Digging in the stream Verge Fogle and Abbey McClaflin install a beaver dam analog. © Kyle Dudgeon

Land & Water Stories

Giving young Montanans a leg up on conservation careers

The Inflation Reduction Act is helping train the next generation of conservation workers

January 29, 2025

Twenty-odd students from the University of Montana Western have come to Little Sage Creek to do a beaver’s job.

The creek, about an hour's drive south of Dillon, Mont., is an oasis in an otherwise arid expanse of sagebrush. But its health isn’t what it used to be.

Like many waterways in Montana’s vast sagebrush steppe, Little Sage Creek was once home to beavers, whose dams created ponds and lush wet meadows. In the beavers’ lengthy absence, the creek’s water table has fallen. The narrow ribbon of wetland hugging the stream is shrinking and drying out.

Students restoring stream Boston Peters helps install a beaver dam analog. © Kyle Dudgeon

What is the Inflation Reduction Act?

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, is the federal government’s biggest-ever investment in conservation and climate action.

The IRA’s investments are expected to create 9 million new jobs between 2022 and 2032, including 600,000 jobs protecting “natural infrastructure” such as forests and wetlands. These jobs include positions for foresters, scientists, engineers, construction workers, loggers, support staff and more.

Learn more about the IRA.

Over the course of a bright October morning, the students drive wooden posts into the creek’s bottom and weave the posts with willow branches and brush. These structures, known as beaver dam analogs, slow down the flow of water and spread it out, gradually raising the water table.

The students are led by the Youth Employment Program, a conservation workforce initiative that employs young workers in Dillon and in nearby Salmon, Idaho. “This really is innovative what we’re doing right here,” says Nolan Salix, YEP’s program manager. “We’re based in the community, instead of bringing in outside people.”

YEP has found a perfect partner in the Inflation Reduction Act. This law, the federal government’s biggest-ever investment in climate action, has funded dozens of YEP projects. The IRA’s investments not only help restore the health of local sagebrush landscapes, they also ensure that YEP workers get hands-on experience for future careers in conservation.

A group of people work together in an overgrown area. — **Leading the way** Nolan Salix (center) is the program manager for the Youth Employment Program in Dillon, Montana. He describes YEP projects as "hard and meaningful." © Kyle Dudgeon

A wide river valley with a meandering, overgrown channel. — **An oasis under threat** Like many streams in Montana and Idaho, Little Sage Creek is suffering from a legacy of beaver removal and overgrazing. Rushing water has carved gullies into the stream, driving the water table down and causing wet meadows to dry up. © Kyle Dudgeon

How the Youth Employment Program is Restoring Montana’s Missing Wetlands

Dillon sits in the midst of the Sagebrush Sea, a vast, silvery-green landscape that sprawls across 13 western states. In this water-scarce region, streams and other waterways are of vital importance. These streams, however, are suffering from a legacy of overgrazing and beaver removal that began in the 1800s.

Historically, livestock grazing was poorly managed, leaving cattle and sheep free to nibble streamside vegetation to the ground. In addition, unregulated hunting and trapping led to the extermination of beavers from many areas. As a result, pulses of water from rainstorms and snow melt are able to scour deep channels into streams and rivers, driving water tables down, and drying up wet meadows and other natural reservoirs.

YEP is helping to return local streams to health. Up and down Little Sage Creek, dozens of beaver dam analogs, installed in 2023, have already accumulated a foot and a half of sediment. Moisture-loving plants, such as willows and sedges, are once again beginning to thrive. Sagebrush—which is an essential feature of this landscape, just not in streamside habitats—is fading as the soil gets wetter. “You can see all the dead sagebrush,” Salix says. “It’s kind of morbid, but I love seeing that in a wetland.”

