Some fifty volunteers from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and even some dedicated hunters showed up to Blacksmith Fork Canyon to cut and disperse mature juniper trees. Lop and scatter is where you remove the junipers off the landscape. A mature tree will drink 50 gallons of water a day all summer long if it’s available, then the streams dry up. Cutting down on the junipers really opens up the understory and, in a forest, and in the landscape in general, which allows the sun to reach the floor and increase forage for big game. This habitat improvement project is needed to not only maintain forage quality, but quantity and distribution. The hope is after the treatment the soil moisture will increase, thus improving the forage for all different kinds of wildlife and help maintain a more diverse landscape. For more information on this many more conservation projects be sure to visit sfw.net.
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