Program Update - Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program - U.S. ...

Highlights from
Region 6
Wildlife
Restoration
Program
Wildlife Habitat Monitoring in Utah
Funded by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
The health and vigor of big game populations in the West are closely correlated to
the quality and quantity of forage in key areas. Quality of big game winter range has
long been recognized as critical to the well being of elk and mule deer populations.
In the West, many factors have altered quality of rangeland including weed invasion,
drought, fires, and livestock grazing, and now climate change looms as a major threat.
The ability to detect changes in vegetation composition (range condition trend) is an
important part of big game management.
Understanding the need to keep a watchful eye on winter range habitat, the Utah
Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) developed a project to carefully monitor
quality of game range statewide. Although the project, Wildlife Habitat Monitoring/
Range Trend Studies, is primarily funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s
Wildlife Restoration Program and through UDWR funds, several other State and
Federal agencies also serve as cooperators. These include Utah Department of
Agriculture and Food, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and U.S. Forest Service
(USFS).
The purpose of the UDWR project is to monitor, evaluate, and report range quality
trends at designated key areas throughout the State, and inform UDWR biologists,
public land managers, and private landowners of significant changes in plant
community composition in those areas. Permanent study sites are established at key
areas around the state and resurveyed every five years. Approximately one-fifth of
the State’s big game herd management units receive an evaluation of range condition
each year. Although the majority of permanent study studies are located on deer and
elk winter ranges, spring and summer ranges are evaluated if vegetation composition
is the limiting factor. Project biologists mark and relocate study sites with GPS and
use a state-of-the art program for data collection and analysis. A crew of seven to
nine people collects vegetation and soil data along five 100 foot baseline transects and
enters the data into field computers. During the five-year period ending in 2006, crews
surveyed 627 sites around the state.
Wildlife and Sport Fish Program Update September 2008 41