Restoring wet meadows (3:21) In Montana, low-tech rock and brush structures are having a large-scale impact in restoring the Sagebrush Sea. The Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership, of which The Nature Conservancy is a part, is building these low-tech structures to create wet meadows that provide crucial forage for wildlife

Greater Sage-Grouse The greater sage-grouse thrives in healthy grassland habitats like those found at the Matador Ranch. © Jeremy Roberts | Conservation Media LLC

TNC and the Sagebrush Sea

Every year, the Sagebrush Sea loses one million acres to invasive species, catastrophic wildfire, development, improper grazing and climate change. Spanning six states, TNC’s Sagebrush Sea Program is an unprecedented effort to coordinate conservation work across this entire ecosystem.

Learn more about the Sagebrush Sea.

The Inflation Reduction Act is Crucial to YEP’s Conservation Work

The busy beavers of YEP’s three-month summer program and its one-off events, such as the one that brought the students to Little Sage Creek, do more than just build dams.

With funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, YEP is combatting the many threats that face the Sagebrush Sea. Each year, roughly 2,000 square miles of this landscape are lost to invasive plants, catastrophic wildfire, development, improper grazing and climate change.

Cheatgrass and other invasive grasses pose the gravest peril. These fast-growing plants are swiftly engulfing the sagebrush steppe, creating a monoculture where fire thrives, but native wildlife, such as the greater sage-grouse, do not.

Fortunately, the areas where YEP operates in southwest Montana are not yet overrun, due to higher elevation and rainfall. “Our sagebrush steppe is high quality,” says Nature Conservancy employee Sean Claffey, the conservation coordinator for the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership. “We’re trying to keep it that way.” YEP participants map where cheatgrass and its relatives are and are not, helping make efforts to combat the invaders more time- and cost-effective.

The IRA has also funded YEP’s efforts to combat encroaching conifers. Sagebrush live in sort of Goldilocks zone, with just enough wildfire to fend off the spread of native firs and junipers, but not so much that only grasses can survive. However, after decades of fire suppression, conifers are now creeping into formerly treeless areas. In high-priority zones, YEP participants stem this coniferous tide by cutting seedlings once forestry crews have removed larger trees. “YEP is the perfect workforce to get in there,” Claffey says.

Claffey credits the program’s success, in part, to the IRA’s forward-looking outlook. The law’s five-year agreements, he says, “give us the confidence to continue to invest in programs like YEP and develop longer-term visions of sustainability.”

Restoring Little Sage Creek

**Ready for the day** Nolan Salix prepares students from the University of Montana Western for a day installing beaver dam analogs on Little Sage Creek, near Dillon, Montana. © Kyle Dudgeon

**Shovel ready** Student volunteers walk to the Little Sage Creek work site. YEP gives young people in Montana and Idaho hands-on experience in conservation work. © Kyle Dudgeon

**A sinking feeling** Little Sage Creek shows signs of distress. Larger trees and shrubs have died off as the water table has dropped. © Kyle Dudgeon

**Dirty work** University of Montana Western student Kg Giannone hauls a clump of sod, which will form part of a structure known as a beaver dam analog. © Kyle Dudgeon

**Busy beavers** Adrian Randle (center) helps to build a beaver dam analog. Wooden posts form the backbone of these DIY dams, which are then woven with willow and other natural materials. © Kyle Dudgeon

**Home again** The team drives back to Dillon after several hours spent installing beaver dam analogs. © Kylde Dudgeon

YEP and the IRA are Building the Conservation Workforce of the Future

YEP participants run the gamut from university students who plan to get PhDs in conservation science to high school grads looking for a non-academic route to working in land agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. And the program has delivered on its promises. Salix recently crunched the numbers for the 2022 Dillon cohort and found that 91% have landed jobs in conservation and land management.

While building dams, cutting brush and schlepping gear through the backcountry constitute important work experience, it’s not exactly easy. Participants in YEP’s summer program often find themselves emotionally transformed, but physically tuckered out.

“Sometimes people are like, oh my gosh, that was the hardest summer I’ve ever worked,” Salix laughs. “Hell yeah, that’s right,” he responds. “It’s hard and meaningful. It is a kind of marathon situation.”