Project Details

We asked the County Weed Program Supervisor to review the "Wildlife Tracker" with DWR's Central Region habitat biologist. To see how this project impacts collared species of wildlife. As expected through more anecdotal observations, American White Pelicans are tracked along the shoreline of Utah Lake where Phragmites has been treated. Shorebirds of many types in fact utilize the healthy shorelines of of the lake. (See the attached images of the collared data from the wildlife tracker site.)

Utah Lake and its shores are utilized for outdoor sports, recreation, agriculture, and as a valuable wetland habitat for wildlife. The success of this work improves watershed health as well as the biodiversity along the shoreline and in the lake. The restoration of native vegetation improves water quality and reduces the consumption of water; effectively enhancing both quality and quantity. According to the WAP this project benefits both Key Species and Habitat of greatest conservation needs (June Sucker and Invasive plant species in shoreline habitat). Utilizing helicopter aerial imagery and remote sensing data of Utah Lake, it is estimated that there are aver 9,000 acres of Phragmites infested shoreline around the lake. 
The removal of Phragmites, Tamarisk and Russian Olive Trees greatly benefits the watershed and wildlife habitat. Phragmites chokes out valuable wetland and continues to intrude on habitat areas of endangered or threatened wildlife species. Tamarisk and Russian Olives choke out more desirable native vegetation and tree species. Invasive vegetation also greatly limits public access around the lake and creates a wall of vegetation. Not only does this prevent visitation, but also creates a safety hazard for boaters in emergency situations. 
Phragmites proliferation has the potential to choke out valuable wetlands found around the lake. Phragmites is difficult to eradicate without an aggressive vegetation management program. Phragmites is capable of surviving the harshest conditions including fire, frost, high pH and flood. It is tolerant of low water, storm water discharge, road salts and nutrient pollution. It spreads by rhizomes and forms a dense mat that out competes and eliminates native vegetation and destroys valuable wetlands. It was added to the Utah County list of noxious weeds by the Utah County Commission in 2008. Stands of phragmites can grow to over 14 feet tall and create an impenetrable insecticide buffer which allows breeding mosquitos to thrive. Mosquitoes around Utah Lake and the County have tested positive for West Nile Virus. Each year when the phragmites dies back and dries out, lake shore residential developments, parks, bridges and other structures face the risk of extreme fire danger. In 2007 the Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands was court ordered to create a 30-foot firebreak as a safety measure to protect the homes in case of a fire. 
The Utah Lake Commission has coordinated the creation of a long-term shoreline restoration program with local municipal governments, Utah County, and applicable state and federal agencies as well as private land owners to remove phragmites and other invasive plant species such as tamarisk and Russian olive from the shoreline of Utah Lake and to restore native vegetation. Restoration in the form of seeding where invasive vegetation is receding has begun and is showing great results. This effort requires yearly dedicated funding to ensure its success.

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.

Phragmites proliferation, which began a mere two decades ago, unchecked, will eventually choke out the biodiversity found within the rich ecosystem of the lakeshore and valuable wetlands around the lake and puts the entire ecosystem on a critical threshold.

Phragmites puts littoral, emergent and riparian habitats at risk. Utah Lake is at the confluence of multiple HUC 12 watershed resources making the lake a vital watershed. Utah Lake is much less healthy and much less resilient when invaded by Phragmites and other invasive vegetation. Phragmites continues to intrude upon the habitat area of several threatened species, as well as species of concern. These include, as recommended by UDWR, June sucker, Utah sucker, channel catfish, bullhead catfish, panfish including bluegill and crappie, and large-mouth bass; shore birds, neotropical birds, and water fowl including the Avocet, Stilt, Caspian Tern, Plover, and Long-billed Curlew. Removing Phragmites allows for the restoration of littoral, emergent, riparian and even upland habitats around the lake, which all support the resilience and long-term survival of this biodiverse ecosystem.

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.

(Management Plans and objectives are named and then numbered in brackets or parenthesis) This project will continue the process needed to help several agencies accomplish their goals and objectives. The agencies, the plans and objectives are listed below. 
The Utah Lake Commission [1,2 (two objectives)] and Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands [3,4 (two objectives] adopted the Utah Lake Master Plan in June 2009. It specifically lists removal of phragmites around Utah Lake as a high-priority goal. The Master Plan also lists the importance of insect control to benefit public health--a direct result of this removal effort. 
The Utah County Commission (5) has identified phragmites as a noxious weed at the recommendation of the Utah County Weed Board. This board meets regularly to strategize treatment of numerous types of noxious weeds in Utah County. This is outlined in the 2013 County Resource Assessment. Restoration of the shoreline of Utah Lake is a high priority of this board. 
The Utah County Mosquito Abatement (6) district has identified phragmites removal as a priority as well. Listed as a noxious weed that needs to be controlled in the 2013 Alpine Conservation District Resource Assessment (7) and the 2013 Timpanogos/Nebo Conservation District Resource Assessment (8). 
Removal of phragmites helps the Division of Wildlife Resources (9) reclaim valuable habitat for wildlife. 
Phragmites removal is also a priority of several municipalities, including the City of Saratoga Springs (10) and Provo City (11), Lehi City (12) to have this invasive species controlled as it grows closer to existing homes and planned developments. 
The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (13) has identified phragmites as one of their top priorities for invasive species control, within the new Invasive Species Mitigation program, which is a partner in this grant. 
The June sucker Recovery Implementation Program (14) has identified phragmites at Utah Lake to be detrimental to habitat and has been supporting efforts to remove phragmites around the lake. This project lies within the wetland type which is one of the key habitats identified in the WAP. This area supports a variety of wildlife species including many that are listed in the WAP such as fish, Neotropical birds, raptors, and wading and shorebirds. June sucker, an ESA listed threatened fish endemic to Utah Lake, may also receive benefit from a long-term phragmites removal effort of which this project is the first step. 
Other species of concern, as identified by UDWR include, fish such as the Utah sucker, channel catfish, bullhead catfish, panfish including bluegill and crappie, and large-mouth bass; birds, including the Avocet, Stilt, Caspian Tern, Plover, and Long-billed Curlew. This project lies within a wetland/lake conservation focus area as determined by the Central Region UPCD team.

