A Wetland Runs Through It

Standing on a dry, dusty Madison Valley plateau overlooking a portion of the now restored O’Dell Creek the contrast is stark. Cattle grazing land drops sharply off and dips down to a lush, green wetland area. A straight drainage ditch has now been restored to the land’s original winding stream thanks to the efforts of the Laszlo family, owners of the Granger Ranch just outside Ennis. In 2010 the Laszlo family received the National Wetland Award for Landowner Stewardship for their “exceptional and innovative” contribution to wetlands conservation.  

Hailed as the largest wetland restoration project in Montana, the O’Dell Creek Headwaters Project has drained 16,000 feet of drainage ditches, which were built in the 1950s for grass production. The project has restored more than 500 acres of wetlands and created 35,000 feet of stream channel and adjacent riparian habitat. As part of an 8,000-acre wetland complex, the O’Dell Creek is an important feeder stream to the Madison River.  

Heading the project for the family is Jeff Laszlo, son of Andrew and Anne Laszlo, who left Los Angeles and a career as a cameraman in the movie industry to live full-time in Montana and take over the operation of the family’s 13,000-acre ranch. Running the family’s working cattle ranch is a full-time job for Laszlo. He admits he entered this project with little knowledge of what it would take.

“I just decided to proceed on faith with the basic idea that a stream was better than a ditch,” Laszlo said.  

Each year the group of players for the project has been cobbled together to keep the restoration going. Laszlo has been amazed by and thankful for the people who are drawn to this project. “PPL Montana has really supported this in an unfailing way,” Laszlo said.

The actual physical work on the stream took about a month and a half to complete. Then, it was time for nature to take over. Laszlo proudly shares the before and after photos which are nothing less than striking in their contrast. 

The new route for the O’Dell Creek was designed by using Lidar technology, in which a plane flies over and scans the area with a laser beam that is then used to create a 3D topographical image. A complex engineering plan was then drawn up which re-routed the stream away from the current ditches in order to get the stream up on the floodplain. It now meanders in such a way that has doubled the mileage of the creek.

“A very special thing about the restoration project is that it is not attempting to be directed at a single species. It aims to restore the whole ecosystem including vegetation, birds, water quality, and fish,” Laszlo said.

One partner, the University of Montana’s Avian Science Center, recorded an increase in the species of birds from 10 to more than 100 in less than five years. Some of those species were rare to this area and in decline in the West. 

The restoration also improved O’Dell Creek water flow levels as much as 25% at certain times of the year and it lowered the water temperature which now allows brown and rainbow trout to thrive. As a vital tributary to the Madison River all of these benefits are passed downstream.

The creek is entirely on private land with the majority on the Granger Ranches. The success of the project has led other landowners to allow work to take place on their sections of the O’Dell Creek as well. 

Having said that, Laszlo says there were people who weren’t supportive of the project. Some people didn’t like the fact that he took cattle off part of the ranch. Right now, there is a grazing exclusion until 2015 for certain areas. He also worked with The Trust for Public Land to create conservation easements on sections of the property. 

Alex Diekmann, senior project manager for The Trust for Public Land, says the restoration has been the most ambitious undertaking in the state; other spring creek systems “don’t hold a candle to the O’Dell” now. 

Diekmann headed up the conservation easement part of the project. 

“When we looked at this project, we thought wouldn’t it be a shame if you do all this work to restore the creek and we don’t marry it with a conservation easement so it will stand the test of time. Theoretically, who knows what someone down the line will do. Now, it is forever protected,” Diekmann said. “It is a security blanket on top of the restoration work they’ve done.”

A large amount of funding was needed for the project, but the stream restoration is designed to maintain itself. “The restoration is not finished when the equipment leaves and, potentially, it is never finished,” he said.

While the award is very meaningful for Laszlo, “the real reward is the result,” he said. 

“One thing I’m very proud of is we continue to run a cattle operation and still do this restoration. Because of the leap of faith we’ve taken, we led the way in terms of demonstrating that private landowners and public agencies and corporations can work well together and achieve great results without the loss of privacy and private use and enjoyment. Because of that, I would say the vast majority of the landowners along O’Dell Creek, and it is entirely privately owned, are interested in becoming involved. The limiting factor now is money. It is very expensive and time consuming,” Laszlo said.

Despite the private nature of the O’Dell Creek, Laszlo says the project does benefit others. If we can improve flows and temperatures in the Madison River, if we can provide sanctuary and improved habitat for migratory birds that people enjoy, those are really important public benefits.” 

“The benefits apply to everyone equally,” Laszlo added. “The power company gets their water, the irrigator downstream, who may run short in a dry year, gets to use that water provided they have the water right to use it, and the recreationist benefits because we are potentially improving the fishery of the Madison River.”

Laszlo is also proud of the green jobs generated by the restoration project.  “Another really important public benefit is economic. This project has generated a lot of jobs. They’re not 9-to-5 everyday jobs but each year we hire contractors, people to haul materials, fencers, weed sprayers, use of hotels and restaurants and right on down the line,” he said. “There is sort of an economic stimulus here. They’re all more or less green jobs. We’re not building an asphalt plant. We’re building something that has a real environmental benefit.” 

The ultimate goal is to restore the entire system which would be roughly 30-40 miles of meandering stream channels and 80,000 acre of wetlands in total.