Project Details

This is a landscape-scale watershed improvement project. It addresses threats to the watershed from wildfire, pinyon-juniper encroachment, stream degradation, habitat loss, non-native vegetation, and ecological site degradation. On portions of the watershed there is significant Phase 2 and 3 pinyon-juniper encroachment into areas that were formerly shrubland. These sites are crucial winter range for mule deer and the conversion of shrubland to woodland has led to poor winter range condition. This project will remove pinyon-juniper to restore shrublands for wildlife.  This will help move some of the heavy winter deer use north of Rocky Hollow to the north portion of the Lasson Draw WMA.
As a result of long-term watershed degradation and the 2018 wildfires, Thistle Creek has experienced significant incision, which leads to increased sediment in the water and loss of habitat. This project will use low-tech, process-based restoration to re-connect the stream with its floodplain which will mitigate sedimentation. This will create more diversity of stream and riparian habitat for the benefit of wildlife and livestock. In particular, bats that are on the WAP species list will benefit from the increase in available drinking water and increase in insects for food. BDA construction will also trap sediment in the stream and reduce sediment plumes which will improve the conditions for leatherside chub which are found in the area.  BDAs will also increase pooling and diversify stream habitats which will help leatherside chubs, leapard frogs and other aquatic and riparian species.

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.

Each year without action, the resilience of the Thistle Creek watershed to wildfire is reduced. Non-native grasses and Phase 2 and 3 pinyon-juniper vegetation continue to increase their abundance which threatens shrublands that wildlife rely on. The changing vegetation community increases the risk of larger, more intense wildfires. Areas burned by intense wildfire further the spread of non-native plants. Without immediate action, the risk of crossing ecological thresholds increases, costs of future treatments increases and the effectiveness of actions is reduced. For example, reviving existing shrub communities before they are completely gone (burned, outcompeted) is more successful and cost effective. The continued loss of shrubland habitat also increases the pressure on remaining plants by herbivores (e.g. deer and elk) thus decreasing the health of remaining plants. The continued delay of not treating this area can ultimately result in poorer food availability for ungulates like mule deer and elk. This can lead to death for these species during severe winters. Rebounding these animal populations will take years and the cost to the UDWR in the reduction of tags will be significant. To prevent complete loss of thermal cover for mule deer and elk and crucial habitat for PJ obligate species we will leave areas for cover and habitat for species like pinyon jays. The threats to the habitat, wildlife, to the community, and the health of the watershed as a whole are much greater if no action is taken to remove juniper trees. If we do not do this project we will continue to lose more of our sagebrush habitats and potentially lose all ecological function of these habitats. By not responding to the erosion concerns post fire we will continue to see flooding and damage to highway 89 and private property. The seeding we did in phase 1 of this project and the continued building of erosion control structures, etc. by our partners will help to slow these flows and mitigate these concerns as well as speed up recovery time. By not repairing the incised stream channels in Thistle Creek with BDAs we may continue to lose fish and amphibian populations due to poor quality habitat. This would be extremely costly to restore later on and would require transplants.

Collar data from mule deer in this area show high use on the southern portion of the Lasson Draw WMA but little use farther north.  This project is an attempt to draw some of that heavy deer use in the Rocky Hollow area farther north by providing improved habitat and forage availability. 
Collar data also shows elk passing through the Hilltop CE moving east to the mountains above Millburn to summer. Making the Hilltop CE more desirable to elk could keep elk from traveling farther west and crossing the highway to winter.

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.

This project will help address 14 different plans listed below, and several objectives and strategies for each of these plans.  
1. State of Utah Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy: State of Utah's Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy. The project reduces the risk of a catastrophic wildfire occurrence negatively affecting property, air quality and water systems.

2. Utah State Elk Management Plan 1. Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk habitat. 2. Maintain sufficient habitat to support elk herds at population objectives and reduce competition for forage between elk and livestock.

