Sheep Creek

Resource Conservation Area: 

A Model of Interagency Collaboration

By Bruce P. Van Haveren

Science and Research Advisor

BLM, National Science and 

Technology Center

Background

The Sheep Creek Resource

Conservation Area (RCA) in

southern Utah represents an

excellent example of interagency

collaboration at the watershed

level. The Sheep Creek watershed is in the headwaters of the

Paria River drainage, the highest

sediment-producing tributary

of the Colorado River system.

Sheep Creek was selected in

1956 as the site for an interagency project to demonstrate

watershed stabilization and

sediment reduction measures as

part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) Colorado River

water storage plan.

Sheep Creek originates in Bryce

Canyon National Park in southern Utah, at an elevation of

about 2,400 m. Average annual

precipitation varies from 12

inches at the lower elevations

to 16 inches at the higher portions of the basin. Vegetation is

predominantly pinyon–juniper

with open sagebrush flats. The

37-square-mile Sheep Creek

RCA was composed of portions

of Bryce Canyon National Park

and the Dixie National Forest,

Bureau of Land Management

(BLM)-managed lands now part

of the Grand Staircase–Escalante

National Monument, and scattered private lands.

Land treatments and participating agencies included:

• Wildlife and livestock barriers—Utah Department of

Fish and Game (now the

Division of Wildlife

Resources), BLM, U.S. Forest

Service (FS)

• Vegetation treatments—

BLM, FS, National Park Service (NPS), Soil Conservation

Service (SCS)

• Climatic and hydrologic

monitoring—U.S. Geological

Survey (USGS)

• Water and sediment-control

structures—USBR, NPS,

BLM

• Livestock management—

BLM, FS, grazing association,

and private landowners in

cooperation with the SCS

Vegetation treatments included sagebrush plowing, 

pinyon–juniper chaining, grass

reseeding, browse planting,

and ponderosa pine (Pinus

ponderosa spp.) seeding.

Structural treatments included

more than 600 small gully plugs

and earthen check dams, two

large sediment retention dams, a

dike waterspreader system,

streambank stabilization, and a

mainstem barrier dam with

concrete spillway.

Livestock management practices

included fence construction,

season-of-use changes, reduced

stocking rates, and the development of livestock water supplies.

Discussion

Cooperating agencies agreed on

Sheep Creek as the demonstration or pilot watershed because

it was a tributary to the Paria

River, had poor watershed

conditions, and exhibited

good treatment potential. This

was not to be a research

undertaking—rather, it was a

demonstration of the practical

application of structural measures

and land treatments for

improving watershed conditions, decreasing sediment yield,

and increasing the yield of forage

and forest products. Each agency

determined and implemented

the treatment methods and

management policies for those

lands under its jurisdiction.

Agency work plans were coordinated under 5-year cooperative

agreements. Work planned by

more than one agency within a

specific subwatershed was also

coordinated across agencies.

Each agency evaluated its own

work; periodic RCA-wide

evaluations were made cooperatively. The USGS established

long-term monitoring sites (permanent transects) on the lower

Sheep Creek channel to assess

changes in sediment deposition

and channel morphology. The

transect ends were marked

with aluminum monuments,

allowing periodic resurveys of

NO. 65 DATE 03/11/03

Range

Range

Resource Note 65

page 1
the sediment deposit and stream

channel above the barrier dam.

Other BLM scientists and I

completed a watershed-wide

evaluation of the project, concluding that the Sheep Creek

RCA treatments resulted in 

1) improved watershed cover

on more than 500 acres, 2) an

estimated 1,000 acre-feet of sediment trapped, 3) an estimated

5,000 lineal feet of main channel

aggradation, 4) an estimated 

6 miles of gullies healed, 

5) the reduction of flood peaks,

6) the creation of more than

15 acres of riparian and wet

meadow vegetation above the

Sheep Creek Barrier Dam, and

7) the establishment of perennial

flow at the barrier dam.

I completed followup evaluations of the sediment deposit

and stream channel morphology

behind the barrier dam. By

April 1984, the upper limit of

sediment deposition was

4,670 feet from and 59 feet

above the spillway. At that time,

75% of the deposit was above

spillway elevation and a welldefined rectangular channel

had formed on the sediment

deposit. Since 1984, the sediment deposit has continued to

increase in elevation but has

stopped migrating upstream.

The channel continues to form

on top of the sediment deposit,

exhibiting a high width-to-depth

ratio at the upper end and a low

width-to-depth ratio closer to the

spillway. 

Conclusions

Although the Sheep Creek RCA

was planned and implemented

under the resource management paradigm that existed in

the 1950s and 1960s, the

interagency collaboration that

occurred at Sheep Creek represents a model of resource management cooperation that is still

valid today.

In addition, the Sheep Creek

RCA presents an opportunity

for continuing to monitor the

results of watershed treatments

and evaluate the effectiveness of

a variety of land treatments,

both vegetative and structural.

Furthermore, the Sheep Creek

watershed could be used as an

outdoor laboratory for studying

solute transport and storage

mechanisms and salinity control

practices. Such a use would be

entirely consistent with the purposes for which the Grand

Staircase–Escalante National

Monument was created.

Contact

Bruce P. Van Haveren, Science

and Research Advisor

National Science and 

Technology Center

Denver Federal Center

Building 50

P.O. Box 25047

Denver, CO 80225-0047

Phone: 303-236-0161

Email: 

Bruce_VanHaveren@blm.gov

Range

Resource Note 65

page 2

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