Pinyon and juniper tree encroachment is reducing the quantity and quality of wildlife habitats within this project area and increasing the risk of catastrophic fire. This area provides important winter range for mule deer and elk. We will be removing the threat to valuable understory vegetation from encroaching PJ and fire through masticating trees within the project area with a bullhog. This will improve the existing habitat and help to increase deer and elk herds as well as benefit many other species that depend on the understory vegetation for survival.

Objective 1- Remove the immediate threat of encroaching PJ to understory vegetation. Objective 2- Reduce the threat of a catostrophic fire damaging natural resources, property, and life. Objective 3- Increase available forage for mule deer and elk.

Every year that goes without treating this area allows for greater loss of understory plants from encroaching PJ trees, large intense fires, and the subsequent invasion of invasive weed species. This will increase the cost of future treatment and reduce the effectiveness by requiring a larger amount of seed to be applied to the project to restore the lost seed source. The continued loss of 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. The project may result in a temporary loss of thermal cover for mule deer and elk; however, we will do our best to strike a balance of leaving pockets of trees for cover and movement corridors, but still remove enough trees to reach project objectives. Another threat is the potential for invasive herbaceous species to establish in areas where trees are removed. To address this threat we will monitor the site and if necessary in the future apply herbicide to kill these plants. 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 PJ 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.

Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan Habitat Objective1: Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2019. Deer Herd 16C Management Plan Objective 1- Maintain a healthy mule deer population within the long term carrying capacity of the available habitat,based on winter range trend studies conducted by the DWR every five years. This project will help to increase the carrying capacity and maintain the health of the mule deer herd. Objective 2- -- Manage for a target population of 60,600 wintering deer (modeled number) during the five-year planning period unless range conditions become unsuitable, as evaluated by DWR. This project will help to increase the available winter forage so that populations can increase towards this 60,600 deer population goal. Habitat Management objective 1. Protect, maintain, and/or improve deer habitat through direct range improvements to support and maintain herd population management objectives. 2. Work with federal, private, and state partners to improve crucial deer habitats through the WRI process. 3. Maintain and protect critical winter range from future losses. 4. 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 pinion-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. 5. Reduce expansion of pinion-juniper and other woodlands into sagebrush habitats and improve habitats dominated by pinion-juniper woodlands by completing habitat restoration projects like lop & scatter, bullhog, and chaining. Statewide Elk Managment 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.

This project will help to prevent the establishment of a monoculture of annual grasses and weeds that are more prone to fire and will change the fire frequency. This will also help to reduce the risk of future fires by having vegetation that holds more moisture later into the summer. Dense stands of PJ can also be a concern for greater fire severity. 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 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. 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 chainsaw crews that will be used in this project.

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 in the system and allow for it to soak into the soil and enter under ground water storage. 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 stabalize the soil and decrease the speed of 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. Cut trees will also be placed in washes to slow the flow of water and promote pooling and reduce them eroding as quicklyl. 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, but does not increase stream flow. 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. By removing PJ on this project we will be preventing the increased loss of water from occurring. This project is very large and has the potential to make a large impact on the watershed;1.12 miles of streams are within the planned project area polygons.

All the necessary archaeological clearances will be conducted to ensure that no cultural resources are damaged by the soil disturbance.

The bullhog will masticate the trees as close to the ground as possible with no more than ten inch stumps on the downhill side. Archeological clearances will be conducted spring of 2017. Seed will be aerially dropped on project areas before the bullhog begins to work. The bullhog will help incorporate the seed into the ground from its tires or tracks.

Monitoring will be conducted to accurately report the success and completion of the objectives for the project. Before and after photos will be taken of the project area.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is partnering with FFSL to conduct this project. FFSL has applied for CATFIRE funding for this project as well and may be able to help with costs. These projects will be conducted on private land and will be a partnership with these landowners and grazing lessees.

Areas that are treated will be rested from grazing during the growing seasons for at least two years post project.

Domestic livestock will greatly benefit from this project. There will be much more available forage . This will greatly benefit the grazer. It will also potentially increase the amount of water available for livestock.

11/01/2017

06/30/2018

2018

We aerially seeded this project in November of 2017. The bullhog contract was awarded shortly after, but the contractor failed to begin work until the end of May 2018. Work was completed by the end of June 2018.

Pinyon and juniper tree encroachment is reducing the quantity and quality of wildlife habitats within this project area and increasing the risk of catastrophic fire. This area provides important winter range for mule deer and elk. We removed the threat to valuable understory vegetation from encroaching PJ and fire through masticating trees within the project area with a bullhog. This will improve the existing habitat and help to increase deer and elk herds as well as benefit many other species that depend on the understory vegetation for survival.

Areas that are treated will be rested from grazing during the growing seasons for at least two years post project.