This project takes place on private property in degraded pronghorn and upland game habitat. The Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (CVWRF), who owns the property, has expressed interest in working with the NRCS and UDWR to improve this landscape to benefit wildlife, the public, and their facility. The property is 2,700 acres and CVWRF intends to carryout restoration projects throughout all of these acres. Future projects will include seeding, weed control, shrub planting, water development (guzzlers), grazing improvements, and establishing public access for upland game hunting. This project serves as a pilot project, and involves scalping, seeding, and planting shrubs into 20 acres of this property. Lessons learned from this project will inform decisions on future restoration efforts on this property. Currently, the landscape is dominated by exotic annual grasses and forbs, with remnants of shrub and perennial grass communities. Annual grasses tend to dominate plant communities over time, decreasing biodiversity and reducing habitat quality. Systems that are invaded by annual grasses are also more prone to catastrophic wildfire and further weed invasion than more diverse native systems. Biodiverse native systems are also more resilient after fires than invaded monocultures. To improve this landscape for wildlife use, and to improve watershed health, resistance, and resilience, there is a need to establish native and beneficial vegetation that can compete with invading weeds. This project will seek to establish native and beneficial perennial bunchgrasses, shrubs, and forbs. When established, perennial bunchgrasses have been shown to suppress weeds, and provide valuable forage and cover to upland game. Shrubs also important to upland game, mostly as cover, but also as forage. Shrubs can also extend above the snowline in the winter, and provide critical winter browse to pronghorn. Forbs are also particularly important to pronghorn as forage, and can work with perennial grasses and forbs to support an insect prey base for upland game birds.

The overall objective of this project is to begin to improve watershed health, biodiversity, and fire resistance and resilience on this property. Particularly, this project seeks to: 1) Establish native grasses, shrubs, and forbs by seeding and vegetative planting. 2) Reduce weed cover by establishing competitive beneficial plant species through seeding and vegetative planting.

This project is located within crucial pronghorn habitat, which benefit from diverse, native vegetation. The health of lactating females influences fawn survival, and these females rely heavily on forbs as a valuable source of nutrition during the spring and early summer (Ellis and Travis 1975; Howard et al. 1990; Yoakum 2004a; Pronghorn Management Plan). Pronghorn winter survival can also be influenced by the presence or absence of shrubs extending above the snow. This landscape is occupied by pronghorn, but is lacking in both shrub and forb components. This area serves as substantial ring-necked pheasant habitat. The Utah Upland Game Management Plan describes that 63% of hunters say pheasants are the most enjoyable species to hunt. In the future, CVWRF hopes to establish public access for hunting on their property, but the habitat quality is currently lacking. Increasing cover of shrubs, grasses, and forbs, to enhance pheasant habitat will be necessary to create high-quality hunting experiences. Weed invasion on this property will likely get worse unless action is taken now to establish competitive native/desirable vegetation. Perennial bunchgrasses need to be established and mature in order to outcompete and suppress annual grasses. There is a need to plant those seeds now, so they can become established and competitive as soon as possible. CVWRF will pursue contracts with NRCS in the near future, and will begin restoration work on a larger scale in coming years. Implementing this project now will provide valuable insight into practices and species that work well, and those that do not. Without a pilot project like this one, there runs a greater risk of failure and wasted resources.

Plan: Utah Pronghorn Statewide Management Plan Habitat Management Goal: Conserve and improve pronghorn habitat throughout the state. Objective: Maintain or enhance the quantity and quality of pronghorn habitat This project seeks to enhance the quality of pronghorn habitat by establishing plants that are beneficial to the species. Strategies... Identify crucial pronghorn habitats and work with public land managers and private landowners to protect and enhance those areas. This project capitalizes on the proactive interest of private landowners to enhance crucial pronghorn habitat in meaningful ways over multiple years. Under the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative, design, implement, and monitor the effectiveness of habitat improvement projects to benefit pronghorn. This WRI project seeks to implement a small-scale habitat improvement project, monitor its efficacy, and apply lessons learned to larger scale future projects in pronghorn habitat. Utah Upland Game Management Plan In the Utah Upland Game Management Plan, it is stated that Utah's goal in the National Wild Pheasant Conservation Plan (NWPCP) is to "maintain current habitat and prevent additional habitat loss". This project is near the fringes of pheasant habitat in the area, and represents a potential loss of pheasant habitat without restorative actions. By establishing native and beneficial vegetation in this area, we seek to prevent future habitat loss and maintain current habitat.

The Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal (WRAP) describes the Wildfire Hazard Potential on this property as "High". This is largely due to the dry conditions and fine fuel loading of the property. Annual grasses provide fine, flashy, highly combustible fuels compared to perennial grasses. They also increase fuel continuity, carrying fires farther and faster than they might otherwise travel. Additionally, annual grasses senesce earlier in the season than most native grasses, creating a longer fire season than native plant communities. Finally, exotic annual grasses can become dominant if the native plant community collapses, as it has on this property, and can form monocultures with little biodiversity and low fire resilience. When these invaded landscapes burn, annual grasses return, perpetuating the cycle. In other words, annual grasses increase the risk of wildfire, and decrease the likelihood of healthy recovery after the fire. By establishing native plants on this landscape, annual weeds may be suppressed, and the Wildfire Hazard Potential may be reduced. While this project is small in scale, it serves as the first step to effectively restoring this 2,700 acre piece of private property, and improving its resistance and resilience to fire. By seeding a small area first, efficacy of weed suppression, seeded species emergence, and planting methods can be evaluated and improved prior to implementing larger, more costly projects.

Scalping along contour will increase water infiltration in treatment areas and reduce overland flow of sediments during high intensity precipitation events. Future phases of the project are planned to improve the availability of water to wildlife.

DWR will ensure that all cultural resource requirements are met prior to project implementation.

Within treatment areas, we will control competition by scalping the upper soil layers and seeding native grasses, forbs, and shrubs. This will be done using a modified bulldozer which scalps two rows, broadcasts seed, plants seed below the surface, and incorporates seed into the soil, all in one pass. After broadcast seeding, we will also drill seed into the scalps with a baby drill pulled by a pickup truck. Later, shrub seedlings will be planted within the scalped areas approximately 5' apart. Species of grass/forb seeds and shrub seedlings will be selected based on their compatibility with the site and the benefits they will provide to benefit HIG/F and SGCNs.

Each treatment site will be photo monitored. Planted seedlings will be counted one year after implementation to determine shrub establishment. Inventories will also carried out to measure establishment of seeded species, and changes in annual grass cover.

DWR has assembled this project and will assist CVWRF with future WRI proposals. The Farm Bill biologist will assist with NRCS applications in the upcoming year.

Future projects will include seeding, weed control, shrub planting, water development (guzzlers), grazing improvements, and establishing public access for upland game hunting. This year CVWRF will apply for EQIP funding through the NRCS to begin implementing these practices.

This project will provide improved forage quality for both livestock and wildlife, and will open the door for future projects with greater and more widespread impact. Currently this property is grazed lightly, and CVWRF would like to implement prescribed grazing practices as part of their NRCS contract as a means of controlling weeds and shifting the plant community. They are also interested in providing public access for hunting.

10/01/2025

12/13/2025

2026

The Fairfield Upland Game projects purpose is to establish shrubs on the project property and enhance shrub cover for pheasants and other upland game. Six thousand sagebrush seedlings were ordered to be grown in a nursery in late winter of 2025. On October 21st Central Region personnel used the Mad Max dozer to create about 30,000 linear feet of scalp rows for sagebrush seedlings to be planted in. Forb seed and fourwing saltbush was broadcast over the top of the scalps. Bitterbrush seed was planted about 2 inches in depth with the scalper planter on the dozer. Sagebrush seedlings were delivered to the site in early December of 2025 and planted by a contractor.

This is the first planting project on this land owned by Central Valley Water Reclamation. Some of this property is used to dump bio solids from water treatment plants. The land has been grazed heavily for some time and is in poor condition with abundant Russian thistle and other weedy annual grasses and forbs.

This land is owned by Central Valley Reclamation and is used to incorporate biosolids from water treatment sites. The land is in poor condition and is shrub poor. DWR would like to improve the property and try to use it as a pheasant hunting area in the future.