Since 2003, Rim to Rim Restoration has worked to reduce invasive plants — primarily Russian olive and tamarisk — and increase native plant communities along Mill and Pack creeks, the two waterways that run through Moab en route to the Colorado River.

Restoration work started in the upper reaches of Mill Creek Canyon on Bureau of Land Management land, but more recently Rim to Rim has focused on the lowest 3 miles of the watershed. We view this work as critical to supporting the entire Mill Creek watershed.

Over the past 15 years Rim to Rim and its partners have successfully regenerated native plant communities on over 150 acres of this riparian landscape.

Collaborators include Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, the City of Moab, Grand County, the Nature Conservancy and over 50 private land owners.

Funding partners in this work include Utah’s Watershed Restoration Initiative; countless hours of in-kind labor provided by land owners; the City of Moab; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

After a large fire along Pack Creek in the summer of 2018, the health and safety of the Mill Creek riparian area has become a more public issue. Most recently Rim to Rim has been collaborating with the Grand County Weed Department and the Bureau of Land Management to reduce the spread of Ravenna grass throughout the creeks.  For 10 years Rim to Rim has  collected data at 15 locations in town to track vegetation response to Russian olive and tamarisk removal efforts.  This data helps us better understand which locations need active revegetation assistance and which areas regenerate native plant communities passively. 

Dense thickets of Russian olive and other invasive vegetation pose an exceptional fire risk in Moab’s creek corridors. An ignition could rapidly spread along either of the waterways, potentially carrying a fire throughout the entire town.

Since 2001, Rim to Rim Restoration has actively removed fire fuels in the creeks to restore riparian plant communities. This work undergirds Rim to Rim’s efforts to improve plant communities, stream flow and flood management in Mill and Pack creeks.

Since a major fire along Pack Creek in 2018, Rim to Rim has worked with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and the Moab Valley Fire Department to map vegetation densities along the creeks and overlay that information with fire hydrant location and residential neighborhood densities to identify critical locations for fire breaks.

In 2024, Rim to Rim Restoration and a coalition of local partners was awarded a national Community Wildfire Defense Grant to accelerate this long-running fuels mitigation work.

These local partners include the Moab Valley Fire Department, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, Grand County Weed Department, City of Moab, the Nature Conservancy, and more.