Project Details

The project area is identified as important habitat for sage-grouse and critical winter/spring habitat for big game that supports migratory deer from UT, ID and WY. The goal of this project is to maintain native understory vegetation, primarily the shrub species. Thinning treatments in these stands are needed to prevent further juniper encroachment. Encroachment severity ranges from Phase 1 to 3, though is still primarily Phase 1. Removal of junipers should help through reduced soil moisture competition for water, improved snowmelt infiltration and reduce hazardous fuel loads which lessens the potential for a catastrophic fire event and resulting habitat loss. Multiple phases will be required to treat this large area. This is phase II of the project.

The North Cisco Beach Road culvert crossing of North Eden Creek consists of a 90-foot long culvert at a 3% gradient with about a three-foot drop at its outlet. This culvert prevents the movement and migration of fishes to about 10 miles of stream habitat upstream. This passage problem limits the available spawning and early rearing of fish from Bear Lake such as Bonneville Cutthroat Trout.

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.

The objective of this project is to maintain the existing native plant communities that are important for sage grouse, mule deer, moose, pronghorn, and elk by removing encroaching PJ trees. In addition, stream habitat will be reconnected on North Eden Creek and restored on South Eden Creek.

Specific Objectives:
-Remove phase I juniper through a Lop and Scatter treatment before the encroachment reaches a threshold that would require more invasive and expensive treatments. -i.e. bullhog and seeding of phase II and III juniper.
-Maintain understory vegetation and sagebrush.
-Maintain sage-grouse, mule deer and elk winter and breeding habitats.
-Reduce hazardous fuels to diminish the potential for a larger catastrophic fire event.
-Increase water availability for other plants.
-Improve watershed hydrology and wet meadow habitat by installing 5-10 Zeedyk structures in   Little Creek and Black Mountain Creek
- Replace the North Cisco Beach Road culvert crossing of North Eden Creek with a bottomless arch culvert which will be fully fish passable.

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.

If delayed or left untreated the juniper will continue to increase in cover and density and will eventually choke out the critical native shrubs and grasses that currently grow in the understory. 
Despite the short growing season of Rich County the treatment area is near a tipping point of requiring more expensive mechanical treatments.  
Loss of critical habitat will have negative consequences on the wildlife populations that depend on these species for survival during winter months. The cost of the treatment will continue to increase as trees reach phase II or phase III. Fire intensity and severity will increase as the juniper trees mature and spread.
Trout Unlimited and partners have been working on the planning and design of the North Eden Creek culvert replacement for about 5 years. This work has been supported by WRI grants #5284 and #5520 and has resulted in the Rich County Commissioners approving the culvert replacement project. A 60% engineering design has been completed. Most of the construction funding has been secured and this proposal includes the "last money in" to complete the project.

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.

Utah's Sage-grouse strategic Management plan:

Goal: Protect, maintain, enhance, and restore greater sage-grouse populations, habitats, and the ecosystems that sustain them. Reestablish, augment, and facilitate sustainable populations of greater sage-grouse in suitable habitats to improve statewide population continuity and distribution.

Objective B-2: Enhance and restore current and potential sage-grouse habitats and the ecosystems that sustain them.

Objective C-2: Identify and secure funding for habitat enhancement,
research, monitoring, and maintenance.

A. Vegetation management.
1. Manage seasonal sage-grouse habitats in a manner appropriate to the site conditions, and based on habitat assessment or local expert knowledge and observed ecological condition.

and

4. Manage for late summer brood-rearing habitat that includes a variety of succulent vegetation adjacent to sagebrush escape and loafing cover. Create or enhance riparian/wet meadow habitat in areas where late brood-rearing habitat is lacking. Strive to manage sagebrush habitats with 10-25% canopy cover.

State of Utah - Resource Management Plan pg 236 Expand Wildlife Populations Protect existing habitat and improve 500,000 acres of habitat Produce and maintain the desired vegetation for wildlife and livestock.

Deer Unit Management Plan 2 Cache -Address loss of critical winter range to wildfires and other land management practices

Statewide Deer Management Plan -Loss of critical winter range habitat

Elk Herd Unit Management Plan #2 Cache
Habitat - Maintain and/or enhance forage production through direct range
improvements throughout the unit on winter range to achieve population
management objectives. Pay special attention to WMA's and areas were
holding elk could alleviate pressure on private landowners experiencing
damage by wintering elk.

