ICMDEER
Very Active Member
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- 2,998
Seems like were in the slow winter part of the year. I belong to several conservation groups, but I have chosen to do habitat work on my own. I think a lot of our money goes to overhead and even to projects I'd prefer not to fund. So I always do a few things each year to help out mule deer. Here's what I hope/plan to do in 2016:
- Cut encroaching ponderosa pine and juniper trees out of mountain mahogany on a ranch in the Black Hills in NE Wyoming. I did 25 acres 2 years ago. Cut down thousands of trees. There's not a lot of mahogany in the Black Hills so this is important habitat. The trees are wrecking it.
- Help a friend/rancher in Carbon County put in a diversion and rework an old irrigation system. We'll bring over 100 acres into irrigation again. We'll plant 40-80 of the best acres to alfalfa that won't be grazed. Deer will use it and it should help body conditions and the breed up. Just hope the elk don't camp on it.
- Work with G&F on a research project to identify chemicals we can use to burn the tops off of bitterbrush and mountain mahogany. That way we can get the tender resprouts. Since controlled burns are tough, and often bring in cheatgrass, we're hoping to find a way to make landscape-scale changes with chemical stimulation on those important plants. This is part of the Platte Valley Habitat Partnership, and I already have three big ranches lined up that are willing to undertake the improvements if we find a chemical that'll work.
Those are my plans for 2016. It'll take some money and time, but mule deer have always been a priority to me.
Anyone else have 2016 plans to do habitat work to help our beloved mule deer?
- Cut encroaching ponderosa pine and juniper trees out of mountain mahogany on a ranch in the Black Hills in NE Wyoming. I did 25 acres 2 years ago. Cut down thousands of trees. There's not a lot of mahogany in the Black Hills so this is important habitat. The trees are wrecking it.
- Help a friend/rancher in Carbon County put in a diversion and rework an old irrigation system. We'll bring over 100 acres into irrigation again. We'll plant 40-80 of the best acres to alfalfa that won't be grazed. Deer will use it and it should help body conditions and the breed up. Just hope the elk don't camp on it.
- Work with G&F on a research project to identify chemicals we can use to burn the tops off of bitterbrush and mountain mahogany. That way we can get the tender resprouts. Since controlled burns are tough, and often bring in cheatgrass, we're hoping to find a way to make landscape-scale changes with chemical stimulation on those important plants. This is part of the Platte Valley Habitat Partnership, and I already have three big ranches lined up that are willing to undertake the improvements if we find a chemical that'll work.
Those are my plans for 2016. It'll take some money and time, but mule deer have always been a priority to me.
Anyone else have 2016 plans to do habitat work to help our beloved mule deer?
