News Release
August 1, 2008

UW CES, ranchers, and agencies collaborate to improve 13,000 acres

Smokey Bear would have bristled years ago had such a scene unfolded before him – a federal government firefighting crew purposely torching juniper trees and sage on a ranch in north central Wyoming that is home to many wildlife species, including black bears.

Even Smokey, whose message for nearly 60 years was “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” now realizes the role fire can play in maintaining healthy ecosystems. SmokeyBear.com now devotes nearly as much space to “Good Fires” as “Bad Fires,” and, in 2001, Smokey’s message was updated to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.”

Many are happy public perception is changing when it comes to “Forest Fires” vs. “Wildfires.” Among them are Bruce and Georgia Weeter, owners of the Double H Ranch near Ten Sleep, University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service (UW CES) educator Barton Stam, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regional fuels program manager Jim Wolf, and others.          

They are collaborating to improve habitat for wildlife and livestock – and reduce the potential for serious wildfire – on 13,000 acres of public and private lands at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains 20 miles southeast of Ten Sleep. Their main tool – prescribed fires.

This is one of numerous habitat projects in the Big Horn Basin and across Wyoming utilizing such fires. Stam got involved in the Double H Ranch project because the Weeters requested his help.

“We consider Barton an extremely valuable resource in giving us guidance and input,” Bruce Weeter says. “He spent time on horseback with us looking at range conditions and talking about the science of vegetative communities we have and some of the opportunities we have to improve those communities.”

Stam says, “I thought it was a good opportunity to get involved with a ranch that is looking to do progressive things to benefit the ranch, livestock, wildlife, and the land.”

Stam has a bachelor’s degree in range management and a master’s degree in range science, both from Utah State University, and he was previously involved in projects that involved government agencies.

“When you work on public lands, you are working with federal agencies tasked with multiple uses that need to be balanced,” Stam says. “It’s been great to work with the Weeters on this project, and it’s also been great to work with the other big players.” They include the BLM and Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD).

“In this part of Wyoming, about every ranch has some public land in it so we need to work together,” says Wolf, who is stationed in the BLM’s Worland Field Office. “If you are not working together, you are generally not getting positive things done.”

Wolf says the BLM is collaborating with dozens of ranchers and other agencies in the Big Horn Basin to improve habitat using prescribed fire. “We have been at it since the early ’80s. Our goal is to burn in a mosaic pattern to increase habitat diversity and improve forage for elk and other wildlife.”

On some lands, this involves burning old aspen stands to spur growth of young aspen, and, in other areas like the Double H Ranch and adjacent public lands, it means setting fire to juniper trees and sagebrush. Years of fire suppression have reduced the production of grasses and forbs, allowed sagebrush stands to become old and decadent, and permitted juniper to rapidly encroach.

“There has been a tremendous encroachment of juniper up and down the west slope of the Big Horns,” Weeter says. “This long-range plan isn’t about the eradication of juniper and sagebrush, it’s about healthy vegetative communities of different age classes.”

 Wolf explains that juniper out-competes other plants for water, nutrients, and light. “When juniper starts encroaching, you can end up with two things – juniper and dirt.”

When this happens, Stam notes, “You don’t have an understory of grasses and forbs. This reduces habitat for wildlife and livestock, and it can also lead to soil erosion.”

Wolf says grass and forb production can increase fourfold following a prescribed fire in stands of old, decadent sagebrush and even more so in areas thick with juniper.

Weeter, who previously ranched in Montana, where he also served as regional manager for the American Angus Association, purchased the Double H Ranch in 1991. The Weeters own 5,000 acres and lease an additional 5,000 acres from the BLM and 3,000 acres from the state.

“I was taken by the resources here along the southern Big Horns. It’s beautiful country. It’s wildlife-rich country,” Weeter says. “There are a lot of old-time family ranches that still exist; they date back to the late 1880s.”

About the Double H Ranch, he notes, “We were specifically attracted to this place because of how well cared for it was; the family that was on here since the 1920s ran both sheep and cattle, and they were good operators. This was a ranch that had healthy vegetative communities when we arrived,” he says.

Though Weeter says he worked incredibly hard to manage the land properly, years of fire suppression coupled with approximately eight years of extreme drought allowed stands of juniper to spread. It also led to large expanses of mature sagebrush that allowed little production of grass and forbs.

Weeter says he installed stock tanks and 16 miles of water lines. “This allowed us to distribute the cattle better across the landscape and use different parts of the ranch at different times of the year.”

Collaborating with others, he also conducted small prescribed fires over a six-year period starting in 1993 after hearing a presentation by Tom Whitson, professor emeritus in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Plant Sciences and retired UW CES weed specialist.

The Washakie County Conservation District hosted an area tour in the early 1990s featuring a number of speakers, and one of the stops was the Double H Ranch. Whitson talked about the natural fire cycle in the Big Horns, and he noted the frequency in the juniper-sagebrush areas was about 30 years, Weeter recalls. “That made a strong impression on me, and we are now trying to replicate that cycle.”

Within a short time after the burns in the 1990s, Weeter says, “We saw a tremendous revitalization of indigenous grass species, forbs, and woody plants like chokecherry. And, several years later, we started seeing lots of young sagebrush plants returning, even in an area that burned incredibly hot.”

Realizing the benefits, Weeter started meeting with Stam and representatives of the BLM and WGFD to develop a long-term management plan on his ranch and the public lands he leases.

“We want this plan to be as science-based as possible, not political,” Weeter says. “We’re talking about enhancing habitat for all critters, both the wildlife and the cattle. They go hand-in-hand in our opinion.”

The goal is to burn 300 to 600 acres each year to create a mix of grasslands, healthy riparian areas, and stands of variably aged sagebrush, ponderosa pine, and juniper. Elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, black bear, mountain lion, sage grouse, and migrating birds are among the wildlife species that will benefit.

“It’s ideal to have a mosaic of plant communities and age classes,” Stam says. “This helps meet the needs of many different wildlife species. The older sagebrush and juniper provide hiding cover for deer, sage grouse, and other wildlife, and the younger-aged grasses, forbs, and sagebrush provide more food.”

The Double H Ranch was one of the stops during a June 3 tour of the Big Horn Basin Sage Grouse Working Group among others, including ranchers and representatives of private industry and agencies.

“This ties back to the things we are doing with vegetative communities on our ranch and the public lands,” Weeter says. “Should this project be successful on a long-term basis, we hope it will encourage a lot of other cooperators to do likewise. Any contribution we can make to encourage these kinds of habitat programs in a much larger area of the Big Horns will benefit everyone.”

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Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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