Teams are building man-made beaver dams to restore habitat at Colorado's Soda Creek

How do you change dried-up farmland back into the wetlands it used to be? Follow the beavers' lead. 

The Soda Creek Restoration Project in Colorado's high country hopes to do just that. By creating more than 100 beaver dam analogs, teams are hoping to dam up the creek and spread the water out across the valley south of Keystone with man-made dams. By restoring the area that feeds into Dillon Reservoir, the water not only becomes cleaner but also sticks around longer in the "wet sponge" of the wetlands. 

Tyler Bell, Contract Project Manager, explained it's not just good for folks on the Front Range to get water out of their tap that could have started upstream in the area. Restoring the wetlands brings back a habitat for moose, fish and beavers too. 

"This area has no value to animals, this upland area, it's non-native grasses. There's nothing coming in here to forage and as we slow down the water and we kind of recreate this wetland system, we'll have more native species on the landscape," Bell said.

Crews worked together to lump logs, sticks, twigs and mud into posts buried into the banks, creating the makeshift dams, keeping the water flowing while spreading the water wider. Eventually, the hope is to have the full floor of the valley covered. 

The project was made possible by a combination of the National Forest Foundation, the USDA Forest Service, the Coca-Cola Company and Swire Coca-Cola. It's expected to finish sometime around 2029.