Happy Earth Day! 🌎 🌱 This month, our restoration crew worked with a @utahconservationcorps team for maintenance removal of Russian olive on the lower Escalante River. To pack in over a week of gear and tools, the team enlisted packrafts and two volunteers to float the heavier items downstream. With such low snowmelt this year, flow conditions were thin, but ultimately the river helped the team get the job done!

This was also the first major project for our new Restoration Technician, Gabe Brown! In 2024, Gabe was the Overall Volunteer of the Year for the fabulous nonprofit, Sageland Collaborative (@sagelandcollab). Gabe helped one of Utah`s special toads, the boreal toad, and volunteered as a part of the Wildlife Watch Camera Response Team.

We are so excited to work with Gabe on our Russian olive removal and low tech process based restoration work in the Escalante River Watershed. Gabe joins Katie and Alex in the Restoration team as a seasonal technician.

Photos by volunteer @morgan.sjogren ...