Partners
The Weston County Natural Resource District, the Crook County Natural Resource District, Wyoming State Forestry, and Wyoming Game and Fish have partnered in applying for funds through the Wyoming Natural Resource Trust.
Application
We are not taking applications at this time, but if you are interested in thinning to improve habitat, please contact our office.
Goals & Objectives
The objective of this partnership is to mitigate mutual resource concerns across jurisdictional boundaries throughout northeastern Wyoming by creating more resilient and sustainable ecosystems. The goal is to improve mule deer and sage-grouse habitats by implementing non-commercial thinning to increase understory standing biomass. Thinning treatments benefit mule deer and sage-grouse habitats by providing structural diversity and by increasing the variety and biomass of forages. Projects will follow guidance provided by wildlife and forestry practitioners to ensure specifications and standards implemented are beneficial to wildlife habitat improvement.
Summary of Project
These landscape-scale projects will result in healthier ecological lands with more diverse species composition, increased structural and age diversity of plant communities, and improved riparian and wildlife habitats. Thinning noncommercial-sized trees will increase the quantity and quality of forage and improve forest stands by balancing structural stage diversity; reducing meadow encroachment will diversify forbs and grasses; and removing juniper and pine from sagebrush-steppe habitats will decrease raptor perches and predator shelters.
Treatment Types
Meadow Enhancement, Conifer Encroachment, Thinning