Forest Restoration

Utah Forests Program

Issues
Goals
Accomplishments
Actions & Projects
- Projects Overview
- Three Forests Coalition
- Beaver Project
  - » Ecological Value
  - » Project Components
- Aspen, Willow, & Cottonwood Project
  - » Ecological Value
  - » Project Components
- The Tushar Allotments Collaboration
- Reference Areas Project
  - » Ecological Value
  - » Project Components
- Other Projects

Contact Us
2601 N. Fort Valley Rd
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Phone: 928.774.7488
Fax: 928.774.7570
E-mail Us

Home » Utah » Forest Restoration » Actions » Reference Areas Project » Project Components

Utah Issues

Volunteers in the field -- Utah forests reference areas project

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 gathering browse data, documenting grazing impacts, and conducting beaver habitat surveys, biological inventories and springs assessments.

Sagebrush community reference: It is rare to find sagebrush like this, with intact grasses and herbaceous, broad-leaved plants (forbs). This allotment had not been grazed for 7 years (until 2 weeks after this June 18, 200,7 photo; above Left Fork Huntington Creek, Manti-La Sal NF)

Riparian area reference: Beaver Creek flows through Cottonwood Allotment (Fishlake NF), which has not been grazed in more than 30 years. Note multi-age trees, stream shading, well-vegetated banks.

Building in 2010 on the successes of our Reference Areas Project

The Reference Areas Project is moving the Forest Service toward a more professional, ecological vision for these Colorado Plateau forests, in the heart of south and central Utah.

In 2010, Mindy Wheeler, Utah Forest Program Associate, will be leading three trips with volunteers who are able to identify plants of southern Utah, in an effort to identify and map plant communities on three recently-accepted reference areas: a subalpine spring and fen (Fishlake NF); a willow meadow and beaver site (Fishlake NF); and 160 acres owned by a retired University of Utah biologist, adjacent to Dixie NF. On the latter, we will be conducting floral visitor (pollinator) transects, as we bring this neglected, but important, class of wildlife to the attention of the forests.
During 2010, we will be identifying and proposing additional reference sites for consideration by the three national forests in southern Utah.

Click here to volunteer for one of our three reference area volunteer trips.