As Jordan Nielson tromped through recovering pastureland around Mud Creek, his boots occasionally got sucked into the soil, still saturated in the waning days of summer. It’s exactly what he wanted to see. The creek had become so degraded by a century of cattle grazing it made several deep cuts in the bank, sloughing off the land and dumping sediment into Scofield Reservoir. All those nutrient loads spurred algal blooms, making the reservoir dangerous for swimming, fishing and boating. Now, the creek has slowed. Water diffuses into nascent wetlands that clean it and build habitat for wildlife. It’s quite the transformation, and it only took a year to take shape using a simple technique — artificial beaver dams.

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