Nevada
Empire Guzzlers
By George C. Garcia, Wildlife, Fish & Rare Plants Program Manager, Plumas National Forest
Plumas National Forest Partners with the Plumas County Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation and the Plumas County Fish & Game Commission to install two guzzlers within the Empire Project Area.
The Mt. Hough Ranger District hosted a volunteer day on Saturday May 9, 2009 to install two new 550 gallon wildlife guzzlers within the Empire Project Area. To assist the District in the installation of the two new guzzlers, the Plumas County Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation kicked off its volunteer field season with its first workday of 2009. In addition, the Forest Service and the Plumas County Chapter had the pleasure of hosting two Plumas County Fish & Game Commission Members on this volunteer project. Commissioners Scott Davis and Dave Valle also volunteered their Saturday and contributed a hard day’s work in enhancing habitat carrying capacity for wildlife.
The two wildlife guzzlers will provide much needed water sources for wildlife within the Empire Project Area. The Empire Project area consists of 10,000 acres of treatments that involve underburning, forest thinning, and timber harvest. As treatments are implemented within the Empire Project, these two guzzlers will provide a reliable water source for wildlife and further enhance the capability of the newly created habitat. The combination of habitat improvements and water sources within the same area substantially increase habitat value for species such as Mule Deer, Mountain Quail, Turkey and a wide array of other wildlife including song birds and small mammals.
The Plumas County Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation provided water during the day and cheese burgers and soft drinks for lunch to all the volunteers. In addition each volunteer received a thank you gift courtesy of the Mule Deer Foundation and Sportsmen’s Warehouse. The Plumas County Chapter is coming off a very successful banquet and fundraiser held on February 21, 2009 where they also received MDF’s Sweat Equity Award for contributing up to 500 hours of volunteer labor in 2008. The Chapter is looking to top that figure in 2009. Anyone interested in volunteering a Saturday on a wildlife project such as this one, please contact George Garcia, WFRP Program Manager at 530-283-7828.
For photos and more info visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/plumas/partnerships/wfrp/empire_guzzlers/.