Our Services
Low-tech, process-based restoration design and construction, backed by hundreds of structures built across Colorado’s fire-impacted and degraded watersheds
Restoration Structures We Build
Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs)
BDAs mimic the dam-building activity of beavers using wooden posts and woven woody material to raise the local water table, slow flows, and aggrade incised channels. Our team has built hundreds of BDAs in post-fire and incised stream settings, tailoring each structure’s height, orientation, and materials to site-specific conditions.
Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS)
PALS use posts driven into the streambed to anchor large woody material, creating stable debris complexes that improve habitat, deflect flow, promote bank stabilization, and increase channel complexity. We frequently combine PALS with BDAs to create structure complexes that mimic natural wood accumulations.
Log Structures (LS)
Strategic placement of log structures for erosion control, habitat enhancement, and channel complexity. These versatile structures can be customized to meet specific site needs and restoration goals.
Willow Wattles
Woven bundles of live willow installed in trenches along streambanks, floodplains, and hillslopes. Wattles trap sediment, slow surface runoff, and sprout into living root systems that provide long-term bank stabilization. We use wattles as a complement to BDAs and PALS to accelerate revegetation in areas where riparian cover has been lost to fire or erosion.
Riparian Plantings
Targeted planting of native willow and other riparian species to re-establish vegetative cover in degraded stream corridors. We incorporate willow plantings into most of our restoration projects to support long-term habitat recovery, bank stability, and floodplain function. Species selection and planting methods are tailored to site elevation, hydrology, and browsing pressure.
Custom Combinations
Every watershed is unique. We design and build custom combinations of restoration structures tailored to your site’s specific needs, challenges, and restoration objectives.
Design and Project Management
Beyond building structures, BERC offers full project scoping, site assessment and design, construction planning, permitting support, and post-construction monitoring. We work with watershed coalitions, land managers, conservation districts, and private landowners to develop restoration plans that fit your budget, timeline, and ecological objectives.
Why Low-Tech, Process-Based Restoration?
LTPBR techniques work with natural processes rather than against them. Compared to traditional engineered approaches like rip-rap, gabion baskets, or concrete grade control, LTPBR structures are:
- Cost-effective – Built by hand using locally sourced natural materials, without the need for heavy equipment.
- Resilient -Structures are designed to work with flooding and high flows rather than resist them, promoting drought and flood resilience over time.
- Sustainable – Leverages self-sustaining natural processes, with adaptive management rather than ongoing costly maintenance.
- Proven – Backed by a growing body of peer-reviewed research and thousands of structures installed across the western U.S.