The Fountain Green Wildlife Management Area was purchased to provide high quality winter range for big game animals. On this WMA, cheatgrass competes with sagebrush and other perennials lowering the quality of the winter range. This also greatly increases the threat of fire. A fire on this site would likely cause this site to cross an ecological threshold, which would make it difficult to restore to sagebrush. The Fountain Green WMA has one of the few intact sagebrush stands on the south end of the Nebo Wildlife Management Unit. This area has been impacted by multiple large wildfires, including the Salt Creek Fire in 2007 and the Wood Hollow Fire in 2012. Both of these fires burned large portions of important big game winter range. In 2007 WRI project #288 was initiated to address threats to this area. Sagebrush was in poor condition with little recruitment of young plants due to competition with cheatgrass and drought conditions. The project used Imazipic to control cheatgrass for a couple of years. This cheatgrass reduction resulted in increased sagebrush vigor and seed production. A cohort of younger plants has been observed from this interruption of cheatgrass dominance. However, the control of cheatgrass by Imazipic was only 2-3 years and the understory is dominated by cheatgrass, which makes it more vulnerable to another wildfire. A new herbicide (Rejuvra) is now available that has longer lasting control. Rejuvra can control cheatgrass germination for over four years. This has been shown to be long enough to deplete the seed bank of all cheatgrass seeds, which results in longer control where perennials can gain greater dominance. Shrublands that provide food and cover for rabbits in turn provide food for Golden Eagles. An understory of native grasses and forbs is preferable to cheatgrass. The loss of the sagebrush in a fire that leads to a cheatgrass monoculture is detremenmtaal to golden eagles. The regional biologist notes there are recent records of GOEA nesting territories on the NE end of the Sanpitch.

The primary objective of the project is to remove cheatgrass competition from the sagebrush community on the Fountain Green WMA and thereby improve the vigor and health of the community as demonstrated by an increase in cover and frequency. This associated anticipated improvement of the vigor and health of the vegetative community by extension will increase the value of the land for wintering big game better accomplishing the purpose of the land ownership. Removing this fine fuel will also reduce the likelihood of a catastrophic wildfire that would destroy the sagebrush that is so critical on this winter range. One secondary objective is to evaluate the potential future use of Rejuvra. We will accomplish this by doing some comparison plots with Imazipic and monitor the differences overtime along with some other locations in the state. Another secondary objective is to use the project area as a demonstration property where others can come and see the results of the use of this new product for better or worse.

Cheatgrass threatens to and already has decreased the vigor of sagebrush, while reducing its ability to recruit new plants. The native understory is a risk of being out competed as well. A major risk the increased possibility of wildfire that would wipe out one the few remaining sagebrush stands in this area. At this point, controlling cheatgrass while an intact native community (sagebrush and a few native grasses) would be much more cost effective than doing fire rehabilitation that has increased costs and lower chances of establishing an effective winter range community for deer and elk.

The Central Mountain s Deer Management Plan calls for projects to "protect, maintain, and/or improve deer habitat". This project should help protect and maintain this sagebrush winter range by removing the competition of cheatgrass and reduce the potential of wildfire. Cheatgrass is listed as a major threat to winter range in the plan. A range trend site on the WMA is listed in poor condition due to the amount of cheatgrass. The Sanpete County Resource Management Plan recognizes cheatgrass as one of the most widespread and dominant invasive plants in the Intermountain West. It reduces forage values, wildlife habitat, and increases fire risk.

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. The FFSL wildfire risk assessment shows this area to have extreme fire risk. By completing this project we hope to reduce that risk level by removing the fine fuel layers of annual grasses.

This project will provide more soil moisture for perennial and seeded grasses and forbs by controlling cheatgrass. In addition to reducing cheatgrass cover and creating vegetative diversity, this project will create structural diversity on this landscape. Sagebrush plants are good at catching drifting snow and holding that snow longer into the spring. This could result in more available moisture for other plants. Cheatgrass, as a winter annual, gains a competitive advantage over native and rangeland species that may not grow very much through the fall and winter and do not begin growth as early in the spring. Soil water depletion is one of the primary mechanisms by which cheatgrass competes with vegetation. Water quality will be improved slightly by reducing overland erosion and sediment movement from Wood Hollow down onto the agricultural lands below the WMA.

Treatment will be occurring exclusively on state owned lands. There is also no ground disturbing activities planned. As such there is no NEPA or Archeology component required prior to implementation. Rejuvra, which initially was marketed as Esplanade, was rebranded as Rejuvra due to a label change allowing for use in grazed areas making it available for a more broad use.

Rejuvra (5oz/ac) will be aerially sprayed on approximately 120 acres, while Plateau (6oz/ac) will be sprayed on about 30 acres in an experimentally designed random fashion. Plots will also be left unsprayed as a control for comparison. Future combination comparisons may also be done, for example portions of a Plateau treatment may be sprayed in 2 years with Rejuvra. This would be done to examine if inititally using Plateau would allow for recruitement of native plants from seed would increase with follow up of Rejuvra to control cheatgrass long term. Similar monitoring and studies will be done on the Beaver WMA in southern Utah and possibly other locations.

Range trend study 16A-23 has monitored this bench since 2007. GBRC and Snow College will monitor the experimental units of this project for comparisons 1, 2, and 5 years following treatment. Photographs would be taken at each site. Data would be collected using the point intercept method. Leader growth and other vigor measurements of sagebrush will also be done.

One objective and purpose of this project is to create a demonstration of the usefulness of Rejuvra and in what situations it can be beneficial. This demonstration will be replicated at other sites with varying degrees of intact native vegetation. We anticipate hosting tours to show the utility of these tools. Snow College is partnering to help with monitoring.

As mentioned above this project is a first attempt to use Rejuvra on a larger scale than test plots. Even so there will be efforts to also carefully monitor the results and use the information gained to inform future decisions. This project is a follow up on a past project to find a longer term solution to cheatgrass invasion. In the future we plan on adding follow up treatments to determine which combinations of herbicide tools can be most effective in long term control while maximizing residual native vegetation.

It is anticipated that the project will improve the vigor and production of the perennial vegetation which is important on these properties as they provide valuable winter range for mule deer and elk. This property has also been utilized for grazing, primarily by sheep. Wildlife watching is also a use for this property as deer occupy it in the winter and bald eagles are often seen nearby.

09/02/2021

09/02/2021

2022

Herbicide was applied by helicopter on September 2, 2021 between 7 and 10 am. Rejuvra and plateau (6 oz/acre in 7 gallons of water/acre + 1 quart MSO surfactant per 100 gallons) comparison strips were applied with control strips of no treatment left for comparison. Rejuvra (5 oz/acre in 7 gallons of water per acre) was applied on the rest of the project area. The GBRC weather station is located at the farm nearby. Air temperature was 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity was between 75-96%. Winds were very calm (speeds were not functioning on the weather station).

This project will demonstrate and compare the Rejuvra and Plateau herbicides. Although the goal was to apply herbicide before cheatgrass germination, late summer rains have germinated a significant amount cheatgrass. This will delay the effect of Rejuvra as it is only a pre-emergent. This area will be a demonstration of different cheatgrass control methods and will be monitored

The project will be monitored for future need of re-treatment.