"Many wildlife species thrive in aspen forests, we hope through our actions that we can perpetuate aspens on the landscape and develop a model for continued aspen treatments." - Tyrel Woodward CPW Biologist
BHA's Colorado Southeast Regional Director and Wildlife Biologist for CPW, Tyrel Woodward mobilized volunteers for a recent aspen regeneration project. Volunteers erected 1,400 feet of elk exclosure fencing to aid in the restoration of a recently treated aspen stand.This will help promote future regeneration of Aspen saplings and assure long term presence of Aspen habitat for wildlife in the area.
These fences take a lot of work and a lot of collaboration. All of the people helping did a great job and worked together without any issues.
Aspen are known as a "pioneer" species in sights of disturbance, and typically occupy a landscape in the early seral stages of vegetative succession. "As a long time resident of Teller County I can tell you we are lacking in disturbance events within our forest systems and therefore have fewer early seral stage flora (think forbs and of course aspens) than we should...What we did at Dome Rock was the emulation of a disturbance event." exclaims biologist Tyrel Woodward
"With this particular treatment we have created a man-made disturbance through the use of machinery and hand saws. The idea here is to test methods and determine what produces the greatest desired outcome. This will help increase our understanding of local aspen management as well as provide benefits to the local ecosystem." - Tyrel Woodward
In many cases in the Western United States elk herbivory is a primary agent in preventing vigorous aspen regeneration. In the units which were mulched or masticated exclusionary fencing was erected.
Tyrel had an all-star team! A huge thanks to all the volunteers who showed up to do this important work!
About Brittany Parker
Habitat Stewardship Manager for BHA