Below is a Facebook post from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a longtime advocate of active forest management for the benefit of wildlife habitat, catastrophic wildfire mitigation and forest health. RMEF supplied funding in support of the project.
Deer, elk and moose are among the wildlife that benefit from juniper tree thinning. Thinning trees allows more sunlight to reach plants on the ground. This added sunlight allows plants to grow and flourish, giving wildlife more to eat.
Over the past two falls and winters, a total of 2,500 acres of junipers have been thinned in an area called Mahogany Ridge. This area includes part of the Hardware Wildlife Management Area and nearby national forest land.
Juniper trees provide cover from predators and shade from the sun, so it’s important to leave some junipers in place. Removing most of them, though, opens up a vast kitchen of nutritious food for animals to eat. Thinning junipers also slows their encroachment into nearby mahogany tree stands. Mahogany trees provide big game animals with important habitat, especially in the winter.
Before the trees were thinned, seed was dropped from an airplane. Dropping seed on the ground – before the soil is disturbed – helps the seed establish itself after heavy equipment travels over it.
Many thanks to our awesome hunters. They helped fund the project by buying hunting licenses and paying an excise tax on the equipment they use to hunt.
Click here to watch a short video.
(Photo credit: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)