Rabbit Gulch Winter Range Improvement Phase I
Project ID: 4447
Status: Completed
Fiscal Year: 2019
Submitted By: 77
Project Manager: Miles Hanberg
PM Agency: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
PM Office: Northeastern Region
Lead: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
WRI Region: Northeastern
Description:
Apply Plateau herbicide to 224 acres of crucial deer and elk winter range. The polygons are dominated by cheatgrass. Phase I of the project will be to apply herbicide to control cheatgrass. Subsequent treatments will be completed in future phases where browse and grass species will be seeded to improve winter range forage and restore functionality of the site.
Location:
The project polygons are located on the Rabbit Gulch Wildlife Management Area in Duchesne County, Utah. The site is approximately 8.5 miles northwest of Duchesne, Utah
Project Need
Need For Project:
The Rabbit Gulch Wildlife Management Area was acquired by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources as crucial winter range for both mule deer and elk. The WMA is crucial for wintering big game on heavier snow years. The area is the last stop for big game before they enter agricultural lands near Duchesne. Unfortunately, drought and invasive species have begun to impact the Rabbit Gulch WMA. The sagebrush areas have experienced declines and die-offs. In addition, cheatgrass has invaded and is impacting the WMA. Unfortunately, the polygons identified for treatment in this effort have reached an ecological threshhold where intervention is required to restore desirable vegetative conditions on the site. Due to reduced habitat quantity and quality, UDWR has been forced to complete some emergency feeding in the vicinity of the treatment on heavy snow years. This project is intended to enhance forage quality and quantity and limit future conflicts with elk in agricultural areas.
Objectives:
1. Reduce cheatgrass cover 2. Establish or enhance desirable grass and browse cover 3. Improve winter habitat for mule deer 4. Improve winter habitat for elk 5. Reduce potential for wildlife depredation on agricultural lands during winter
Project Location/Timing Justification (Why Here? Why Now?):
There is a chance that the project will not be successful. In this case, the site will return to cheatgrass dominance. If left untreated, the area will continue to be dominated by cheatgrass and will become and increased fire hazard. Habitat value will remain diminished and wintering big game animals will be impacted by having less available resources. Specific risks in Utah's Wildlife Action Plan to be addressed are: Invasive Plant Species--Cheatgrass is the invasive plant species present in this project area and is a threat to mule deer, elk, and golden eagles. Cheatgrass is also a threat to the lowland sagebrush type. Cheatgrass out competes more desirable and nutritious plant species that are needed for forage by wildlife. Inappropriate Fire Fequency and Intensity. Cheatgrass is notorious for burning frequently with high intensity. This creates a fire cycle that limits the recovery of desirable plant species. The threat of cheatgrass is that the site may reach an ecological dead end where nothing else can persist due to the frequent burn cycle and dominance of cheatgrass. This project aims to reduce cheatgrass and address these threats and risks by maintaining an appropriate vegetative community and fire cycle for the lowland sagebrush type and the species who depend on it.
Relation To Management Plan:
Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan - c. Work with local, state and federal land management agencies via land management plans and with private landowners to identify and properly manage crucial mule deer habitats, especially fawning, wintering and migration areas. - d. Initiate broad scale vegetative treatment projects to improve mule deer habitat with emphasis on drought or fire damaged sagebrush winter ranges, ranges that have been taken over by invasive annual grass species, and ranges being diminished by encroachment of conifers into sagebrush or aspen habitats, ensuring that seed mixes contain sufficient forbs and browse species. Wasatch Mountains Deer Unit Management Plan -Cooperate with federal land management agencies and private landowners in carrying out habitat improvement projects. 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. Statewide Elk Management Plan -a) Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk habitat. Wasatch Mountains Elk Unit Management Plan - Within the next five years, enhance forage production on a minimum of 20,000 acres of elk habitat, through direct range improvements to maintain population management objectives. Utah Wildlife Action Plan - Project addresses a key habitat type (lowland sagebrush) and addresses a threat and risk to that vegetation type (invasive plant species and inappropriate fire intervals). Duchesne River Watershed Restoration Plan. - The project will help reduce TDS loading into the watershed. TDS has been identified as an issue for the Duchesne River Watershed.
