The Stansbury Mountains have great needs for watershed restoration activities to be conducted. There have been multiple fires on the westside of the Stansbury's that have resulted in cheatgrass or non-native grass monocultures. This has caused the mule deer herds to suffer from loss of winter range. The UDWR recently reintroduced bighorn sheep to the mountain range and these animals frequent the project area and are in need of improved habitat as well. Also, many rabbit and other small mammal species that depend on a diversity of forbs and shrubs have also suffered. This loss of a prey base then impacts raptors such as golden eagles that nest in this area. In addition to the fires there is current plans to build a large solar farm that will remove much of the remaining shrub habitat and areas that have not been burned. Because of these threats and impacts the UDWR has been working with the BLM to begin a large-scale shrub and other native plant restoration project. This is a very important project that will greatly benefit the wildlife of this area. AS part of the project we also hope to build green strips of less flammable vegetation such as kochia, sunflower, alfalfa, blue flax, yarrow, and small burnet. This will help to disrupt the cycle of frequent fires and reduce their size to protect our re-establishment efforts. Water is very scarce out in this area and reducing the fire risk will reduce the amount of run off and erosion that can reduce water quality and quantity in this watershed. Also, by removing cheatgrass we will have more water available for a greater diversity of plants.

1. Increase the amount of shrubs to provide more food and shelter for wildlife. 2. Maintain a diversity of age classes of shrub plants to increase resilience of native shrub community. 3. Protect sagebrush and other shrubs shrub obligate species. 4. Improve health of watershed by restricting establishment of weed species. 5. Help reduce fire risk from allowing cheatgrass to establish. 6. Mitigate the loss of habitat from nearby solar farms

By not doing this project we risk losing more of the surviving shrubs from increased browsing pressure. By losing the entire shrub communities we will cross an ecological threshold that will result in large losses of mule deer populations and require many years and more money to restore. We also by not having younger shrubs we risk having just older shrubs that will eventually die off and will be more vulnerable to disease and drought. This project will help ensure that we have more food available now for big game and other species and have food available in the future. As the nearby solar farms are developed much of the shrub habitat will drastically and quickly be removed. This habitat is important for small mammals that rely on shrubs and that provide resources for resident and migrating birds of prey and other predators. The best time to do this sort of restoration would have been 5+years so ago that equivalent habitat was available when these developments are built

The Project complies with the following plans and initiatives: 5) Mule Deer Unit 18 Mgt Plan Objectives/Strategies: b) Condition of winter ranges is a long-term problem. c) Fire and encroachment by pinyon and juniper trees results in the loss of forage production, diversity and quality. d) Cooperate with federal land management agencies and private landowners in carrying out habitat improvement projects. e) The primary concern on the studies within the subunit is the abundance of weedy annual grass species (cheatgrass), particularly on the lower elevation sites. 6) Utah DWR Statewide Management Plan for Mule Deer Objectives/Strategies: a) Programs that provide incentives to private landowners to manage their properties for mule deer and other wildlife are critical to the success of the state's deer management program. b) Conserve, improve, and restore mule deer habitat throughout the state with emphasis on crucial ranges. c) Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts. d) 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. f) 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. g) Continue to support and provide leadership for the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative, which emphasizes improving sagebrush-steppe, aspen, and riparian habitats throughout Utah. This plan addresses improving and restoring Mule deer habitat, by working in cooperation with partners, mitigating invasive annual species, and improving sagebrush-steppe. https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggame/pdf/mule_deer_plan.pdf 8) Utah Wildlife Action Plan: a) Mountain Shrub (page 53) project addresses key threats (pg 55) to this habitat; * Continuing the use of appropriate methods for reducing the spread and dominance of invasive weeds and annual grasses, including "early detection -- rapid response" programs. * Continuing the development of new plant materials (especially native forbs) and restoration techniques suited to this habitat. b) We will also be improving the Aquatic Forested habitat types (pg57) Promoting policies that maintain or restore natural water and sediment flow regimes. * Promoting policies that reduce inappropriate grazing by domestic livestock and wildlife. *

By having younger shrubs and forbs that are not as decadent and dry as older dying shrubs it will reduce the risk and severity of fire. Hopefully it will serve as green strip areas where fires will slow or stop. By maintaining healthy stand of shrubs and native plants it will prevent annual grasses from establishing that can increase the fuel load and dryness of plants that increase fire risk. We will be planting forbs that will serve as strips of greener vegetation that will also help reduce fire spread.