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.

Treating and removing Phragmites allows native riparian, emergent and littoral wetland vegetation to reestablish, this creates positive impacts to both the water quality and water quantity in Utah Lake. According to Utah's Division of Water Quality, replacing Phragmites with other native species provides better uptake of nutrient pollution by native vegetation species; a reduction in nutrient concentrations has a direct correlation to algal bloom reductions. Removal efforts of Phragmites also creates a more complex riparian root system that provides better habitat for juvenile fish and other species. This assertion is confirmed by a local study: (http://etgreatsaltlake.weebly.com/), which asserts that Phragmites consumes more than double the water to that of native wetland vegetation. The restoration of native vegetation around the lake has the potential to save an estimated 15k Acre/feet of water annually according to the study which estimated that the 25,000 acres of Phragmites found on the Great Salt Lake was consuming just over 71K acre/feet annually. There are 9,914 acres of mapped phragmites on Utah Lake. Utah Lake is a priority on the current Utah County Resource Assessment Plan created in 2013. It points out that the lake provides water not only to its county residents but also to Salt Lake and Davis Counties. As the third largest freshwater lake in the western United States, Utah Lake contains ~902,400 acre feet of water when full. As such, it is a very important part of the watershed both in quantity and for its quality.

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.

Utah County Public Works Department (weed program) will monitor the effectiveness of spraying efforts on phragmites and conduct follow-up treatments as necessary. Photopoints will be established to document pre- and post-treatment implementation activities and compared each year to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. UDAF has established 23 line transects; 14 treatment transects, 6 references and 3 control monitoring points to get a better idea of the restorative change over time on the project. These are monitored and recorded annually. These reports are available if WRI wishes to collect these data. Each year the Lake Commission captures images of the entire shoreline of the lake to document the work completed and review year to year progress for monitoring purposes. Starting in 2015, we have incorporated the use of Drone technology to further document regrowth and smashing activities. This helps better monitor and identify needed retreatment areas. With successful remote sensing of shoreline vegetation in the FY2022 treatment year, we plan to acquire a drone that will have the capability of mapping progress along the entire shoreline and through ESRI or DJI services producing complete georeferenced treatment maps for all future treatments.

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.

Who are the partners: 
The Utah Lake Commission partners with the Watershed Restoration Initiative, Utah County, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food -- ISM, Central Utah Water Conservancy District Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and 387 individually owned parcel owners. 
How the partnerships function: 
All 387 individually owned parcel owners have engaged with ULC staff and sign an agreement to partner and agree to treatments and/or access on or through their property. The Utah Lake Shoreline restoration project has also established partnerships with State, County and local governments to complete annual projects on the shoreline so that as many encroached areas as possible can be treated. The Utah Lake Commission made up of 17 municipal governments, the County and 4-state agencies, is the project lead and grant applicant. The Commission contributes staff time and funding towards the project. Utah County manages the full-time and grant funded staff who carry out the physical aspects of the project, it also provides in-kind labor, equipment and complete all equipment maintenance. Utah's Department of Agriculture provides a major source of funding for the project through its Invasive Species Mitigation program. The Central Utah Water Conservancy District provides in-kind funding for equipment. Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands provides project funding as well as permitting for lakeshore access. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources provides habitat feedback and information on best practices for making these projects successful as well as being a WRI application partner during the planning phase of the upcoming projects. Some land owners agree to conduct the treatments themselves or graze the phragmites independent of this effort. Reminder communications are sent out by ULC staff during the treatments to all landowners as well.

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.

Many areas along the shoreline of Utah Lake are used to graze livestock, as phragmites is cleared, livestock production increases with the additional acreage created by the open space where native grasses and plants reestablish. The FY2021 and this application included an allotment for the installation of fencing to allow for contained and sustainable livestock grazing. A 2021 State appropriation funded $850k of additional fencing to allow for expanded grazing in the same area. The grazing plan is being developed at this time and should be completed in 2022.  It is expected that large sections of the lakeshore could be grazed; potentially a few thousand acres in the less developed areas along the shoreline. At least a few ranchers with property along the lake have expressed how grateful they are for treatments that have opened up land again for the livestock. This last year an area near the Powell Slough was created as a pilot project for grazing along the shoreline. The pilot demonstrated great successful. The larger project is close to 1000 acres within the Powell Slough area that is intended to be managed with grazing long term. After a discussion with the Utah County Commission two years ago, it was determined that the Powell Slough / Walkara Way could be used as an emergency grass bank for cattle or horses in the future as it is fenced into sections. This would allow for quick response to fires and other emergency relocations if or when needed. In addition to cattle grazing, there is a substantial population of mule deer through the area that benefit from the restored habitat and available vegetation. Historically the Phragmites prevented much of the access and reduced the available grasses and forbs.

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.