Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
In a recent County Seat person-on-the-street survey conducted recently in Salt Lake City participants were asked what was the most prominent thing they associate with the phrase "active forest management."
The responses of the 67 random interviews named only four things: fire suppression and mitigation, watershed management and water production, forest access and wildlife management.
All of these answers represent important barometers and all are affected by active forest management. It is also interesting to note that all of them actually benefit from the same approach to management. By creating a diverse landscape in our high altitude forests we can create an environment that addresses all of the above management concerns.
However, despite mutually beneficial outcomes for reduced fire risk, improved watersheds and wildlife health, it is wildlife habitat and health that is most complex to understand and improve. In fact a team of researchers from the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources and Brigham Young University's Plant and Wildlife Sciences have been tackling this topic for over 10 years. This research is quite expensive and has been financially supported by several non-profit groups and foundations to help them achieve this research.
By using state-of-the-art tracking collars that transmit data on movement and other vital statistics, the research teams have determined many things about the deer herds that they previously could not. The data collected so far has significantly changed the way they think about habitat.
According to a recent interview with Randy Larsen, the wildlife biologist who oversees the study, the focus has traditionally and logically been on providing better habitat for winter range. While no one is questioning the need for food in winter, it may actually be the high altitude summer range that plays the most important role in deer herd health.
Findings in the study indicate that the traditional approach of spending resources on developing winter range to feed the herds in the winter months, may not be the link to the herds' long term survival and health. Data seems to indicate that survival is more closely related to summer range and the amount of fat that the deer can pack on while they are camping out in the high elevation summer ranges.
There has been one unit in this study, the 9 Mile Canyon / Range Creek unit (also known as the 106 Reforestation project) where deer seem to be extremely healthy with ample fat to get the herd safely through winter.
While the study is still two years from completion, the evidence is clear that the unit is producing deer that are better prepared to endure winter than from most other ranges. Both fawns and adult doe deer are reporting above average weight when compared to the other 25 units participating in the study as shown by the graphs below.
This is significant because the 106 Reforestation project area, (named after the organization that has been pioneering new ways to improve habitat without the use of fire) has not used traditional methods of controlled burns or selective fuel reduction to treat the range. Its unique mechanical treatment process has resulted in rapid aspen and grass regeneration creating improved habitat and an outstanding food supply in a matter of months, not years.
The 106 Reforestation process accomplishes an efficient equivalent to controlled burns without the risk of kicking off an uncontrolled fire, or putting burdens on nearby urban air and water sheds. The 106 method can shape the landscape with a surgeon's precision by using GIS supported software that links to two machines that bring down the older and diseased trees that have lost most of their ability to capture CO².
A single 106 crew can treat over 100 acres per day. The innovator of the 106 Reforestation technology, Mike Siaperas, feels that his system is the only mechanical process that can operate at a landscape scale across broad swaths of public and private land.
Coupled with emerging technology for creating carbon capture products with a fraction of carbon release of other methods, the 106 system might be the ideal compromise to quickly treat landscape-scale sections of overgrown or diseased forests without the negative side effects that fire potentially brings to the environment (especially in proximity to urban areas).
The byproducts of the process could also become valuable carbon products with a sequestration span measured in hundreds or even thousands of years. Siaperas explains that the current fires in Oregon and Northern California had the ideal terrain to have treated those lands with the 106 system, which could have prevented the current conflagrations.
Utah has invested funds to expand the treatment areas using this method in the months ahead. The process of getting the equipment on the ground to do the work is simple and quick, but the agencies have a lot of hoops they have to navigate to put the funding to work. For the time being, it is proceeding as best it can, with the funds in place ready to work as soon as the light turns green.
You can learn more about the 106 process by visiting their website 106Reforest.com.
Watch The County Seat for an episode on this and other related topics at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLum3SCQ9mGZSd4hp6GYuX3OOZsU6YfRT1&si=dJKk2lEFZRGTSfaP