Utah Statewide Elk Management Plan
-Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk
habitat.

Rich CRMP
Support efforts that restore degraded habitats and connectivity between fragmented
habitats.

Utah Wildlife Action Plan
Threats to lowland sagebrush
iii)	Promoting and funding restoration that reduces the Uncharacteristic class, including cutting/mulching/chaining of invading pinyon and juniper trees, herbicide or mechanical treatment of non-native invasive species such as cheatgrass and secondary perennial weed species, and rehabilitation of burned areas following wildfire.
iv)	Promoting management that includes seeding a diversity of grasses, forbs and shrubs that will lead to increased resiliency and resistance in the plant community

North Eden Creek and Bear Lake relationships to management plans:
1. Bonneville Cutthroat Trout Range-wide Conservation Agreement and Strategy (2019): --This project meets the following recommended conservation actions to: 1) Expand BCT populations and distribution...2) Enhance and maintain habitat. -- Meets goals to manage for adfluvial (migratory populations connected to lakes) in the Bear River geographic management unit (GMU) and maintain all populations within the GMU

2. Utah Wildlife Action Plan (2015) -- Bonneville cutthroat trout are a N4 priority species. -- Key Habitats for Species of Greatest Conservation Need include Riverine and Aquatic Scrub-shrub.

3. UDWR Strategic Plan: this project will help the UDWR meet its Resource Goal, which is to "expand wildlife populations and conserve sensitive species by protecting and improving wildlife habitat. This project will specifically address objectives 2 and 3 of the UDWR Resource Goal, which are to (1) "increase fish and game populations to meet management plan objectives and expand quality fishing and hunting opportunities," and to (2) "conserve sensitive species to prevent them from becoming listed as threatened or endangered."

4. UDWR Bear Lake Management Plan (hydrologic unit 16010201): Habitat enhancement and maintenance is specified for cutthroat trout in the plan.

5. Bear Lake Fisheries Management Plan (Utah and Idaho; 2010): The central management objectives of this plan are to: 1) conserve natives species, and 2) enhance sport fishing opportunities in Bear Lake. Both of these objectives will be addressed by this project. Specific management goals for Bonneville Cutthroat Trout include: maintain a viable adfluvial population and a sport fishery. This project will reestablish an adfluvial run of cutthroat trout in North Eden Creek, which will increase native trout recruitment to Bear Lake and the sport fishery.

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.

The risk for more severe and intense wildfire will increase with PJ expansion. By reducing the  fuel load we will be reducing the possibility for larger scale fire events in the future. Fuel loads will continue to increase as we hit phase II and phase III.  A large fire event could lead to a loss of crucial sagebrush habitat/understory vegetation and the potential for a noxious weed infestation. 
By increasing the area and duration of wetted areas with Zeedyk structure in the creeks this project will increase the Bear Lake Plateaus resistance and resilience to catastrophic wildfires.
There are multiple homes down slope from the project area. Reducing the fuel load on the top of the ridge should help prevent fire from traveling to the west.
 Reducing the fuel load on the top of the ridge should help prevent fire from traveling to the west. Per Rich County CRMP, at least 50 wildfires have been recorded in the area bounded by Laketown, Bear Lake and the ID and WY borders (S, W, N, E respectively) between 1980-2015 (pg 77, USFS data). These included 2,873 acres burned in the nearby Sixmile and Rabbit Creek areas. The North Eden fire in August of 2018 burned 13,763 acres just east of the project area. (DNR online data).

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.

Photo plots will be taken before and after the treatment to upload to the database. 
Examples pre treatment photos attached.
aerial imagery via UAV will be taken to monitor contract and provide before and after state of project area

Wildlife counts and classifications will monitor mule deer in the area.
Collared deer will continue to be monitored in the area. -See attached photo of collared deer use in the area.
Pre-project fish and habitat surveys are underway on North Eden Creek as part of a graduate research study at Utah State University. The fish surveys (electrofishing) will be repeated after the culvert is replaced to assess how the distribution and abundance of fishes changes over time. In addition, genetic samples have been collected from the resident cutthroat trout population in the headwaters. These samples will be assessed for measures of genetic diversity. It's expected that genetic diversity and population resiliency will increase over time with the movement and migration of cutthroat trout from Bear Lake.

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.