3. Wildlife Action Plan The habitat type has been identified in the 2015-2025 Utah Wildlife Action Plan that lowland sagebrush is a key habitat and the threats associated with this key habitat are inappropriate fire frequency and intensity. This project will help to achieve these goals. The removal of trees would create a break in the tree canopy where firefighters could begin to manage the fire. The practice of removing PJ with mechanical methods has been proven to be a successful technique to restore the health of the watershed. 
4. State of Utah Forest Action Plan: The project addresses all three of the key goals laid out in the Forest Action Plan: conserve and manage working forest landscapes for multiple values and uses, protect forests from threats and enhance public benefits from trees and forests. . 
5. Mule Deer Herd Unit 16 C Plan The proposed projects will address some of the habitat management strategies outlined in the deer management plans for herd unit 16C (Central Mountains, Manti) including:  Continue to improve, protect, and restore sagebrush steppe habitats critical to deer. Cooperate with federal land management agencies and private landowners in carrying out habitat improvements such as pinyon-juniper removal, reseedings, controlled burns, grazing management, water developments, etc. on public and private lands. Habitat improvement projects will occur on both winter ranges as well as summer range.
* Protect deer winter ranges from wildfire by reseeding burned areas, creating fuel breaks and vegetated green strips and reseed areas dominated by cheatgrass with desirable perennial vegetation.
* Reduce expansion of pinyon-juniper and other woodlands into sagebrush habitats and improve habitats dominated by pinyon-juniper woodlands by completing habitat restoration projects like lop & scatter, bullhog, and chaining.
* Seek opportunities to increase browse in burned areas of critical winter range. Continue to improve and restore sagebrush steppe habitats critical to deer according to DWRs Habitat Initiative. Maintain habitat quantity and quality at a level adequate to support the stated population objectives while at the same time not resulting in an overall downward trend in range condition and watershed quality. Work cooperatively with land management agencies and private landowners to plan and implement improvement projects for the purpose of enhancing wildlife habitat and range resources in general. 
6. Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan The project also helps fulfill the state mule deer management plan section IV Habitat Goal: Conserve and improve mule deer habitat throughout the state with emphasis on crucial ranges. 
7. The Division of Wildlife Resources Strategic Management Plan: Resource Goal: expand wildlife populations and conserve sensitive species by protecting and improving wildlife habitat. Objective 1: protect existing wildlife habitat and improve 500,000 acres of critical habitats and watersheds throughout the state. Objective 3: conserve sensitive species to prevent them from becoming listed as threatened or endangered. Constituency Goal: Achieve broad-based support for Division programs and budgets by demonstrating the value of wildlife to all citizens of Utah.
 8. The Wildlife Management Area Plans to reach their potential as critical big game winter range, browse communities need to be enhanced and improved. The Division will employ a variety of methods to achieve this including prescribed grazing, prescribed burning, reseeding and seedling transplants, and mechanical treatments. Priority areas will include sagebrush-steppe and mountain browse communities. 
*	Control pinyon-juniper encroachment to enhance range conditions with appropriate methods.  Previously treated areas such as chainings will be identified and maintenance treatments performed where needed.   
*	Replace, rebuild and maintain UDWR/USFS boundary fences to control livestock.  
*	Implement recommendations to decrease erosion and improve ecosystem function along drainage corridors.
9. This project will help with some of the goals and objectives of the Lasson Draw Habitat Management Plan (Pinyon-juniper encroachment on UDWR land should be controlled). Maintain sagebrush and mountain brush habitats by treating phase one and two juniper woodlands on WMAs where possible).

10. The Utah Smoke Management Plan (1999, 2006 revision). By using mechanical mastication this plan will accomplish Goal #5, Use of alternative methods to burning for disposing of or reducing the amount of wildland fuels on lands in the State (p3). 
11. State of Utah Hazard Mitigation Plan (March 2011) this plan accomplishes statewide goals including 1) Protection of natural resources and the environment, when considering mitigation measures and 2) Minimize the risk of wildfire (p12). 
12. Statewide Turkey Managment Plan III. ISSUES AND CONCERNS High Priority: Urgent and Important Issue H2. Insufficient Winter Habitat Concern A. Starvation during severe weather. Concern B. Winter overutilization of urban and agricultural areas Objective 1.Stabilize populations that are declining outside of natural population fluctuations; especially through catastrophic events (i.e. following fires, severe winters, etc.). Strategy c: Conduct habitat projects to address limiting factors. Objective 2.Increase wild turkey habitat, quality and quantity, by 40,000 acres statewide by 2020.Strategy d:Conduct habitat improvement projects in limiting habitat(s). Objective 1.Decrease the number of chronic material damage complaints per turkeys by 25% by 2020. Strategy Improve habitat to draw wild turkey populations away from conflict. 
13. Utah Beaver Management Plan This project will address the following objective of the Utah Beaver Management Plan a. Facilitate and promote beaver assisted restoration activities and expansion of existing beaver populations in areas that beaver are already present, habitat exists to already support them and human beaver conflict is low and or easily mitigated.
14. Utah Wildlife Action Plan. 2015. Southern Leatherside Chub are listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need under the WAP. Threats to its persistence include: 1) drought (very high), and 2) dam and water management (high). Both of these are factors affecting the leatherside population in the project area. Conservation Agreement and Strategy for Southern Leatherside Chub. 2010. Goal is to ensure long-term persistence of Southern Leatherside within its historic range and support development of statewide conservation efforts. Objectives include: 1) maintain and monitor currently known and newly discovered populations and their habitat, and 2) identify, prioritize, and implement actions to reduce threats to leatherside populations and habitat and evaluate the effectiveness of these actions. The Strategy's goal and both of these objectives are applicable to the proposed project.

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.

