The problem revealed itself very clearly this spring. Jerry remembered removing those small trees and shrubs and thinks that pulling out roots must have left places for water to escape, at first slowly, but gradually eroding large gashes in the wall of the reservoir. Jerry will return to Keyhole this fall for the repair work. We are learning that surprises and challenges are part of working on the HMA, a lesson the horses know better than any of us.
The water "leak" was clearly visible in Spring of 2024:
Looking at bank slopes to see if access adjustments need to be made.
A recent visit to the HMA in October allowed FOAL to get a good look at the status of several repaired reservoirs, along with assessments of potential new sites for repair work. Reservoir repair work requires a lot of planning and consideration. What might seem to some like a repetitive and inhospitable landscape hold secrets for trained eyes for sustaining the HMA’s many micro ecosystems. Even with a trained eye, however, new lessons will surely be learned, and adjustments made as FOAL continues to rehabilitate water reservoirs on the herd management area.
The FOAL board approved plans to continue reservoir work in the late part of 2024 and early part of 2025, with the help of Jerry Nicholson, to include the following specific goals:
- Improve the overflow on Takula Reservoir.
- Rebuild a dike on a reservoir located north of Keyhole with a proper overflow protected with bentamat.
- Improve three reservoirs, Greys, Holiday and Flatlander, by adding silt traps with small islands, and by tapering the entrances into the reservoir to improve access for the horses and pushing materials from the sides into the reservoir to better seal the dike from possible leaks.
- Rehabilitate two new sites, Prairie Tree Reservoir and Off the Beaten Path Reservoir, using bentamat to reinforce the dikes.
The Living Waters Initiative (LWI) remains on track to meet the original goal of rehabilitating 25 reservoirs by 2030. To date, 13 reservoirs have been rehabilitated, with additional maintenance needed on several of these reservoirs. Two additional reservoirs will be rehabilitated this winter, bringing the total reservoirs rehabilitated to 15 by the early part of 2025, which will put us two reservoirs ahead of our proposed schedule. This will leave 10 reservoirs left to rehabilitate by 2030 to meet the original goals of the LWI project. The continued success of this project is truly a testament to the support of FOAL’s remarkable community.