Project Details

The Lower Price River provides year-round habitat for Flannelmouth Sucker and Bluehead Sucker.  Roundtail Chub were formerly common in the Price River but they have not been detected in over 30 years.  In addition, the lower Price River seasonally provides habitat for the federally listed Colorado Pikeminnow, Razorback Sucker, Humpback Chub, and Bonytail Chub.  Approximately 70% of the flow in the lower Price River is diverted for agricultural purposes.  Reduced flows in the river have impacted the native fish species.  Increased flows would improve habitat quality in the Price River system which would assist in the recovery of federally listed or state SGCN species that live in the Price River.

The Olsen Reservoir project is one project that has been identified that can help improve flows in the lower Price River.  The intent of the project is to deliver additional water to the reservoir through infrastructure improvements that reduce evaporative loss from the canal that flows into the reservoir.  Additional water conservation will occur through improved water conveyance from the reservoir to downstream users.  Finally, the reservoir would be expanded to store the water captured during these water conservation efforts.  The goal of these actions is to generate enough water savings to provide an additional 5 cfs of flow through the lower Price River, below Woodside.   This increased flow can be significant during drought years when flows in the Price River are often 15-35 cfs.

The Olsen Reservoir project is a large project with completion costs expected to exceed $1 million.  The United States Bureau of Reclamation currently has a funding opportunity through the Environmental, Ecosystem, and Habitat Restoration Grant.  The Olsen Reservoir project should be competitive for this funding and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources along with partner organizations would like to apply for this funding.  The intent is to have Jones and DeMille Engineering fill out the funding proposal.  We are proposing this because Jones and DeMille has already completed the engineering designs for the project and has the technical expertise required to complete the engineering portions of the proposal.

We are requesting $8,000 in ESMF dollars to pay Jones and DeMille for the completion of the   Grant proposal.  The awarded, the Grant would fully fund the Olsen Reservoir project.

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.

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.