Project Details

Vegetation:
A healthy sagebrush community should consist of a diverse plant community and a variety of wildlife. The sagebrush habitat along the east Manti is becoming degraded due to encroaching pinyon and juniper. Areas where trees have become dominant have outcompeted understory vegetation species for light, moisture, and nutrients. The lack of understory species will deplete the native seedbank, increase soil erosion, and increase non-native weed invasion. Excessive coarse fuel build up can result in catastrophic wildfires, which further degrades the habitat and increases the likelihood of cheatgrass expansion. Removing some of the pinyon and juniper and seeding with alternate diverse species can improve the degraded sagebrush communities. Seeding and tree removal will ensure the seedbank maintains desirable species, decrease the risk of weed invasion, and reduce the chances of catastrophic wildfires

Wildlife:
This project will improve habitat for the Manti/Central Utah Mountains deer herd. This deer herd is 30% below the population objective for the area.  The population is limited by winter range with portions of the critical range in poor condition due to recent drought and range utilization. Pinyon-juniper woodlands dominate the vegetation cover within the deer winter range and encroachment of these species into sagebrush communities has decreased available forage for wildlife. This project will treat the encroaching p/j in a mosaic pattern. This project design will maintain hiding and thermal cover for deer while improving the quantity and quality of forage in the area.  The additional forage created by this project should aid in over-winter survival as well as fawn production.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

1) Promote a healthy understory of grasses, forbs, and shrubs to provide quality forage for wildlife and range species.
  1a. 12-20% preferred browse, 20% or less shrub decadency, 10%+ young shrub population
  1b. 8-15% perennial grasses, 5% perennial forb, less than 5% annual grass cover
2) Reduce the encroachment of pinyon/juniper trees in sagebrush meadows, but leave patches of trees for wildlife corridors.
  2a. Provide hiding and thermal cover within 700 ft of foraging location.
3) Reduce cheatgrass expansion by promoting perennial grass, forb, and shrub cover.
4) Reduce the density of pinyon/juniper trees as a hazardous fuels treatment to protect habitat at risk from a catastrophic wildfire event.
5) Reduce bare ground and reduce overland flows of water from rain/snow events where there is heavy pinyon/juniper stands which will allow water to be infiltrated into the soils and slowly released back into the system.
6) Increase available forage for livestock for wildlife.
  6a. Average range production of 750 pounds/acre
7) Help bring this plant community back into a more natural state with a variety of age classes of plant communities.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

The National Fire Plan
*Designed to manage the potential impacts of wildland fire to communities and ecosystems and to reduce therisk of catastrophic wildland fire
*The NFP focuses on strategies for improving fire preparedness, restoring and rehabilitating burned areas, reducing hazardous fuels, assisting communities, and identifying research needs

BLM National Policy Guidance on Wildlife and Fisheries Management

*Provides direction to restore, maintain and improve wildlife habitat conditions on public lands through the implementation of activity plans

Emery County General Plan
*9.4 Fire Management, Protection and Prevention- Agencies should work diligently to reduce the threat of wildfire on public lands.
*9.5 Forestry and Forest Products- Agencies should adopt policies that prevent forest fires through thinning stand densities as well as construction and maintenance of fuel breaks and other vegetation management. 
*9.7 Invasive Species Management and Pest Management- the County encourages Agencies to protect public lands bordering private lands from noxious weeds.
*9.13.2 Water Quality and Quantity-Maintain current level of water quality and quantity, Support additional watershed protection measures.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Statewide Management Plan for Mule Deer 2014-2019
Section VI Statewide management goals and objectives. This plan will address
1: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range.
2. Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve mule deer habitat with emphasis on drought or fire damaged sagebrush winter ranges, ranges that are being taken over by invasive annual grass species, and ranges being diminished by encroachment of conifers into sagebrush or aspen habitats.
3. Encourage land managers to manage portions of pinion-juniper woodlands and aspen/conifer forests in early succession stages.
4. Work with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private
landowners, and local leaders through the regional Watershed Restoration Initiative working groups to identify and prioritize mule deer habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration.
5. Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve mule deer habitat with emphasis on drought or fire damaged sagebrush winter ranges, ranges that are being taken over by invasive annual grass species, and ranges being diminished by encroachment of conifers into sagebrush or aspen habitats.
6. Continue to identify, map, and characterize crucial mule deer habitats throughout the state, and identify threats and limiting factors to each habitat.
7. Work with land management agencies and private landowners to identify and properly manage crucial mule deer habitats, especially fawning and wintering areas.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Statewide Management Plan for Elk 2015-2022
1) Maintain sufficient habitat to support elk herds at population objectives and reduce competition for forage between elk and livestock.
2) Reduce adverse impacts to elk herds and elk habitat.
3) Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk
habitat.
4) Coordinate with land management agencies, conservation organizations, private
landowners, and local leaders through the regional Watershed Restoration Initiative
working groups to identify and prioritize elk habitats that are in need of enhancement or restoration.
5) Identify habitat projects on summer ranges (aspen communities) to improve
calving habitat.
6) Encourage land managers to manage portions of forests in early succession stages.

