Project Details

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.

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.

Every year that goes without treating this area allows for greater loss of understory plants from encroaching PJ trees, large intense fires, and the subsequent invasion of invasive weed species.  This will increase the cost of future treatment and reduce the effectiveness by requiring a larger amount of seed to be applied to the project to restore the lost seed source. The continued loss of habitat also increases the pressure on remaining plants by herbivores (e.g. deer and elk) thus decreasing the health of remaining plants.  The continued delay of not treating this area can ultimately result in poorer food availability for ungulates like mule deer and elk.  This can lead to death for these species during severe winters.   The project may result in a temporary loss of thermal cover for mule deer and elk; however, we will do our best to strike a balance of leaving pockets of trees for cover and movement corridors, but still remove enough trees to reach project objectives. Another threat is the potential for invasive herbaceous species to establish in areas where trees are removed.  To address this threat we will monitor the site and if necessary in the future apply herbicide to kill these plants.  The threats to the habitat,wildlife, to the community, and the health of the watershed as a whole are much greater if no action is taken to remove PJ trees. If we do not do this project we will continue to lose more of our sagebrush habitats and potentially lose all ecological function of these habitats.

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.

Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan
Habitat Objective1:  Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and
enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts
Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a
minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2019. 
Deer Herd 16C Management Plan
Objective 1- Maintain a healthy mule deer population within the long term carrying capacity of the available habitat,based on winter range trend studies conducted by the DWR every five years. This project will help to increase the carrying capacity and maintain the health of the mule deer herd. 
Objective 2- -- Manage for a target population of 60,600 wintering deer (modeled number)
during the five-year planning period unless range conditions become unsuitable, as evaluated by DWR. This project will help to increase the available winter forage so that populations can increase towards this 60,600 deer population goal.
Habitat Management objective
1. Protect, maintain, and/or improve deer habitat through direct range improvements to support and
maintain herd population management objectives.
2. Work with federal, private, and state partners to improve crucial deer habitats through the WRI process.
3. Maintain and protect critical winter range from future losses. 
4. Continue to improve, protect, and restore sagebrush steppe habitats critical to deer. Cooperate with
federal land management agencies and private landowners in carrying out habitat improvements such
as pinion-juniper removal, reseedings, controlled burns, grazing management, water developments, etc.
on public and private lands. Habitat improvement projects will occur on both winter ranges as well as
summer range.
5. Reduce expansion of pinion-juniper and other woodlands into sagebrush habitats and improve habitats
dominated by pinion-juniper woodlands by completing habitat restoration projects like lop & scatter,
bullhog, and chaining.
Statewide Elk Managment Plan
1. Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk
habitat.
2. Maintain sufficient habitat to support elk herds at population objectives
and reduce competition for forage between elk and livestock.

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 help to prevent the establishment of a monoculture of annual grasses and weeds that are more prone to fire and will change the fire frequency. This will also help to reduce the risk of future fires by having vegetation that holds more moisture later into the summer. 
Dense stands of PJ can also be a concern for greater fire severity.  Removing sections of trees will help to slow down potential crown fires spread and heat, and help to prevent invasive species like cheat-grass from establishing post fire. This project will decrease the risk of high severity wildfire by reducing fuel loading, reduce 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 habitat type has been identified in the 2015-2025 Utah Wildlife Action Plan that lowland sagebrush is a key habitat and the threats associated with this key habitat are inappropriate fire frequency and intensity. This project will help to achieve these goals. The removal of trees would create a break in the tree canopy where firefighters could begin to manage the fire.   The practice of removing PJ with mechanical methods has been proven to be a successful technique to restore the health of the watershed.  It has been observed that by cutting down PJ, that the understory vegetation will grow back in greater amounts than in those areas that are not cut (Bates et al. 2000). Therefore, in areas where natural processes such as fire are not possible or no longer effective, it is essential for current management and restoration projects to utilize other methods to remove PJ and allow for understory to return, such as chainsaw crews that will be used in this project.

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.

This project will help to establish vegetation that will stabilize the soil and help to reduce the amount of sediment that will enter streams and washes. This will help to improve the water quality of the watershed. Also, currently moisture will move across the soil more quickly and water quantity will be lost. This project will help establish vegetation that will hold more moisture in the system and allow for it to soak into the soil and enter under ground water storage.  Another negative impact on the watershed from PJ encroachment is soil erosion (Farmer 1995).  By removing PJ  it will allow for the current grasses and forbs to return and stabalize the soil and decrease the speed of water-flow and the size of soil particles that can be moved downstream and therefore reduce erosion.  This project will help to protect this from happening in the future and save the ecosystem from irreversible losses to soil.   Cut trees will also be placed in washes to slow the flow of water and promote pooling and reduce them eroding as quicklyl.  In water-limited systems, an added benefit to PJ removal can be the potential to increase water-savings.  PJ have been shown to intercept about 10-20 percent of precipitation (Skau 1964).  Also, where PJ encroachment has resulted in large bare ground areas it has been shown that these systems can have greater precipitation runoff (Farmer 1995).  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 increase 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. By removing PJ on this project we will be preventing the increased loss of water from occurring. This project is very large and has the potential to make a large impact on the watershed;1.12 miles of streams are within the planned project area polygons.

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.

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.