Dense stands of pinyon-juniper are a concern for greater fire severity and promoting crown fires that can be more destructive. Removing sections of trees will help to slow down potential crown fires spread and heat, and help to prevent invasive species like cheat-grass from establishing post fire. This project will decrease the risk of high severity wildfire by reducing fuel loading, reduce soil erosion, and promoting the growth of understory vegetation, which are critical to maintaining ecosystem resilience. Fuels in the current state pose a hazard to fire personnel, the private citizens, structures and infrastructure. The habitat type has been identified in the 2015-2025 Utah Wildlife Action Plan that mountain sagebrush is a key habitat and the threats associated with this key habitat are inappropriate fire frequency and intensity. This project will help to achieve these goals. The removal of trees would create a break in the tree canopy where firefighters could begin to manage the fire. The practice of removing PJ with mechanical methods has been proven to be a successful technique to restore the health of the watershed. It has been observed that by cutting down PJ, that the understory vegetation will grow back in greater amounts than in those areas that are not cut (Bates et al. 2000). Therefore, in areas where natural processes such as fire are not possible or no longer effective, it is essential for current management and restoration projects to utilize other methods to remove PJ and allow for understory to return, such as a bullhog. By building BDAs and expanding the green riparian area along thistle creek we will provide a greater fire break to reduce the spread of future fires.

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.

This is a very valuable watershed that provides water for many people in Utah County. This project will help to establish vegetation that will stabilize the soil and help to reduce the amount of sediment that will enter streams and washes. This will help to improve the water quality of the watershed. Also, currently moisture will move across the soil more quickly and water quantity will be lost. This project will help establish vegetation that will hold more moisture higher up in the watershed and allow for it to soak into the soil and enter under ground water storage. PJ removal treatments: Another negative impact on the watershed from PJ encroachment is soil erosion (Farmer 1995). By removing PJ it will allow for the current grasses and forbs to return and stabilize the soil and decrease the speed of overland water-flow and the size of soil particles that can be moved downstream and therefore reduce erosion. This project will help to protect this from happening in the future and save the ecosystem from irreversible losses to soil. This will be important for improving water quality. In water-limited systems, an added benefit to PJ removal can be the potential to increase water-savings. PJ have been shown to intercept about 10-20 percent of precipitation (Skau 1964). Also, where PJ encroachment has resulted in large bare ground areas it has been shown that these systems can have greater precipitation runoff (Farmer 1995). Results of the Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative study in Nevada (Desatoya Mt.) found that by removing (lop and scatter) P/J (130 trees/acre) there is the potential to increase water recharge yields 4% on wet years. On wet years this will increase recharge and hopefully allow for more water to be available for fish, livestock, wildlife, and human consumption. Wet meadows and upland plants benefit by utilizing the increase soil moisture, providing for better resiliency during drought years. This provides for an increase in water quantity for herbaceous plants on sites where p/j is removed. Beaver Dam Analogs Where the stream-bank has been stripped of vegetation due to erosion, resulting in more downcutting, this leads to further erosion and diminished water quality. This project will help to raise the water levels and allow for more vegetation to be growing near the water to stabilize the banks. This will help improve the water quality and quantity in the system. This project will also slow the flow of water which will decrease the amount of erosion that will occur in big flood events. Slowing the water will also increase the quantity of water that is able to seep into the soil and benefit the system. This will also hold water longer upstream and increase the length of time water will flow down the stream, increasing water quantity and water 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.

Seed will be flown on bullhog treatment areas in the fall of 2024. Bullhogging will be done in the fall of 2024. Pinyon trees will be retained and some juniper trees may be retained along drainage bottoms and where cover is needed. Low-tech structures (i.e., beaver dam analogues and post-assisted log-structures) will be constructed using the methods described in Low-tech, Process-based Restoration of Riverscapes (Wheaton et al. 2019). We will use untreated wooden fence posts approximately 3-4" in diameter. Posts will be driven into the stream bed with a gas or hydralic post pounder. The posts will extend about 1 m above the channel bed and spaced approximately 0.5 - 0.8 m apart, and driven to a depth of approximately 1 m into the streambed. Native vegetation, rocks, and mud  will be placed between the posts to create a structure that will look like a beaver dam. The structure will slow the water but allow fish to pass through. We will place low-tech structures 10-30 m apart within the stream reaches. After a year we will assess the health of the stream and evaluate future actions. We may plant willows or other native plants at the restoration sites to improve establishment of riparian vegetation.

Use the Mad Max dozer to scalp and seed about 10 to 12 acres of open grassy areas on the south portion of the Lasson Draw WMA.  Seedlings will be ordered and ready to plant by the fall of 2025.

Reduild one mile of WMA/USFS border fence with permittee providing the labor.  Fence will be a standard DWR 4 strand, wildlife friendly barbwire fence.

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.