We have been working towards replacing fence around the property to the north side of the county road dike at Clear Lake and would now like to replace the fences on the dike and begin to the south along the west side. These fences are very old and we spend a considerable amount of time maintaining them and dealing with livestock trespass every year.

Reduce both livestock trespass and the amount of time needed to complete fence maintenance each year.

Nesting and hiding cover may be compromised each year for waterfowl and pheasants due to excessive grazing when fence is breached due to its poor condition.

Wildlife Management Area plans call for securing and identifying boundaries. Management at Clear Lake WMA also greatly supports multiple goals and Objectives in the UDWR Strategic Plan including: The agency goal to improve the image of the agency - this is accomplished with up to date infrastructure and well defined boundaries. The resource goals to protect and improve wildlife habitat, increasing wildlife populations, and expanding hunting opportunities.

Fire is used in a rotating system at Clear Lake as needed to clear thatch from units. Fence helps in identifying boundaries of those units.

Water quality is improved due to the decrease in bank trampling and decreased sedimentation into the wetland system.

Will work with archaelogist to complete any necessary surveys which are unlikely because the action is re-construction.

UDWR will contract with a private contractor to provide the labor and materials to install up to 19,984 feet of fence including the removal of the materials of the existing fence.

Fence is monitored at least annually and repairs are completed as the need is identified.

This project is a cooperative project within the Wildlife and Habitat Sections at UDWR and its completion will involve staff from each section.

Management of future livestock trespass will be greatly simplified by this project and be conducted on an as needed basis.

The Clear Lake Waterfowl Management Area is highly utilized by hunters and wildlife viewers.

02/01/2023

06/26/2023

2023

UDWR issued 2 contracts to complete a total of 5.28 miles of fence reconstruction. The first contract was for 3.11 miles and included sections across the dike on the county road and down the western border of the WMA south of the county road. This contract allowed for re-use of some posts as long as they were still in-tact as there were several sections that had good posts in them. The 2nd contract for 2.17 miles continued across the southern boundary of the WMA and then turned north and ran up to the rest pond. This contract required all new posts as the fencing was all really old and posts were rotting through.

First contract was awarded to Rocky Mountain fence in March and work began in April and was completed in early June. The price on the first contract came in significantly lower than expected and when we noted we had a good chunk of remaining budget we looked at the next phase we were planning to propose and found that we could complete another section at that price. After some coordination with State Purchasing it was determined the best path forward was to issue a new RQS as the specs from Phase 1 were different enough (allowed re-use of posts vs not allowed) from Phase 2 that it warranted a new open competition. When the bids came back the price was still in the same neighborhood but D&W Builders was the low bid so we had a new contractor for the 2nd section. D&W began work in early June and we conducted a final inspection on June 26.

New fence will be checked regularly for livestock tight condition, but it is anticipated that for the first few years that workload should be significantly lighter because of the new fence. This largely completes the fence re-build of the actively managed portions of the Clear Lake WMA, if the water situation ever improves and we begin actively managing property at the north end again there will be a need to improve fencing there.