Projects to Support California Deer

The mission of the California Deer Association is to improve California deer populations and other wildlife through financial support from the public. To accomplish these ends the CDA awards funds to organizations, both public and private, which have proposed projects that support habitat restoration and improvement, research, education as well as securing conservation easements and acquiring land in critical deer range.

2009 Project Results
by Jim Lidberg,
Project Committee Chair

The Project Committee faced a daunting task again this year: how to allocate the $220,000 available for funding to the best and most worthy projects. We had to sort through and evaluate a total of 23 project applications received from State and Federal Agencies as well as land conservation organizations from around the State.

After the Project Committee meetings in May, the Project Committee Chairman presented the selected projects to the Board of Directors for discussion and approval. We had some lively discussions about a couple of the projects, but in the end, the Board accepted the Committee’s recommendations as submitted.

There were a total of 8 habitat projects and 4 research projects approved, ranging across the state from Imperial County to Siskiyou County, and from Humboldt County to Mono County.

Habitat Projects – 8 Approved
The East Chocolate Mountains Deer Drinker Project in Imperial County was approved for a total of $24,000.00. This project will provide an additional water source for deer in the Colorado Desert area of deer zone D-12. It will allow access to available forage during the hot, dry period of the year in areas where available water sources are very limited or non-existent.  The project has $3,000.00 inmatching funds

The Slinkard Valley Wildlife Area Browse Protection and Enhancement Project in Mono County was funded for $24,000.00. This project will protect remaining mixed stands of antelope bitterbrush and big sagebrush to loss from wildfire by eliminating continuous stands of brush and pinyon pine, and to increase browse production by reducing pinyon pine competition and encroachment. A total of $126,000.00 in BLM and DFG funding is planned as matching funds for this project.

A project to improve oak woodlands in Trinity County, the KZ Oak Woodland Restoration Project, had $25,000.00 approved for work in the Yolla Bolly deer herd wintering area. This project will treat up to 900 acres over a 5-year period using a variety of treatment types ranging from mechanical mastication to simple understory burning. It is expected to improve the health of the wintering range for these special black-tailed deer. The goal is to increase mast (acorn) production by removing conifers and reducing the amount of competing shrubs that limit the oak’s productivity. The estimated total cost for this project is $233,000.00.

A Humboldt county project, the Lacks Creek Oak Woodland and Prairie Restoration Project, was funded for a total of $5,000.00. This project will assist the Bureau of land Management in restoring oak woodlands and prairies by removing encroaching vegetation. The Lacks Creek Management Area has approximately 350 acres of oak woodlands and prairies. Since 1955, these habitats have been reduced by roughly 33% due to encroaching vegetation, primarily young Douglas fir trees. Crews will use chainsaws and hand tools to remove these trees, and after this initial management, the areas will be burned to restore the grasslands. This project has partnerships totaling $45,000.00.

In Plumas County, on the Feather River District of the Plumas National Forest, crews will use the $10,000.00 approved to restore important aspen habitat in the Howland flat area near La Porte. The goal of the Howland Flat aspen restoration is to increase the quality and quantity of aspen habitat, while promoting early seral stage habitat that has been displaced by conifer encroachment in the Slate Creek watershed located within boundaries of the Mooretown Deer Herd (deer zone D3). Conifers, primarily white fir and lodgepole pine, will be cut, removed and burned from about 55 acres of aspen habitat. A Federal match of $10,000.00 has been approved for this project.

Another project on the Feather River District of the Plumas NF is located near the small community of Concow, Butte County. The purpose of this project is to restore Black Oak Habitat for the Bucks Mountain Deer Herd (zone D3) within a key fawning and holding area, which had a high intensity burn under the Butte Lightening Complex Wildfire. The black oak release would provide habitat for mule deer and for other species such as quail and wild turkeys. Black oaks are critically important to deer, providing cover and forage habitat. Releasing black oaks will also reduce the fuel-loading and thereby the potential for stand replacing wildfires and habitat loss. This project received $9,000.00 in CDA funding to go along with $19,000.00 in Federal matching funds.