DEER HERD UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN Deer Herd Unit # 16 Manti October 2015
 A) Maintain and/or enhance forage production through direct range improvements to support and maintain herd population management objectives.
B) Work with private landowners and, federal, state, local and tribal governments to maintain and protect critical and existing ranges from future losses and degradation.
C) Provide improved habitat security and escapement opportunities for deer.
Habitat Management Strategies;
A) Work cooperatively to utilize grazing, prescribed burning and other recognized vegetative manipulation techniques to enhance deer forage quantity and quality.
A)Protect, maintain, and/or improve deer habitat through direct range improvements to support and maintain herd population management objectives.
B)Work with private landowners and federal, state, and local governments to maintain and protect critical and existing ranges from future losses and degradation through grazing management and OHV and Travel Plan modifications.
C)Work with federal, private, and state partners to improve crucial deer habitats through the WRI process.

Elk Herd Unit Management Plan Elk Herd Unit #16 Manti
*Improve forage and cover values on elk summer ranges. Practices will include prescribed fire, selective logging, and mechanical treatments that promote a diverse age structure in aspen communities. Over 300 acres per year will be targeted.
* Remove pinyon-juniper encroachment into winter range sagebrush parks and summer range mountain brush communities. Over 500 acres per year will be targeted using primarily mechanical treatments.
Habitat
* Promote sustainable livestock grazing practices that minimize negative impacts to plant health and diversity, especially on summer ranges and on SITLA and DWR lands where DWR holds the grazing permit or controls livestock grazing.
* Develop new and protect/improve existing water sources for wildlife and livestock to improve distribution and minimize over-utilization in proximity to water sources.
* Remove coniferous and juniper tree encroachment into winter range, sagebrush park lands, and summer range aspen forest and mountain browse communities. Approximately 1,500 acres per year will be targeted.
* Open the closed canopy pinion--juniper forest lands at mid elevation zones to enhance perennial understory vegetative maintenance. Approximately 1,500 acres per year will be targeted utilizing mechanical and prescribed fire technology.
* Enhance riparian system and canyon bottom vegetative communities through continued agricultural practices, prescriptive grazing and mechanical or chemical treatments. 
* Explore ways to improve Wyoming sagebrush community condition and perennial vegetative health.
* Improve existing canyon bottom riparian communities by treating greasewood and overmature sagebrush through chemical, mechanical, and other methods, and minimize impacts on croplands in these habitats.

Utah Wildlife Action Plan
Lowland Sagebrush is a Key Habitat in the 2015-2025 Plan
One of the threats identified to lowland sagebrush is inappropriate fire frequency and intensity
Recommendations to Improve condition are:
1)Promoting policies and management that allow fire to return to a more natural regime.
2)Promoting and funding restoration that reduces the Uncharacteristic class, including cutting/
mulching/chaining of invading pinyon and juniper trees, herbicide or mechanical treatment
of nonnative invasive species such as cheatgrass and secondary perennial weed species, and
rehabilitation of burned areas following wildfire.
3) Promoting management that includes seeding a diversity of grasses, forbs and shrubs that will lead to increased resiliency and resistance in the plant community.

Price BLM Resource Management Plan Oct 2008
*FIRE-6 The general DWFC is to have ecosystems that are at a low risk of losing key ecosystem components following wildfire and that function within their historical ecological range. In terms of FRCC, the DWFC outside the WUI will be to trend to a lower FRCC using the least intrusive method possible. When possible, wildland fire use is the preferred method of treatment to move toward FRCC 1; when conditions do not allow wildland fire use, prescribed fire and then nonfire fuel treatments will be considered. Inside the WUI, the general DWFC is to have less potential for values to be threatened by wildland fire, usually through some modification of fuels.  
*GRA-4 Provide for the development and maintenance of range improvement projects and livestock facilities on a case-by-case basis. Construct range improvement projects to BLM specifications. Document access routes for the range improvements in the individual project files.  
*VEG-1
Allow vegetation manipulation with restrictions to achieve the desired vegetation condition.
Treat areas determined to need vegetation reestablishment using methods such as introductions, transplants, augmentation, reestablishments, and restocking with attention to diversity and habitat. These areas will be treated with a variety of plant species that are desirable for wildlife habitat, livestock, watershed management, and other resource values while maintaining vegetation species diversity (Map R- 4). 
*VEG-3 Use the Utah Partners for Conservation and Development, local greater sage-grouse working groups, and other interested governmental and non-governmental organizations to identify sagebrush habitat locations and amounts that should undergo restoration and/or rehabilitation.  
*VEG-4 Promote the use of native plant species that are desirable for wildlife, livestock, watershed management, and other resource values while maintaining vegetation species diversity.
*VEG-11 Vegetation manipulations (i.e., mechanical, biological, manual, prescribed fire, or chemical) will be prescribed on a case-by-case basis to achieve and/or maintain Standards for Rangeland Health. 
*WL-10 Emphasize the use of mechanical, chemical, and biological methods, as well as fire and livestock grazing, to achieve the desired plant community for fish and wildlife habitats. 
*WL-11 Maintain sustainable forage levels for livestock and wildlife.

