The Beaver North Creek WMA was historically dominated sagebrush-steppe ecosystem which is being encroached on by pinyon and juniper trees, thus decreasing the quality and quantity of available mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk, Rio Grande wild turkey, and other sagebrush obligate species habitat. In addition the South Creek and B-Hill WMA's consist of decadent sagebrush stands with increasing cheatgrass invasion that offer less desirable habitat for sage-steppe species. More favorable perennial grasses, forbs, and new shrubs are largely void from the area in its present state. Lop and scatter of pinyon and juniper on the North Creek WMA will further improve understory development of grass, forbs, and young shrubs. Broadcast seeding and chain harrow treatment of acres on the South Creek and B-Hill WMA's will increase desirable species. In addition, fencing of the South Creek WMA will protect habitat restoration efforts and allow for proper future grazing management. The habitat transition will greatly benefit mule deer, elk, wild turkey, and sagebrush obligate species in the area as well as improving watershed range conditions.

Overall goal of improving critical mule deer and elk winter range on Beaver WMA's by fencing and mechanical methods. 1.) Fence the South Creek WMA to assist in grazing administration and protect habitat restoration efforts. 2.) Restore approximately 381 acres of even age class decedent sagebrush and cheat grass dominated areas by reducing the shrub canopy cover to ~25% while increasing plant vigor and creating multiple age classes present on the site, as well as increasing the grass canopy cover to 20-30% and increasing the forb canopy cover to 5-10%, by utilizing methods of seed broadcast and chain harrow. Plateau herbicide application likely to follow in future phases, to treat the threat of cheatgrass invasion and dominance. 3.) Remove approximately 300 acres of encroaching pinyon and juniper encroachment on the Beaver North Creek WMA by reducing pinyon and juniper canopy cover to 0% within the treatment polygons by utilizing handthin lop and scatter methods.

The understory on the South Creek WMA is in poor condition due to years over over utilization. Sage are decadent even age class stands with cheatgrass further establishing in the understory. Although somewhat better conditions exist on the B-Hill unit; stands are still even age class with a limited understory of grasses or forbs. Diversity is low. Failing to restore these ares will further decrease the diversity and value to wintering mule deer, elk, small mammals, and avian species. Likelihood of catastrophic wildfire also increases as areas convert to cheatgrass and sage stands deteriorate . Pinyon and juniper invasion on Beaver North Creek WMA could out compete desirable shrub, grass, and forb species. Failure to treat will decrease the overall diversity and health of these ecosystems. With this treatment it is stated that there will be an overall benefit to Sagebrush obligate species. Although in the end this is expected to be the case, there will also be a temporary negative effect during the window that the sagebrush will take to bounce back from the treatment. The conditions that exist currently threaten total loss of sagebrush due to decadence if something isn't done to help recruit younger age class and reset the growth curve in this area. There is a risk in the sagebrush not responding as quickly or as expected that you could have a negative effect here, but is not really very likely to be the case based on what we saw in similar projects adjacent to this area. It is also noteworthy that we will be opening up more sagebrush with this project on the North Creek WMA with the lop and scatter that is planned and this will directly and immediately benefit these sagebrush obligate species while the other treated areas are in recovery. Cheatgrass invasion is of some concern post treatment. Proper timing and methodology will decrease that likelihood. As previously stated, future Plateau herbicide treatments are anticipated as part of this project. A similar project was done in 2010-2011 on the Beaver North Creek WMA with very good results.

