Project Details

The BLM's Canyon Country Fire Zone (CYFZ) Fuels Program has a long list of completed WRI funded projects widely distributed over Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan counties of southeastern Utah.  Monitoring has been implemented and is ongoing for the majority of these projects.  This year the Blanding East, Devil Canyon, Ford Ridge, Horse Canyon, Little Baullie Mesa, and Tavaputs projects are the primary focus of BLM's monitoring campaign.  The CYFZ's GIS/Monitoring generally has one person responsible for achieving the monitoring goals however the position is currently vacant.  The wide distribution of these projects combined with the vacancy of the monitoring specialist necessitate this proposal for additional monitoring help.

These monitoring projects are designed using a stratified random sample approach.  Treatment areas are stratified by ecological site and 4-12 three-spoke macroplots have been randomly established within the dominant or co-dominant ecological sites. This affords the opportunity to perform valid statistical analysis on the data.

Since vegetation response to fuels reduction may take several years conducting post-treatment vegetation surveys on these projects is important and would provide a unique opportunity to bolster these longer term data-sets and conduce to evaluate longer-term vegetation responses to fuels reduction treatments and seedings in upland pinyon-juniper woodlands. Pre-treatment data has already been collected, by the BLM Fuels program, on all of the following projects and post-treatment data has already been collected on Blanding East (pre-), Devil Canyon (pre-, 1st, 3rd growing seasons), Ford Ridge (pre-), Horse Canyon (pre-, 1st, 3rd growing seasons), Little Baullie (pre-, 3yr).  Pre-treatment monitoring will be established on the Tavaputs project.

Employing students and interns from the University of Colorado to assist provides a valuable educational link.  They gain experience in the field, with fuels, with the BLM, and with the WRI program while making money to pay for tuition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.