Montana conservation corps crews have spent multiple years working to support the enos creek project in the wind river bighorn basin district

The Bureau of Land Management awarded a $218,128 cooperative agreement to the Montana Conservation Corps, Inc. to support the Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands program. Through this award, the Montana Conservation Corps will deploy two crews of youth and young adults over an 11-week period from May 30, 2022 to August 12, 2022. The crews, consisting of up to 20 members each led by experienced crew leaders, will perform hazardous fuels reduction, vegetation management, and wildlife habitat improvement activities on approximately 100-200 acres within the 1,000-acre Enos Creek project area in Wyoming. Specifically, crew members will identify and remove juniper resprouts that have emerged since previous treatments, with a focus on improving riparian and sage grouse habitat. Crew activities will include using loppers, handsaws, chainsaws, and pile burning to reduce hazardous fuels. The project aims to enhance ecosystem functions and provide crew members with valuable experience in fire ecology, wildlife management, and natural resource stewardship.

The enos creek area covers approximately 1000 acres of juniper habitat that has encroached into the riparian area and first-tier flood plain sage brush habitat. The presence of the juniper has greatly slowed water flow in the creek beds, drastically affecting wildlife habitat in the area. The removal of conifer trees will help to reduce the competition and open up space and provide more resources for more valuable species like aspens. Aspens play a vital role in large ungulates diet during hard winters as ELK, moose and mule deer will eat the outer bark and cambium layer of the trees to sustain themselves while moving between winter ranges. The primary project scope has and will continue to focus on reducing hazardous fuels, improving riparian habitat and ecosystem function, and improving conditions of sage grouse habitat. The MCC crew would work with the BLM to identify priority locations to eliminate the juniper regrowth that has sprouted up since the original mastication of trees first occurred. The crew will work with loppers, handsaws and chainsaws to identify and remove the RE-sprouts. In some cases, debris will be scattered but in designated areas the crew will pile slash for later burning to reduce the number of hazardous fuels on the forest floor. The target for the 2022 season will be to ADDRESS100-200 acres of hazardous fuels reduction, vegetation management and wildlife led by two crew leaders who spent last summer working on the enos creek project, the crew will spend 11 weeks operating on a 9 on 5 off schedule, generally camping on site, to accomplish these project tasks with the guidance and support of BLM partnership. In addition to project work, the crew will gain valuable work experience learning more about fire ecology, wildlife management, and natural resource management. The MCC crew will work closely with BLM staff to follow project specifications and provide documentation and data of all project accomplishments.