As identified in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan, there are 8 key habitats. This project will directly benefit two of the habitats listed Mountain Sagebrush and Mountain Shrub habitats and will also benefit the species that use these habitats. This project will contribute to the overall improvement of a minimum of 15,000 acres of elk range as outlined in the Beaver Elk Unit Management Plan. The project will facilitate improve the Beaver elk herd winter range. The management goal of The Beaver Deer Unit #22 Management Plan is to manage for a population of healthy animals capable of providing a broad range of recreational opportunities, including hunting and viewing. The WMA's are listed as critical winter range for mule deer. This project will improve habitat conditions for wintering mule deer. Conducting mechanical and natural treatments to improve big game and turkey habitat is listed as a objective in The Beaver WMA Management Plan. This project will meet that objective. This project also falls in line with the statewide Management Plan for Mule Deer (2014). Specifically dealing with part of their habitat needs this plan calls for the removal of Pinyon and Juniper encroachment and asks for the development of grass/forb/brush rich plant communities to help with their life cycle needs. This project is also in line with the Utah Statewide Management Plan for Elk (2015). In this plan it specifically mentions the needs for creating healthy watersheds and projects have included pinyon-juniper removal, controlled burns, reseeding efforts after wildfires, conifer thinning, etc., which have allowed for increased perennial grasses, forbs, and shrubs to be established for the benefit of elk. This project is allowing our WMA's to come up to the standards set forth in the Fundamentals of Rangeland Health (43 CFR 4180) and Utah's Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health which address watersheds, ecological condition, water quality and habitat for special status species. This is directly tied to this project in that it lies in the drainage basin of the beaver river, which is a 303D State Listed Water body for TMDL and Phosphorous loading into this system, and this project will help eliminate erosion leading to this rivers TMDL listing. This project also ties in well with the National Fire Plan (2000). In this plan they state that one of their main objectives is Reducing hazardous fuels (dry brush and trees that have accumulated and increase the likelihood of unusually large fires) in the country's forests and rangelands By tying in with the other project work that has been done in the area this project also ties in well with the Health Forest Restoration Act of 2003 which states protecting forests, woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands from unnaturally intensive and destructive fires is one of its objectives. This project connects a long line of projects that would prove to be effective fuel breaks in the event of a major wildfire event. This project will prove helpful in the Utah Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water QualityTMDL Section(Beaver River Watershed TMDL Management Plan) By reducing the amount of bare ground within this drainage we will in effect reduce the amount of sediment loading in this watershed.

Removal of pinyon and Juniper trees will reduce the chances of a catastrophic wildfire. Also key to this project would be the suppression of growth and spread of cheatgrass post treatment. Cheatgrass is known for its frequent fire cycles, and by slowing the spread of this invasive grass you also lessen the chance of a fire happening in this area. This project would reduce the risk of a wildfire. This project is an FRCC class 2 currently and by treating with the prescribed methods we are hoping that it will move towards a FRCC class 1. This project is also going to protect several values at risk in the area including but not limited to the WUI interfaces between the North Creek WMA and the small community that rests below it on the hill as well as the WUI interface with the B-Hill unit and the town of Beaver. Another Value at risk in this particular area is the transmission lines and infrastructure that runs around and through these WMA's.

Completion of this project would reduce flooding and runoff from heavy rainstorms by depositing woody debris in the gullies to slow and hold back the water. Currently with the pinyon and Juniper on site there is a lot of bare ground available for erosion. By planting this treatment with a varied seed mix of grasses, forbs and shrubs the ground cover will be greatly increased, which will decrease the erosion. (Long Live Ryan Shakespear)

1 Archaeologist, No survey required for previously disturbed ground., Feb 3 2015 / 2 PMArchaeology, If required; Archaeology will be done in-house, Jan 2 2015 / 6 NEPA, N/A, Jan 2 2015

Contractual Services to survey and construct a new fence of the South Creek WMA. CAT rental, seed broadcaster and chain harrow utilized to treat approximately 381 acres of the B-Hill and South Creek WMA's. Treatment will be done in a mosaic pattern to retain sage stands in good condition and create desirable edge habitat. Chained areas will be 2 way Ely chained. Contractual lop and scatter of approximately 300 acres of the Beaver North Creek WMA to eliminate encroaching pinyon and juniper. Project design and admin will be completed by UDWR habitat biologist. Chaining will be completed by UDWR seasonal employee and habitat staff.

DWR range trend sites are directly adjacent to these project area's and additional sites based on availability may be requested. Photo points will be established, and the division of wildlife photo point/line intercept monitoring protocol will be followed in accordance with the Beaver WMA Management plan. District wildlife biologist and habitat biologists will routinely monitor seed establishment and wildlife utilization during annual deer and elk classification/Spring Range Assessments. There is currently a permanent site for this monitoring established on the North Creek WMA, and a site will be established on the South Creek WMA to evaluate utilization and Range Assessments. We will use the NRCS UT 2 Rangeland Health indicators to determine overall rangeland health and help us to determine utilization.

