Upland game hunting remains a popular activity in Utah. It provides opportunities for the public to become interested in hunting and hunting opportunities for experienced hunters. Public land in Cache Valley needs to be improved to improve hunting opportunity and encourage recruitment of new hunters. This project will enhance upland game hunting by increasing over winter survival and utilization of public land by upland game in the project area.

Plant 2000 fruit bearing trees an shrubs on WMAs in Cache County Install 4 upland game guzzlers on Coldwater WMA Improve relations between the UDWR and residents of Cache County thus gaining permission in the future to expand these plantings into private fields and holding even more turkeys out of town.

If we don't work to improve the habitat for these upland game species we may lose the upland game populations in these areas. If we lose them it will be much more expensive and time-consuming to try and restore them. The species benefitted by increased woody fruit-bearing trees and shrubs and how they will benefit include: increased year round food source for Mourning Doves, Dusky Grouse, Wild Turkey, Ruffed Grouse, California Quail and Ring-necked Pheasants, and increasing cover from wind and both summer and winter temperature extremes for Quail and Pheasants found in the valley.

Utah Turkey Management Plan- 2. Increase available food and help reduce conflicts with humans. Utah Pheasant Management Plan- Improve cover habitats.

Currently, many of the proposed treatment sites are dominated by annual grasses. This project will reduce the amount of annual grasses and convert treatment sites to a diverse native community which can reduce the chance of fire ignition and minimize spread if a fire occurs.

We will be improving the area around a disused spring head on Richmond WMA by adding vegetation around it. We expect this will reduce erosion from around the spring and improve water quality. Excluding cattle from the spring will reduce pollutants and sediments in the watershed.

All necessary cultural surveys will be done in-house by UDWR archeologist.

We will plant bare-root and container stock of a variety of mast bearing shrubs and trees known to provide good food and roosting/cover for upland species during all seasons. Species that will be planted include but not limited to: currant spp., chokecherry, elder berry, rose, ash, and sumac. Also, we will reduce weed competition through mechanical seedbed treatments (scalping) where necessary and seed perennial grass and forb species to provide long-term food resource using a rangeland drill. We will work with local sportsman groups and dedicated hunters to plant, seed and water plants until they are established.

Photo points will be established either on ground or with a drone to monitor establishment of planted and seeded species.

Pheasants Forever and the Wild Turkey Federation have expressed interest in doing work in Cache County. We will coordinate with them to plan and coordinate project efforts. We will also collaborate with student clubs at and classes at USU.

This will be a reoccurring project that we will pursue yearly. We will expand and iterate upon the project until we deem it unnecessary to plant more.

This project will enhance upland game species hunting opportunities.