Our consulting team of four “gray-beards” kicked around inside an exclosure in the Birch Creek drainage (Highway 28) northwest of Idaho Falls. The fence created a very distinct line between the grazed (outside the fence) and the ungrazed riparian area inside the fence, and we agreed that this particular site had recovered well since the fence had been installed about 10 years previous.

One member of the group made the comment that while the conservation effort had paid dividends, it was because of the fence that the restoration was occurring, or as he stated, “it was conservation dependent.” If the fence were to fall into disrepair, all the progress toward a fully functioning system would quickly be lost.

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