UDWR is currently working with the Fishlake National Forest on lands to the east where some prescribed fire is proposed for implementation. On a recent tour with representatives from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife group, as well as members of the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative they said they are in support of our previous treatment in the area which is similar to this proposed project. Forestry Fire and State Lands in conjunction with private landowners, BLM, and USFS have all been doing work in this area and it has been a collective effort to plan and implement these projects to do the most good for the watershed. There have been many different projects implemented in this area over the past few years and this project although not as large in scale as some will serve to in essence connect the dots and apply many of the things that we have learned in the other project to the landscape to create a healthy rangeland.

The South Creek WMA will be fenced as part of this project allowing the DWR to administer grazing as a tool in the future. Currently the grazing that is taking place on the South Creek WMA is unregulated trespass grazing. Grazing will be withheld for a minimum of two growing seasons on South Creek and B-hill WMA's. Future plateau herbicide treatments are anticipated as part of this project based on the response of the North Creek WMA to a similar treatment. Grazing will be evaluated annually and may be used as a tool to reach habitat objectives for the WMA's in the future, and will be reviewed on a case by case basis with preference for the forage to be available for wildlife. The Beaver north Creek WMA is not currently grazed. Wintering mule deer and elk utilization is high on these WMA's. It is also worth noting that the Beaver WMA management plans will be revised in 2017-2018 and this plan will address some of the future management goals for the newly acquired portion of the South Creek WMA and will line out how it will be managed into the future.

This area is currently open range with no fences and since it is a fence out county there has been trespass livestock grazing the southern portion of this area. Once the work has been done in these area it is expected that the area will be used mostly to benefit wildlife since that is the purpose of our WMA's. Although this area is not planned to be part of a regular grazed pasture by livestock all of our WMA properties are reserved for use as a potential grass bank if needed.

07/10/2017

06/28/2018

2018

This project didn't exactly go as planned. We ran into some major issues with the treatments that we planned due to archaeology being present in volume on the landscape. We wanted to chain harrow and that treatment type along with other types of treatments that require a heavy hand on this landscape is not allowable due to the archaeology. Therefore in an attempt to spare funding for a possible building of a fence that we decided was top priority we were only able to complete a portion of the lop and scatter portion of the project through a dedicated hunter project. Then due to funding constraints once we bid out the fence construction, we weren't able to build the fence but we were able to complete a survey of the property and legally have this survey listed with the county in preparation for the future where we would like to build the fence on the South Creek WMA.

We started this project by issuing a lop and scatter project in the fall of 2017 through the dedicated hunter program. We then assessed what else could be completed with the remaining funds. By this time we had the report back from the archaeology surveys and we realized that there was too much avoidance areas within this area to even attempt a chain harrow on the land. Next we thought that we could build the fence with the money that we were going to use to complete the chain harrow and seeding. We put out a contract and it came in over what we had left in our budget. We then decided to contract and have the Land Survey completed with the remaining funds. This was completed and we didn't have remaining funds enough to do any of the other desired tasks. We will re-apply for funding to finish the fence during the next fiscal cycle. We will also take a closer look at the areas that we were going to chain harrow in and see if we might be able to clear some of the trees from these areas in an attempt to help grow as much feed for wildlife as possible. (Note that on the map the affected area is the area that was cleared for archaeology, as well as surveyed and staked out for a fence in the future.)

We will continue to manage these WMA areas for the benefit of wildlife. We also have annual utilization monitoring that is done by the DWR habitat and wildlife biologists to determine if we are over-utilizing these habitats and if so what we need to do to allow for healthy winter ranges. If we see issues then we will use them as triggers to try and do more to improve these areas. We also plan to put together a future lop and scatter project proposal as well as a part of the proposal will be to completely fence off the South Creek WMA to preserve the resources in this area for the use and benefit of wildlife.