In northern Siskiyou County on the Scott Salmon River Ranger District of the Klamath NF, the FS wants to improve big game summer/transition habitat on 120 acres in the Tennessee/Croaker Gulch area (zone B2). With this project they are proposing habitat improvements through mechanical, hand thinning and underburning in mixed conifer forest and wet meadow complex interface. The project will provide improved forage in meadow habitat by reducing the rapid encroachment of conifers and thin surrounding mixed conifer forest. The project will  underburn mixed conifer forest to reduce fuels and improve herbaceous forage. The project will also fence an important seasonal spring area. The FS received a total of $9,000.00 in funding from CDA, and they have lined up an additional $85,000.00 in matching funds.

The last habitat project approved for this year is again in the Scott Salmon River Ranger District of the Klamath NF in zone B6. The Adam Thinning and Fuels Reduction Project is an integrated project developed to reduce the potential for a high intensity wildfire within an important wildland urban interface, while also improving stand health conditions for approximately 200 acres of mixed conifer forest/oak woodland/chaparral habitat and enhancing habitat for wildlife species along with the local deer herds. The project area is located in the vicinity of McAdams Creek (13 miles east of Scott Bar Mountain, 8 miles west of Yreka). This proposal is approximately 4 miles east of the Hy-You Gulch Fuels Reduction Project and 8 miles west of the Greenhorn Habitat Project both of which were partially funded by the CDA. This project received $10,000.00 and has $44,500.00 in matching funds.

Research Projects – 4 Approved
A joint research project between the Calif. Dept. Fish and Game, U. C. Davis, California Deer Association, the Mule Deer Foundation and the Mendocino County Black-tail Association, is focused on learning why deer have declined so dramatically in the Mendocino/Glenn/Colusa Counties area. The purpose of this research project is to quantify the relative importance of habitat degradation versus increased predation from predators for the dynamics of black-tailed deer. Factors causing the observed declines of black–tailed deer remain poorly understood thus impacting wildlife biologist’s ability to implement effective management strategies. By teasing apart the potential effects of habitat degradation versus predation, scientists will be better able to recover deer herds to greater densities than those that are present now. Management recommendations may include habitat enhancement as well as periodic predator reductions (e.g. coyotes). CDA has approved $40,000.00 for this project, and DFG has contracted for roughly $470,000.00 over 3 years. This study has the potential to provide management implications for much of the Coast Range of California.

The Highway 89 Stewardship Team has again been funded $10,500.00 for refurbishment of the GPS collars to continue their ground-breaking work on the Highway 89 corridor between Truckee and Sierraville. Last summer, the first of the planned wildlife undercrossings was installed, and just this past June, it was dedicated. When the wing fences are completed by CalTrans in 2011, wildlife loss on the highway should be greatly reduced. This project is being looked at as a model for highways crossing National Forest lands throughout California. For a story about the undercrossing dedication, please see the latest (Summer 2009) issue of California Deer. All CDA members should take a great deal of pride in the support we have given to this project over the past 3 years. This work is being conducted in deer zones D3-5 and X7A.

The important winter deer range in rural eastern Butte County is being lost to development at an ever-increasing rate. A research project just funded by CDA will allow DFG and Butte County to begin to understand the impact to the Bucks Mountain, Tehama and Mooretown deer herds caused by this development. The project will capture and GPS radio collar 30 adult doe migratory deer to identify key migration corridors and population areas needed for the Butte County General Plan Update so that land protection activities and county growth planning can be enacted to protect these vital wildlife passage areas. DFG currently lacks adequate current herd data requested by County Planners to make appropriate changes in zoning laws to protect the winter ranges.  CDA approved $30,000.00 for purchase of the collars, and DFG and Butte County are contributing another $65,000.00 to the effort. This study area is within deer zone C4 and D3.

Over the past several years, numerous water sources for livestock were deactivated within the Mojave National Preserve. Many of those water sources had been used heavily by native wildlife for periods in excess of 100 years. Deactivation occurred in the absence of any environmental assessment of the potential influences of that action on populations of wildlife, including mule deer, which are widely distributed within the preserve. The purpose of this investigation is to assess responses of mule deer inhabiting the eastern Mojave Desert to the provision of water at locations where wells were decommissioned. Springs and wells (both reinstated and dry locations) in each portion of the study area will be equipped with a remote camera to monitor use of those areas by mule deer and other wildlife. These cameras also will be part of an investigation of wildlife use that currently is ongoing. Project personnel will equip female mule deer and a small proportion of males with radio collars. This is the second year that CDA has contributed to this important study. Our portion of the $205,000.00 funding for this year is $20,000.00. For further information about this project, please see the Summer 2009 issue of California Deer. This project is located within deer zone D17.