BLM opportunity in CO

[Scott G]

All,
Jason forwarded this to me as a follow up on a previous e-mail. We are starting to see a few more of these types of projects in the west. Wilderness, roadless, or sensitive areas where they want to remove old check dams, riparian area restoration, or otherwise clean up/remove projects from the past. In the case of designated wilderness & roadless areas motorized equipment is not allowed, period.

This opens up some great options to further our options for diversity of income. These usually aren’t large and were historically used as catchment basins to create stock tanks. Looks like something that could be readily done with a team and a slip..

I will contact this fellow from the BLM as I might have some leads for him. I would certainly encourage any of you to as well. It would be worth throwing your horses & slip in the trailer for a job like this. My guess, from just looking at the picture would be $10-15k worth of work. In situations like this, agencies don’t have too many options.

Hello Everyone,

I received your contact information from a US Forest Service contact. As I
understand it, you are all set up to do some level of environmental
restoration work using horse power, not mechanized equipment. If that is
not the case, please disregard this message.

I am a National Park Service Manager for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Wilderness, located just south of the town of Crawford in west-central
Colorado. I am exploring different alternatives to accomplish the removal
and restoration of a water catchment located within our Wilderness area.
The ultimate goal would be complete removal of the structure and
redistribution of the soil material in close proximity to its original
location so as to restore the original slope and drainage in the area.

The dam creating the catchment appears to be primarily soil with very
little rock visible and is located in a drainage supplied by annual
run-off. It measures approximately 90 feet across. At its highest point,
the dam measures approximately 14 feet. The base of the dam measures about
40 feet wide and the top of the dam is approximately 16 feet wide. All of
this computes to approximately 700 +/- cubic yards of material.

Access to the Wilderness boundary is across BLM lands over roads that are
in mostly good condition with a few rough spots (approximately 1.5 – 2
hours). At that point, travel is across wilderness, down a sloping,
abandoned, 2-track road for approximately one mile.

I am interested in getting your thoughts on accomplishing this work using
livestock. What types of issues do I need to consider. Approximately how
long would a project like this take? How many animals would be needed? etc.

I have attached one photo of the catchment in hopes that it does not
overload your email.The views are from up-slope looking down into the pond
and toward the dam.

Your thoughts are appreciated. If you have additional questions, do not
hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Ken Stahlnecker
Chief of Resource Stewardship and Science
Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP/Curecanti NRA
102 Elk Creek
Gunnison, Colorado 81230
(970) 641-2337 x 225 Phone
(970) 209-1504 Cell
(970) 641-3127 Fax
ken_stahlnecker@nps.gov

[Author]

Posts