Utah Issues
What Can You Do?
Volunteer with the Grand Canyon Trust and help us extend our reach and positive influence on the ground. We need your help with measuring browse of cottonwood, aspen, and willow by elk and livestock; measuring stubble height of riparian plants late in the season; and fencing two sites that have riparian areas.
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2011: Changing forest management to restore recruitment of cottonwood, aspen, and willow
Utah Forest Restoration Working Group (UFRWG): Two 2011 project teams
Aspen has declined by about 35 percent in Utah, and much of what remains is threatened by conifer encroachment, poorly understood dieback apparently associated with drought, and heavy browsing of sprouts by elk, cattle, and other ungulates. In January 2011, the multi-stakeholder UFRWG completed (by consensus) its ecologically based Guidelines for Restoring Aspen on the National Forests in Utah. Co-convened by the Trust and Western Aspen Alliance, the UFRWG is now putting two project teams on the ground with the Fishlake National Forest. It plans to use the guidelines for two complex aspen restoration projects: the currently unhealthy, but world-famous Pando Clone at Fish Lake, and the large aspen stands that are being overbrowsed on Monroe Mountain.
Continuing to bear witness to riparian aspen, willow, and cottonwood suppression
Since 2008, the Trust has been intensively measuring the level of browsing on cottonwood, aspen, and willow at targeted sites within all three national forests. We have found that cottonwood and aspen trees as well as willows (which could be over 8 feet tall) have sprouts, but these sprouts are being kept below 4–6 feettall, so they cannot grow into the overstory. This means that too few aspen, cottonwood, and willow are available to replace the old, large, tall “overstory” aspen, cottonwood, and willow as they inevitably die. In 2011 we’ll continue this monitoring but now it will contribute to a collaborative effort to restore these key riparian plants (see below).
Changing forest management
Partially in response to our field documentation and reports on problems with recruitment among riparian cottonwood, aspen, and willow, a collaborative effort is in the works for 2011 to define desired riparian conditions on the Dixie, Fishlake, and Manti-La Sal National Forests. This discussion and effort is many years overdue but will need to result in substantial grazing management changes on the forests. The Trust will be an active participant in the collaboration.
Click here to volunteer for our two 2011 volunteer riparian assessment trips in September and October.
Your donations and membership dues make our research, monitoring, and restoration work in Utah possible.