Fire / Fuels:
The project area is identified as a moderate fire risk area according to the Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal. Cheatgrass is highly flammable. Nearby oil and gas infrastructure and residences could be threatened by a fire in this area. This project would reduce cheatgrass and restore other less flammable vegetation and fuels.
Water Quality/Quantity:
Rabbit Gulch is a tributary to Starvation Reservoir. This project will better stabilize soils by establishing perennial vegetation and will limit the amount of sediment entering Starvation Reservoir in the future. Prevention of the cheatgrass fire cycle will limit the amount of fires exposing the site to erosion following fires. The project may not have a large impact on the quantity of water on the landscape, but it will help protect the quality. The Duchesne River drainage has TMDL's established for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). While the project drains into Starvation rather than the Duchesne River itself, limiting TDS is beneficial to the reservoir and water uses.
Compliance:
Cultural resource surveys will be needed for this project since subsequent phases of the project will require ground disturbance. NEPA will not be required for the project since it is located on State lands.
Methods:
The project will be completed in two phases. The current Phase I proposal will cover cultural resources surveys and Plateau herbicide application. These project activities will be completed in the fall of 2018. Cultural resource surveys may continue into spring of 2018. UDWR will use a private contracting firm to complete the surveys and will consult with the SHPO on the findings. Concurrently, UDWR will contract with a private aerial herbicide contractor to apply Plateau herbicide at a rate of 5 oz/acre. Plateau herbicide will be applied before September 15th before fall germination of cheatgrass seed. Phase II of the project will be completed in the fall of 2019, when the project polygons will be drill seeded using a seed mix of primarily grass and browse species to improve winter forage for wildlife. The drill seeder will plant grasses and large browse seed into the soil, while concurrently broadcasting small browse seed such as sagebrush onto the soil surface.
Monitoring:
A permanent range trend monitoring study will be established in the project area by the UDWR crew to evaluate the use of Plateau and seeding a year later. This project is one of the first projects in the State where this approach is being used. Other range trend studies are located in close proximity to the project area and will also help gauge vegetation status and will help serve as a control. Wildlife will be monitored by routine classification surveys in the fall and spring. In addition, GPS collared elk will be monitored to determine their use of the project polygons.
Partners:
The project involves a small portion of land owned by Little Red Creek Cattle Company. They do not run cattle on this property but are willing to have project activities completed on the small segment of their private property. UDWR permits Weston Moon to run cattle on the WMA in the spring. Avoidance of the treatment areas will be closely coordinated and made possible through herdsmanship and water distribution.
Future Management:
The vegetation community will be managed in the future by completing maintenance activities to prevent cheatgrass from dominating the site. In addition, prescriptive grazing will be utilized to help promote browse for wintering big game animals.
Sustainable Uses of Natural Resources:
UDWR permits spring grazing on the Rabbit Gulch WMA. The spring grazing is intended to impact grasses and promote browse growth. UDWR permits 225 AUM's from May 1 to June 15. Plant community change from annual grass to perennial grass will increase forage quality and quantity for domestic livestock.