Utah's Wild Turkey Management Plan 
Objectives
1. The plans objective is to maintain and improve wild turkey populations. One of the strategies identified to reach this objective is to do habitat projects. This project will help to achieve this objective.
2. The plan also identifies as an objective increasing habitat quantity and quality for turkeys by 40,000 acres statewide by 2020. This project will help to achieve this by increase herbaceous foraging habitat for turkeys.
3. Another objective in the turkey management plan is to increase hunting opportunity. 
4. Enhance appreciation for wild turkeys in Utah. This project will help to allow easier access to turkeys by the public and greater opportunity to observe these animals. This will help to achieve this objective.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

This project will decrease the risk of high severity wildfire by reducing fuel loading, reducing soil erosion, and promoting the growth of understory vegetation, which are critical to maintaining ecosystem resilience. Fuels in the current state pose a hazard to fire personnel, the private citizens, structures and infrastructure. The area is in an active gas field and any fire that starts in the area could be a risk to the community and infrastructure in the area. The current fire regime condition class is moderate (2), and would be reduced to low (1) immediately after treatment. The  lowland sagebrush habitat type has been identified in the 2015-2025 Utah Wildlife Action Plan as a key habitat and the threats associated with this key habitat include inappropriate fire frequency and intensity. This project will help to reduce this threat by reducing coarse fuels, and reducing the chance of fine fuel build up from non-native annual grass invasion. The removal of trees would create a break in the tree canopy where firefighters could begin to manage the fire. According to the Utah DNR Wildfire Risk Portal (Cat. Fire Map) the area is at low risk, low threat and low effect.  Treatment in this area could reduce the potential for fires by creating a gap in the tree canopy allowing for a potential place to begin fire management.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Areas with limited understory vegetation and the bare soil inter-spaces are prone to soil loss by erosion. Herbaceous vegetation is important in impeding overland flow and is effective at reducing soil erosion. Both the potential increase in herbaceous vegetation and the masticated tree material should help stabilize the soils by reducing erosion and protecting the water quality throughout the watershed. Pinyon and Juniper intercept 10-20% of precipitation according to Horman et al. 1999. Removing p/j  should allow for more precipitation to
contact the soil and increase biomass on the ground. A recent publication by Roundy et al. 2014 showed that phase 3 juniper removal can increase available moisture for more than 3 weeks in the spring. And removing juniper from phase 1 and 2 stands can increase water from 6-20 days respectively. Because juniper are prolific water users they readily out compete understory species which eventually die off.

Results of the Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative study in Nevada (Desatoya Mt.) found that by removing (lop and scatter) P/J (130 trees/acre) there is the potential to increase water recharge yields 4% on wet years. On wet years this will increase recharge, but does not increase stream flow. Wet meadows and upland plants benefit by utilizing the increased soil moisture, providing for better resiliency during drought years. This provides for an increase in water quantity for herbaceous plants on sites where p/j is removed.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

The project area falls within an active grazing allotment. In areas where seeding will occur the BLM and SITLA will work with the permittees to rest seeded areas for 2 years. Fencing will not be constructed as part of this project.  Following project completion, an evaluation will take place to determine if any follow up treatments will need to occur, particularly if any herbicide applications are needed to control invasive plant species. The portions of the project occurring on BLM lands will continue to be managed for multiple use, including grazing, hunting, wildlife watching and many other recreational activities. Wildlife management plans for the area will be followed. The Manti deer herd unit management plan will guide management of mule deer. The current herd objective is 38,000 deer with a 3 year average of 15 to 17 buck per 100 does post-season. The deer herd is under objective and improving forage through this project should help to reach population goals. The Manti Elk Herd Management Plan states that population objective is 12,000 elk. This project occurs in substantial winter habitat for elk.  Wildlife management will continue to occur in this area to maintain population objective.
Additional acres of treatment will continue to help livestock and wildlife that use the the winter ranges along the east Manti. As addressed in the management plan section, this project is working towards goals in the Price BLM Resource Management Plan to restore ecosystems. Mechanical treatment of fuels and seeding are authorized management actions under this plan.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.