Completion Form

2024

The Teasdale Front Fuels Reduction project was completed in three phases of treatment types to achieve the objectives.
The first treatment phase was a lop and scatter of encroaching conifers. The contractor (3 B's) used a 14-person chainsaw crew to remove conifers (pinyon pine and juniper) less than < 8 inch Diameter at Root Collar (DRC) on approximately 1,017 acres. Smaller ponderosa pine and other ladder fuels were also cut to specifications to reduce future wildfire risk. This treatment started June 1, 2021, and ended around September 30, 2021. It was determined that the slash from the lop and scatter contained heavier amounts of downed scattered trees than anticipated. To mitigate the heavy fuels, a second treatment was used to pile the downed slash using a contracted crew (Imperial Forestry) on approximately 1,017 acres starting May 24, 2023, and ending around September 11, 2023. The third treatment was U.S. Forest Service personnel coming in and burning the piles on approximately 280 acres thus far, starting December 7, 2023, through April 9, 2024.

The Forest Service USFS (Fremont River Ranger District) and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources completed a habitat restoration project on the North Slope of Boulder Mountain southwest of Teasdale, Utah. The project objectives are 1- Improve health and vigor of the ponderosa pine community, 2- Improve fire resilience, and 3- Improve mule deer and elk habitat on the north slope boulder mountain. This project focuses on reducing pinyon and juniper succession on approximately 1,017 acres within the mountain shrub and ponderosa pine vegetation types along the north slope of the Boulder Mountain.
The project consisted of using two contracted crews to lop and pile encroching conifer and using USFS personnel to burn the piled debris. The project started in June of 2021 and piles were burned through April 2024.
Bitterbrush response in cut areas responded well in the spring of 2022. Due to hot, dry weather in May and June of 2024 the brush response slowed down.  Monsoon rains arrived in Late July and it rained off and on for 22 days in a row. The bitterbrush and other native grasses responded very well to these rain events. 
Due to the success of this project, there were an additional 1,251 acres of lop and scatter treatment adjacent to this project to the east as part of the Lower Bowns/Carcass Creek project in 2024.

Devin Johnson

09/17/2024 09:41:35