Last week, reported on the annual meeting of the White River Conservation District, which took pace Jan. 12. Here is some additional information from the meeting.
Other topics covered included rangeland, water, wildlife and more. Here are highlights from the meeting handout.
Rangeland
The Districts have secured $388,000 and have applied for $250,000 to improve rangeland health through Coordinated Resource Management Plans (CRMP.) Completed projects include:
- 118 acres vegetation treatments and removal
- seven water facilities
- eight-plus miles of pipeline
- one-plus mile of fencing
Planned CRMP projects include: - 71,490 acres vegetation treatments
- 30 water facilities
- 12+ miles of pipeline
- four-plus miles of fencing
Range Monitoring/State of the Range
The districts completed the fifth year of range monitoring in the Piceance East Douglas Herd Management Area (PEDHMA). Troy Osborn with Osborn Industries LLC explained how his company has been working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct a comprehensive study on the state of the range in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area (PEDHMA) over the past five years at the WRCD Annual Meeting.
“Approximately 153,000 acres is what we deal with,” Osborn said about the amount of area they cover within this study.
In his presentation Osborn showed visual evidence of the decrease of native grasses and other vegetation from this area, laying the cause of this not only due to drought but also to the high number of wild horses in the area. In June 2022 the BLM reported that a correct wild horse herd population for this area was 135 to 235 horses, at the time the population was 1,385.
“We had a really really successful year of managing wild horses, we were faced with a huge challenge with a lot of diversity. Kyle led our team and we conducted the most successful horse gathering in Colorado history. We are really really proud of that, they did a great job. Not one horse was injured due to our operation, any horses that were euthanized were euthanized due to preexisting conditions.That is just not something you see when you are looking at big horse gatherings that are happening all around the country,” said Bill Mills, BLM Field Manager speaking at the WRCD Annual Meeting on the topic of the Rio Blanco County wild horse gathering that began in June 2022 in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area. Over 860 horses were removed from the area. Mills credits Kyle Arnold, BLM Assistant Field Manager, and his team for this success.
The Districts and partners also held a range monitoring workshop with 20 attendees in June.
Water
According to the handout, the Districts have secured $175,000 in water-related funds and applied for $566,900 in water and forestry-related funds for various projects, including the White River Integrated Water Initiative. Throughout the year the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) hosted public meetings to identify the following priorities:
- Water Supply Study (Return Flows)
- Upland Vegetation Management
- Water Measurement Demonstration Project
- Riparian and Diversion Assessments
Other projects included: - Large ditch headgate infrastructure improvements.
- Funding 76 water maintenance projects to improve drought resiliency.
Wildlife
The Districts have also been participating in the wolf discussion. The meeting handout states, ” The Districts have been heavily involved in the public engagement process of wold introduction at the State and Federal levels. Staff have attended and provided comments at the stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAG and CPW Commission meetings regarding the impacts of wolf introductions to Rio Blanco County and its citizens. The Districts are cooperating agencies with US Fish and Wildlife Service on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) regarding Colorado Gray Wolf 10(j) Rulemaking. This provides an opportunity for government-to-government discussions and the ability to influence the documents before they are available for public comment.”
Find additional information on the WRCD website at wrcd-dccd.colorado.gov/natural-resource-topics/wildlife/wolves-in-colorado
Land Use Plan
The county’s Land Use Plan was updated in 2022. To read the updated Land Use Plan, visit wrcd-dccd.colorado.gov/rio-blanco-county-land-natural-resources-plan-policies-lup
Sales and Rentals
The districts also reported on the sales and rentals of various equipment they have available to landowners.
- 23 tire tanks have been sold
- Fusion machine has been rented seven times
- Polyacrylamide (PAM), a pond/ditch sealer, was sold to 10 landowners
- Seed spreader was rented twice
- Truax No-Till-Drill has been rented to 10 landowners.
By ADRIENNE WIX – Special to the herald times
