MDF's Pass the Buck chapter members work with
the Bureau
of Land Management on the Rifle
Creek Winter Range
Enhancement project.
MDF Projects
Pass The Buck Chapter Provides Manpower to Stop Pinon and Juniper Encroachment
By Steve Dahmer
Rifle, CO: After three consecutive years of hosting record-breaking banquets, Pass the Buck chapter members turned their attention to on-the-ground field work by joining the Bureau of Land Management on the Rifle Creek Winter Range Enhancement project.
The winter range in question is a significant chunk of land between Rifle and Silt, Colorado north of the Colorado River, which has historically wintered several thousand mule deer and elk, many of which pour off the Flattops Wilderness and surrounding country. Years of fire suppression have allowed large tracts of this productive wintering area to be completely overtaken by dense stands of pinon and juniper forest, which provides excellent cover but almost no feed for the animals. The dense canopy of pinon and juniper, or PJ as it is commonly known, also poses a significant wildfire risk due to the close spacing and overlapping limbs, as well as the volatile oils these trees naturally produce.
Recognizing the need for vegetation treatments to meet a variety of goals, the Glenwood Springs Resource office of the BLM completed a programmatic Environmental Assessment and obtained approval to utilize hydroaxes, Lawson aerators and hand-crews to treat at least 3,000 acres of winter range over the next five years, with clearance to treat more as funding permits. BLM also secured a significant amount of funding within their own budget to help start the project. The local Habitat Partnership Program committee joined the effort by adding some of their funds, which are derived from hunting license sales in Colorado, to the project. The Pass the Buck chapter then allocated $5,178 in Chapter Rewards dollars from their 2005 banquet to expand the treatment areas.
However, donating money to a good cause wasn’t enough for chapter members. So on the brisk morning of December 9, chapter members gathered on one of the hydroaxe treatment sites, where encroaching PJ had been removed earlier in the year. Armed with hand-seeders and large sacks of seed provided by BLM, members added their time and a considerable amount of sweat to benefit local deer herds. By day’s end, approximately 30 acres of decadent sagebrush and PJ-removal area had been re-seeded with a nutritious mix of shrubs, grasses and forbs tailor-made for mule deer.
The Pass the Buck chapter plans to help re-seed more of the 2006 brush treatment areas this winter, and allocate more Chapter Rewards funding to help restore this critical winter range for mule deer.