USDA Forest Service Press Release
The Manti-La Sal National Forest has been awarded $424,499 from the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative (WRI) for forest restoration projects. The projects, in Emery and San Juan counties, will treat over 22,984 acres, fund an archaeological survey on 3,500 acres, and provide water distribution improvements for grazing.
In Emery County, the Dry Wash project will reduce 264 acres of pinyon-juniper in sagebrush and shrub land to improve winter and transition range habitat for mule deer and Rocky Mountain Elk.
Prior to implementing a sage grouse habitat improvement project at Mahogany Point, northwest of Ferron, an archaeological survey of 3,500 acres must be completed. The WRI will fund the survey.
The projects on the Manti-La Sal are among 49 projects that received WRI funding for forest restoration work on the National Forests in Utah. The WRI awarded $9,536,263 for projects totaling $13,792,519 worth of work. Multiple partners contributed funds, with the Forest Service contributing $1,977,530. The funded projects will treat 69,436 acres of National Forest System lands. The National Forests in Utah have accepted a challenge to treat 1 million acres by 2022 with assistance from the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative. To date the forests have received funding to treat 372,110 acres.
The Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative is funded by Utah Partners for Conservation and Development, a coalition of 17 federal, state and local agencies and non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting and enhancing Utah’s natural resources.
The National Forests’ efforts are all part of initiatives put in place by the Forest Service that include better and more timely NEPA decisions, increasing the pace and scale of restoration of the nation’s watersheds, and keeping the agency’s commitments to its long standing partners, such as the Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation. The Forest Service has partnered with these organizations for at least 30 years under formal Memorandums of Understanding, and these relationships continue to this day with their shared participation in Utah’s Watershed Restoration Initiative.