10-27-2007, 12:10 AM
TABIONA - Deer, elk and a portion of the watershed draining into the Duchesne River will benefit from the recent chaining of pinyon/juniper (PJ) trees on the foothills of Tabby Mountain in north-central Utah.
A bulldozer pulls a chain through the woodland.
Photo courtesy of Tory Mathis Roughly 1,000 acres of PJ was knocked down using a heavy chain pulled by bulldozers. The project included 600 acres on the Blacktail Ridge and another 400 in Sandwash.
The project is a cooperative effort among the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and its partners: the Bill Barrett Corporation (BBC), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF).
"BBC is dedicated to helping offset potential impacts to wildlife in our Blacktail Ridge operation area," wrote Scot Donato in a letter to the UDWR. The BBC pledged $20,800 to the project as mitigation for wildlife disturbances its planned drilling of four oil and natural gas wells may cause in the area.
The USFS and RMEF donated $60,000 and $7,500 respectively. Another $100,000 came through the UDWR as part of Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative.
"The area is losing its wildlife habitat and watershed values because of the PJ," says UDWR Habitat Biologist Alison Whittaker. "An area under a mature pinyon-juniper stand of trees has virtually no understory of grasses, forbs or shrubs. As a result, there is little for wildlife to eat. And water can just hit the ground and run off, stripping the land of its topsoil and creating some major erosion problems.
"The woodland
A bulldozer pulls a chain through the woodland.
Photo courtesy of Tory Mathis Roughly 1,000 acres of PJ was knocked down using a heavy chain pulled by bulldozers. The project included 600 acres on the Blacktail Ridge and another 400 in Sandwash.
The project is a cooperative effort among the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and its partners: the Bill Barrett Corporation (BBC), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF).
"BBC is dedicated to helping offset potential impacts to wildlife in our Blacktail Ridge operation area," wrote Scot Donato in a letter to the UDWR. The BBC pledged $20,800 to the project as mitigation for wildlife disturbances its planned drilling of four oil and natural gas wells may cause in the area.
The USFS and RMEF donated $60,000 and $7,500 respectively. Another $100,000 came through the UDWR as part of Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative.
"The area is losing its wildlife habitat and watershed values because of the PJ," says UDWR Habitat Biologist Alison Whittaker. "An area under a mature pinyon-juniper stand of trees has virtually no understory of grasses, forbs or shrubs. As a result, there is little for wildlife to eat. And water can just hit the ground and run off, stripping the land of its topsoil and creating some major erosion problems.
"The woodland