Barber Creek Pit Provides Education, Restoration and Recreation for Area Students
Barber Creek Pit, a 10-acre piece of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land, located just off Highway 83 on Barber Creek Road, has served the Swan Valley over the years. The area was a dump for Holland Lake campground in the 1950s, then a gravel pit for the Montana Department of Transportation, plus a dumping area for deer carcasses and a Saturday night party site.
In 1998, the USFS began to the restore the site. In 2006, this area became a restoration/outdoor education project for Swan Valley School's 7th and 8th graders. Since then students are the caretakers and users of these 10 acres. With few exceptions, students have been on the land once a month for the last
3-1/2 years. Look for announcements of an Open House at the Pit in May. Here is a glimpse of the work and monitoring projects conducted.
Swan Valley School's 7th and 8th graders have removed hundreds of pounds of old asphalt from the area which has now been seeded with native grasses.
This photo of Pileated Woodpecker work
is one of dozens of student generated
photos of wildlife activity
at the Pit.
Students, volunteers and resource
specialists celebrate the completion of
the official sign noting the collaborative
project between the U.S. Forest Service,
Swan Valley School and Swan Ecosystem Center.
In this Barber Creek Pit photo a student
noted this Cottonwood and Lodgepole in
what could be a struggle for survival.
