Elk Basin Restoration Project begins on the Game Range

SEELEY LAKE – This winter Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is starting the Elk Basin Restoration Project on the westside of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area also known as the Game Range. The focus of the 3,000 acre project is grassland restoration and dealing with the conifer encroachment.

Historically in the region, the valley bottoms were expansive grasslands dominated primarily by rough fescue, Idaho fescue and bluebunch wheatgrass. Rough fescue has very high winter forage value for ungulates making it important to critical winter range.

As the valleys became more forested, the shade-intolerance fescues and bunchgrasses were replaced with pine grass. Pine grass has a much lower forage value.

"We've lost a substantial amount of what you would call this montane/fescue grassland regionally through [land] conversion, fire suppression and conifer encroachment," said FWP wildlife biologist Scott Eggeman. "It is important to a lot of wildlife series, whether that is ground nesting birds or winter range for deer and elk."

Fescue grasslands are fire adapted with a historical fire return interval of 15 years. Fire this often kept the trees and other wooden species in check. However, because of fire exclusion, conifers have been allowed to encroach on the grasslands.

Eggeman said that since 1987, there have been between 1,100-1,200 naturally caused fires that have been suppressed in the Blackfoot valley. The last fire of any size on the Game Range was in October, 1991. It burned more than 7,600 acres but only about a half were on the Game Range.

"Fire historically would have burned [the Game Range] all the time. [Today] the understory is getting very thick with Douglas-fir, we were getting a lot of spruce budworm and we were losing a lot of our forage," said Eggeman. "FWP has the Game Range to provide winter range for elk and deer and we were losing a lot of the ecological niche that that place covers."

Eggeman presented his habitat concerns on the Game Range to FWP Forester Jason Parke. Parke used his forestry expertise to take the habitat objectives and draw up the project.

FWP completed a 370 acre logging and thinning project this fall on the north and east side of the Game Range. The purpose of the project was to return the area to a more historical condition that was resilient to fire to help maintain the productivity for species of concern in the grassland/foothills/forest ecotone.

The logging operation was done with a restoration focus selecting for better genetics in the stand. All snags were retained. Conifers were removed from the aspen stands to help restore them. And the understory was thinned on 224 acres of the project to open the understory and promote larger diameter trees.

"It was trying to right the ship on 100 years of not-so-great logging and fire suppression," said Eggeman. "We want to set it up so eventually we can manage the Game Range using prescribed fire to thin the understory."

The Environmental Assessment for the Elk Basin Restoration Project was completed about a year ago. Eggeman said all of the comments FWP received on the project were supportive with the main concern being weed management. Eggeman said that the contract logger is required to wash, clean and inspect all the equipment before it is brought onto the Game Range.

The Elk Basin project is separated into three different stand types with different treatments for each.

The first stand type is labeled "true encroachment." The prescription for this stand type is to cut all the sparsely distributed trees.

"In effect it is clear cutting it but it is not like a clear cut because it is anywhere from two trees per acre to 10 trees per acre," said Eggeman.

The second stand type is the ponderosa pine/grassland/savannah that contains large, old growth ponderosa pine with an open understory of fescue with sparse ingrowth.

"We are getting a ton of ingrowth and a lot of the stands are starting to fall apart," said Eggeman. "We are starting to see beetles and we don't want to lose those big trees."

The third stand type is considered the "true forest." This includes a moderately stocked ponderosa pine overstory with very little Douglas-fir.

"The Doug-fir is taking off. We are going through and thinning a lot of the Douglas-fir," said Eggeman. "[We are also] focusing on the aspen stands within those units and reducing all the conifer encroachment within those aspen stands."

Eggeman added historically logging projects in the area took the best trees, leaving the poor genetics.

"You end up with stands with a lot of poor trees for reproducing that lead into this negative feeding loop," said Eggeman. "We are trying to prioritize the ones that are left to take off and try to reverse that pattern."

Treating the areas of the Game Range east of Highway 83 will make the ingress/egress on Highway 83 safer by altering the fire behavior.

"We could still have a fire there, but we won't lose that stand which is what we are worried about," said Eggeman. "Those are 300 year old trees or plus."

The first phase of the Elk Basin project is around 400 acres. The project will continue as additional grant funding becomes available. Eggeman said the true forest is the only stand type that has any revenue generating potential.

"It's a habitat project and because of that they tend to not pay their way as well," said Eggeman.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has contributed funding for both projects on the Game Range. The Landscape Scale Restoration Grant and other federal money administered through grants by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will also help fund the Elk Basin Restoration Project.

The logging will begin as soon as there is enough snow and the ground is frozen to minimize the compaction. The public is advised that logging traffic will be entering and exiting the westside Game Range entrance just south of the Seeley Lake Cemetery on Highway 83 throughout the winter.