environmental Trust Group.
In 2011, East Helena Residents Began Planning How to Use the Asarco Lands After the Cleanup
One focus area was recreation and habitat. The community wanted a regional trail network, parks with hiking and biking opportunities, access to Prickly Pear Creek and improved fish habitat, and outdoor learning opportunities for their schools. It was a tall order. The smelter operation had turned the creek into a ditch system and used the floodplain as a dumping ground.
“It brings me so much joy to be out here and to see nature in action. We helped a little, but Mother Nature is taking the next step. This park is an amazing place for people to learn about nature, to be curious, and to find peace and solace.”
Betsy Burns oversaw the clean-up for the Environmental Protection Agency. She remembers standing on the dam with Andy Baur, the former executive director of PPLT, and trying to envision a healthy creek winding through the floodplain. They would have to move the creek to a bypass channel, tear down the dam, excavate a million cubic yards of material to return the creek to its natural elevation, reconstruct the creek channel, and plant more than 20,000 willow clippings.
It took ten years to complete the project, but Betsy says every day was worth it. Today, Betsy is a PPLT board member who volunteers to teach stream ecology in East Helena’s high school with PPLT’s education program. Betsy stands on a high point in the park’s first trail and grins as she points to where the sandhill cranes nested last year. “It brings me so much joy to be out here and to see nature in action,” Betsy says. “We helped a little, but Mother Nature is taking the next step. This park is an amazing place for people to learn about nature, to be curious, and to find peace and solace.”
Sarah Ryan is the communications and development manager at Prickly Pear Land Trust.
