Elk Wallow

I am always trying new things to improve habitat especially when I can have low impact on the landscape.  In these pictures, you'll see I improved this low volume stream in order to provide elk and other game a more adequate drink of water, a place to dunk themselves to cool off, fight mosquitoes, or a nice elk wallow in the rear of the drink hole.  This particular stream is clearly in the middle of conifer a great hang out for elk and wildlife especially during midday.  I got this idea while walking the spring and noticed a large tree that fell across the stream. I thought it would be a good idea to drop the log across the stream to back up water and make an elk wallow.  It would also be cool to include the progression of the project on the website due to it being low cost and low impact on the landscape.  The pictures mainly show how I built the elk wallow so I wont get into a step by step process, all the trees I used were dead timber for obvious reasons, due to mobility and shrinkage.  I buried a pipe underneath the first logs to make it easier to work and so I could let the silicone dry that I applied between the two layers of logs.  The water drains in the middle of the log.  I chose to do this so that moving water along the edge wouldn’t slowly erode the bank.  I built this wallow late in the summer and didn’t have a game camera up but did notice elk, mountain lion, bear, and dear using it for a water hole, the back end of the pool was also destroyed where it was used as a elk wallow.  Next fall I hope to have game cameras up and show the activity on the website next year.