Area was sprayed in October 2017 with Plateau Herbicide from C-130 Aircraft. The area has been burned repeatedly due to Air Force training and testing exercises. Areas where the fires originate have been addressed with additional mechanical scrapes, green strips, and spraying. The need is to restore this area and areas adjacent to it for wildlife habitat as all shrubs have been lost and cheatgrass had become a dominant species on the landscape. Now that the area has been controlled from cheatgrass, we need to seed the area with species that can compete with cheatgrass and provide shelter and forage for wildlife.

Restore ecological function back to this area with emphasis to establish a diverse mix of plants included woody shrubs.

Future fire, drought after seeding, and wind erosion...seed either covered too much (soil drifting into furrows) or seed blowing away.

Rangeland Restoration and ecosystem function are covered in the Base Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan (2017 Update). EA - Vegetation Management (2016).

Area has been burned frequently and measures have been put in place to reduce and almost eliminate the fire potential for the fire source origination points. These include mechanical scrapes, green strips, and spraying with imazapic herbicide for cheatgrass control. The proposed treatment area was sprayed in October of 2017 and results were fantastic as cheatgrass was effectively controlled and fuels are not present due to the wildfire in 2017 as well.

Since the area was sprayed instead of the usual disking that we have done in the past, biological soil crusts are still intact and will lead to infiltration of water as it rains and snows. As we drill, the furrows should collect water as well. Sheet flow of water should not be a problem.

Cultural Surveys have been completed by Air Force contractors and NEPA was completed in 2016 with the EA titled "Vegetation Management".

Aerial Spray - Plateau (Imazapic) herbicide (2017) Use a spike harrow to create a 50 foot buffer adjacent to the County Road fence (west side of project). Broadcast with Kochia, Crested Wheatgrass, and Four-wing Saltbush. Drill the rest of the project area with a good diverse mix and broadcast on top of the drilling at least half of the project area. Roll at least half of that as well to compare rolled vs. unrolled success on the broadcast.

Photo points have been established pre spray and post spray and will continue to be used as the project develops. We also have 10 "Range Trend Plots that have either been previously established or were established this summer (2017) to help with monitoring.

BYU is a Cooperator and will be assisting with this project. The 910th Aerial Spray Squadron is also a partner as they spray these large tracts of land with Plateau.

Watch the habitat develop and supplement with shrubs from our greenhouse. Spot spraying may also be necessary.

None at this time as the UTTR is not grazed by livestock as a safety and security measure.

10/28/2019

12/13/2019

2020

The project has several aspects including aerial spray of Plateau Herbicide (imazapic), prescribed fire, wildfire burn, spike tooth harrow, broadcast seeding and rolling, and drilling. Different methods were tested in different locations to see if any method(s) will be more successful than others. Burned areas were spike tooth harrowed, some areas were broadcast using ATV Herd seeders, rolled, and drilled with a conventional P&F drill while some was drilled only with a Truax OTG drill where the drill and broadcast seed were both drilled from different seed boxes. The drill has press wheels on one half and imprinters on the other half.

This project evolved over a few years and included aerial spraying. The actual project area changed due to not being able to acquire seed in 2018. When we were able to acquire seed in 2019, we had a wildfire that changed our plans as far as priority and the ability to seed in the proposed location. We also were snowed out after we did the fire re-seeding project.

The UTTR has no grazing. The areas have been protected with the addition of greenstrips incorporated into the project but listed as an additional project (HAG/GAT Greenstrips). Projects will be monitored often.