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.

To go into an existing pond and one small spring and clean, line and fence the area off.  Each pond will not only be lined but will have a floating cover to reduce the amount of evaporation.  
This pond will act as a catchment, water storage and drinking source. 
The development would be about 1 acre in size. The dimensions of the site will be approximately 300 x 150ft. The catchment area is about .75 or .8 of an acre, and the pond that would catch the water about .2 of an acre, or 90ftx90ftx4ft in the lowest corner. The dimensions of the liner for the pond will probalby need to be a little bigger than that to account for the pond depth. In a year, each one should catch 130,000 gallons, and should be able to water 75 head during the winter grazing season. A pond of that size should be able to hold about 200000 gallons. I'd like to also do some kind of a floating lid too to reduce the evaporation. Page only gets about 6 inches of rain but has over 90 inches of evaporation a year. 
The grass on Grand Bench starts about where that second pond is and goes all the way out to the point. All the water from springs is quite a bit higher on the bench than these ponds, and the grass isn't very good there. The cows end up walking sometimes 5 miles at times from water to feed. It can definitely make a difference to work on water out there.

Grand Bench pasture has 1339 AUMs, but it is part of a 3489 active AUM ranch, about 300 head year round operation. It is part of a year round permit, but it is one of the winter pastures

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.

Clean the existing earthen pond, line the pond with a heavy geo liner, the liners will stay within the footprint of the pond around 150x300 sq ft.  The bottom 1/3 of the pond will serve as storage and drinking and the top 2/3's as water harvesting catchment.  The whole area will be fenced off to keep the livestock off the catchment part.  The bottom 1/3 will be double the amount of thickness to allow for livestock and wildlife travel and drinking.  The water storage part of the pond will be covered with a floating cover to help reduce evaporation.

Each development would be about 1 acre in size. The dimensions of each site will be approximately 300 x 150ft. The catchment area is about .75 or .8 of an acre, and the pond that would catch the water about .2 of an acre, or 90ftx90ftx4ft in the lowest corner. The dimensions of the liner for the pond will probalby need to be a little bigger than that to account for the pond depth. In a year, each one should catch 130,000 gallons, and should be able to water 75 head during the winter grazing season. A pond of that size should be able to hold about 200000 gallons. I'd like to also do some kind of a floating lid too to reduce the evaporation. Page only gets about 6 inches of rain but has over 90 inches of evaporation a year.

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.