Project Details

Fish Creek is a principle tributary to the South Fork of Chalk Creek in Summit County.  Chalk Creek is a major watershed within the Weber River Basin, supporting large populations of mule deer and one of the largest remaining populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout, along with an intact native fish assemblage, encompassing 121 total miles of habitat.  The watershed has a long history of land use, degradation and slow recovery through restoration partnerships.  The trajectory of Chalk Creek has moved in the positive direction in recent years; nevertheless the need to protect this important cutthroat trout population, particularly through actions on the South Fork and Fish Creek persists.

In the South Fork Chalk Creek watershed, like many other places, unmanaged grazing has resulted in uneven utilization by cattle, with a disproportionate impact on the riparian system along Fish Creek.  Concurrently there has been a shift in the entire rangeland plant community to a shrub-dominated landscape composed of early-successional and annual grass species with little forage value. Bare ground is common and deep rooted grasses are largely absent. As a result of these degraded rangeland and riparian conditions, extensive overland erosion occurs and enters the waterways. As a result, the South Fork of Chalk Creek was identified as one of the largest non-point sources of nitrogen in the Rockport-Echo TMDL.

The primary need fulfilled with this proposal is the development of an off-channel watering system along Fish Creek. Developing the needed infrastructure to allow livestock to be rotated across the landscape is a critical step towards watershed restoration.  The juxtaposition of livestock management and a highly erosive geology makes this tributary system a high priority for improved management as highlighted in the Rockport-Echo TMDL Implementation Plan.

This project is part of a larger effort in the South Fork of Chalk Creek, driven by the South Fork Chalk Creek CRMP, which looks to improve the overall rangeland health and water quality through the following practices that we expect to put in place:

i.	Prescriptive Grazing Plans compatible with the arid landscape
ii.	Partition fencing to improve control of livestock distribution across variable habitat types
iii.	Off-channel watering to compliment pasture development
iv.	Riparian fencing on sensitive areas

By improving the grazing management, riparian vegetation can be released from grazing pressure and allowed to stabilize and shade streams, and consequently improve water quality downstream.

There is no single landowner in the South Fork watershed; in fact, no public land management agency owns land within the watershed. This private land ownership situation increases the need for cooperation and consensus in order to manage natural resources that depend on landscapes that exceed any single landowner's property boundaries. The CRMP is one that builds this kind of cooperation and consensus.

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.

This project aims to reduce a number of threats on the landscape:

1) Invasive Species: Various noxious weeds persist throughout the rangeland, symptoms of improper grazing.  Perhaps the greatest threat is that of annual grasses in the lower rangeland areas.  Under current conditions, these grasses flush and cure before cattle even enter the range, resulting in unusable rangeland conditions.

2) Rangeland Resiliency: In many places the perennial grasses occuring on the range are early successional species. They tend to have shallower roots and cure out earlier in the season.  This affects the productivity of the range during average years, but it also reduces the resiliency to extended drought conditions. The spring of 2017 was a perfect example of this. With abundant early-season moisture we expected to see tremendous growth of rangeland species. Instead of a large flush of growth, much of the range was stunted, still recovering from previous years of unmanaged grazing.

3) Riparian health: Riparian species serve three critical roles.  Riparian vegetation buffers water temperatures through stream shading, filters fine sediments generated from upland areas of the watershed before they enter the waterways, and riparian vegetation stabilizes stream banks, reducing downstream sedimentation and protecting the vertical stability of streams, which feeds back to a high water table.  Continued concentrated use in Fish Creek will lead to further degradation of the streambed (down cutting) continued downstream sedimentation, and increased water temperatures during the summer months.

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.