Budget WRI/DWR Other Budget Total In-Kind Grand Total
$11,200.00 $0.00 $11,200.00 $0.00 $11,200.00
Item Description WRI Other In-Kind Year
Archaeological Clearance Cultural resources clearances $5,600.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Contractual Services Plateau herbicide (chemical and application) $5,600.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Funding WRI/DWR Other Funding Total In-Kind Grand Total
$12,084.80 $0.00 $12,084.80 $0.00 $12,084.80
Source Phase Description Amount Other In-Kind Year
Mule Deer Foundation (MDF) NS6523 $3,100.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) NS6525 $2,000.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Habitat Council Account HCRF $884.80 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Safari Club International NS6526 $2,000.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Sportsman for Fish & Wildlife (SFW) NS6527 $3,100.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Utah Archery Association NS6552 $1,000.00 $0.00 $0.00 2019
Species
Species "N" Rank HIG/F Rank
Elk R2
Threat Impact
Invasive Plant Species – Non-native Low
Golden Eagle N5
Threat Impact
Inappropriate Fire Frequency and Intensity Medium
Golden Eagle N5
Threat Impact
Invasive Plant Species – Non-native Medium
Mule Deer R1
Threat Impact
Invasive Plant Species – Non-native High
Habitats
Habitat
Lowland Sagebrush
Threat Impact
Inappropriate Fire Frequency and Intensity Very High
Lowland Sagebrush
Threat Impact
Invasive Plant Species – Non-native Very High
Project Comments
Comment 02/01/2018 Type: 1 Commenter: Jimi Gragg
I'm glad to see you going for the year spacing between spraying and seeding, Miles. I know it's a case-by-case, multivariate-interactive thing depending on precip, temperature, soil texture, and probably some other stuff, but - have you seen much difference in 1) the amount of your seed that comes up and 2) the amount of effective weed suppression you get, in switching from same-year to next-year seeding after applying Plateau? Do your experiences match the research reports we got a few years ago in Richfield? Thanks, just curious. This subject has come up elsewhere this year, some folks are still seeding just a couple months after spraying.
Comment 02/05/2018 Type: 1 Commenter: Miles Hanberg
Jimi, to be honest, I do not have answers to these questions. In the fall 2017, the wildfires in the NER were treated with Plateau and will be seeded in the fall 2018. These will be the first large scale treatments completed here under this approach. We are basing the method of waiting a year post Plateau based on the field trials being completed by GBRC. With that being said, some of our old treatments where we applied Plateau and seeded the same fall had seeding success less than we had hoped. While I have no data to support my thought, I assume Plateau played a role in the diminished seeding success, especially on certain species.
Comment 02/06/2018 Type: 1 Commenter: Danny Summers
This is exciting to see this kind of adaptive management. We also have some new trials with some other herbicides that could be beneficial in these situations.
Comment 02/06/2018 Type: 1 Commenter: Jimi Gragg
Danny I'm really interested to see & hear about your indaziflam / Esplanade trials. What you get, and what you think about that. It sounds pretty scary, one could make a real mess (permanent if your soil blows away!), but OTOH it could be just the thing for a few very specific situations. I'm also curious about its penetration through a shrub canopy ("does it, actually?").
Completion
Start Date:
10/10/2018
End Date:
10/10/2018
FY Implemented:
2019
Final Methods:
Two activities were completed as a part of this project proposal. The first activity was the completion of the cultural resources surveys./ These surveys were completed by a contractor on all 224 acres in April 2019. A private aerial herbicide contractor applied Plateau herbicide at a rate of 5 oz/acre to the project area using fixed wing aircraft.
Project Narrative:
Cultural resource surveys proposed under this phase of the project, along with surveys that were fast tracked from the phase II proposal, were completed in April 2019 using a cultural resource contractor. Those surveys were sent to SHPO for consultation and we received concurrence. The Plateau herbicide was applied by Chuck Hammond of Hammond's Helicopter using his fixed wing aircraft. The Plateau was applied at a rate of 5 oz./acre on October 10, 2018. The herbicide was applied slightly later than planned, however the dry conditions prevented any cheatgrass germination before the herbicide was applied. The application and chemical cost $28.95/acre for a total of $6,484.80.
Future Management:
The 224 acres where Plateau was applied will be drill seeded in the fall of 2019 as part of the phase II project. Following drill seeding, the areas will be rested from spring cattle grazing for two growing seasons. After that time, prescriptive spring grazing with cattle will be used to help promote browse growth on the site. Phase II Plateau areas will be sprayed in the fall of 2019, with seeding occurring on those areas in the fall of 2020
Map Features
ID Feature Category Action Treatement/Type
6269 Terrestrial Treatment Area Herbicide application Aerial (fixed-wing)
6270 Terrestrial Treatment Area Herbicide application Aerial (fixed-wing)
Project Map
Project Map