Taking flight — Kays Creek project gives wing to vital wildlife habitat

LAYTON — "The whole morass was animated with multitudes of waterfowl, which appeared to be very wild — rising for the space of a mile around about at the sound of a gun with a noise like distant thunder."

That's how John C. Fremont described what he saw when he came to the Great Salt Lake for the first time in September of 1843.

Every spring and fall, migratory birds in the millions pass though the lake's wetlands during their worldwide treks. But because of growth and encroaching development since the mid-1800s, the wetlands have shrunk, and so have bird populations.

"Nearly 60 percent of the historic wetlands in the river basins in and around the Great Salt Lake have already been lost," said Dave Livermore, Utah director of The Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy is the largest private owner of wetlands in Davis County with the 5,000-acre Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve that runs along 16.5 miles of shoreline.

The preserve is home to a sea of cattails and features a one-mile round-trip boardwalk that leads to an observation tower that visitors can use to spot birds and learn about wetlands habitat.

A recent project on Kays Creek, which feeds about 10,000 acres of wetlands on the east side of the preserve, is working to bring birds back to the wetlands.

So far, it's working.

Kays Creek is a 10-mile stream that drains three canyons in the Layton area. In many spots you can jump over it. It's hidden most of the time by trees that grow along its banks. And you don't see it except when you drive by it or live nearby.

Much of the natural habitat upstream and downstream has disappeared, but downstream is where things have begun to change.

About 60 years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged out a 10-by-10-foot channel for the last mile of the creek to help divert storm water from neighborhoods.

It was a ditch, good for moving water but not much else, says Jeff McCreary, a regional biologist with Ducks Unlimited, a waterfowl conservation organization.

Over the past seven years, Duck Unlimited has been working with The Nature Conservancy to redesign the last mile of the creek to turn it into what it once was: productive habitat.

"If you miss the opportunity to protect these areas, it costs a lot of money to put them back," McCreary said.