By having a healthy diversity of age class shrubs it will prevent a mono-culture of old decadent plants which can die off and result in invasion of weedy plants such as cheatgrass. Cheatgrass will absorb all of the available water and decrease the plant diversity. By doing this project there will be more available water for native understory plants to increase diversity. This will also help prevent cheatgrass from establishing and creating an unnatural fire regime that will result in greater increases in erosion and sedimentation that will reduce water quality.

All cultural clearances have been completed. NEPA will be completed in spring of 2021.

We will use a dozer with a harrow on the back that makes a 2' wide scalp to remove grass competition. The bare soil will reduce competition from grasses and allow for naturally seeding to occur. We will also broadcast shrub and forb seed and use dribblers to augment the amount of seed and diversity of species. We will be planting two year old shrubs with vexar mesh protectors to help increase survival. These plants will be planted with volunteer help from sportsman and other groups as well as hired contractors and paid seasonals.

We will use photo points before and after project implementation to determine the success of these plantings.

BLM has been a huge partner on this. We have had several meetings with BLM wildlife biologists and plant/range specialists to plan this project and work through the NEPA. The NEPA will be completed in spring of 2021.

Mitigation funds received from the solar farm companies will be used in future years to expand upon the objectives that will be accomplished at the completion of this project.

Utility scale solar farms require large expanses in order to produce enough electricity to provide for cities, and so direct impacts and habitat loss are inevitable. Many see solar farms as a necessity to avoid other environmental impacts. This project will encourage responsible development of renewable energy sources by beginning to offset some of the impacts of the solar farms through improving habitat in areas that are unlikely to be developed in the future and where improper fire regimes and invasive species have diminished habitat quality. In it's current state, this area offers little value in grazing potential due to invasive species. This project will increase the diversity and quantity of the forage available making grazing a viable option in the future for the treatment area.

03/29/2023

11/29/2023

2024

We had several delays with getting the NEPA completed on the BLM lands, but we were eventually able to plant 500 seedlings and plant several acres of native shurb and forb seed in the spring of 2023. To remove grass competition, we used a dozer with a harrow on the back that makes a 2' wide scalp. This creates bare soil, which allows for natural seeding to occur. We broadcast shrub and forb seed by using dribblers to augment the amount of seed and diversity of species. We planted the shrubs with a contractor and DWR staff. We planted 500 D-40 plants that were only 3 months old in the spring of 2023. The project funding was carried over and we planted an additional 5,000 sagebrush seedlings in the fall of 2023.

The Stansbury Mountains have great needs for watershed restoration activities to be conducted. There have been multiple fires on the west side of the Stansbury's that have resulted in cheatgrass or non-native grass monocultures. This has caused the mule deer herds to suffer from loss of winter range. The UDWR recently reintroduced bighorn sheep to the mountain range and these animals frequent the project area and are in need of improved habitat as well. Also, many rabbits and other small mammal species that depend on a diversity of forbs and shrubs have also suffered. This loss of a prey base then impacts raptors such as golden eagles that nest in this area. In addition to the fires there is current plans to build a large solar farm that will remove much of the remaining shrub habitat and areas that have not been burned. Because of these threats and impacts, the UDWR joined with the BLM and completed a large-scale shrub and other native plant restoration project that greatly benefits the wildlife of this area. For this project, we built green strips of less flammable vegetation such as kochia, sunflower, alfalfa, blue flax, yarrow, and small burnet. This helps to disrupt the cycle of frequent fires and reduce their size to protect our re-establishment efforts. Water is very scarce in this area, and this helps reduce the fire risk and the amount of run off and erosion that can reduce water quality and quantity in this watershed. Also, by removing cheatgrass, we will have more water available for a greater diversity of plants.

Mitigation funds received from the solar farm companies will be used in future years to expand upon the objectives that will be accomplished at the completion of this project. We will continue to monitor survival of the different shrubs to see which container size and age class does the best.