JACKSON, Wyo. — Trout Unlimited (TU) crews have officially started work on Dell Creek near Little Jennie Ranch in Bondurant to restore stream banks and replace push-up dams — or seasonal irrigation barriers — with a fish-friendly diversion so water keeps flowing downstream year round.
Crews will also be cutting and placing willow and root-wad trees along the creek to help stabilize vulnerable banks and improve fish habitat.
The project is taking place on private land near 332 Dell Creek Road. The work is targeting a 21-mile section of a Hoback River tributary that acts as a cold-water refuge and spawning habitat for fish.
“[The work we’re doing] will help stabilize those banks,” Snake River Headwater Senior Project Manager Kole Stewart told Buckrail. When asked about how TU will measure the success or progress of the project over time, he mentioned that a lot of it is visual. “A big part of just making sure your banks are intact is just going out and looking at them,” he continued. “Is it still there? Is it holding together?”
Stewart explained that post-project monitoring is usually done over a minimum of three years, and that TU staff will return to locations and take photos to create an orthomosaic, which is several photos stitched together to create “a near-3D model of the system.”
Some funding for the project was received in 2025, but TU has been working on the restoration for about three years now. Stewart shared with Buckrail that those funders include the Bureau of Reclamation, Jackson Hole One-Fly Foundation, Jackson Hole TU, Little Jennie Ranch, Resource Legacy Fund, Trout Unlimited, U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming Community Foundation, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust and some anonymous donors.
The images along with cross-sections and long profiles of the stream will help staff track whether the restored banks remain in tact as expected.
