Livestock Grazing Study

Can Livestock Grazing Benefit Wildlife?

Hardware Ranch hosts open house March 24 in Wellsville

Wellsville -- A major study to learn the ways livestock grazing might be used to improve wildlife habitat is among the many programs at the Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area this year.

You can learn more about the work that*s happening at the WMA by attending a public open house in Wellsville on March 24. The open house runs from noon to 5 p.m. It will be held in the Reception Building at the American West Heritage Center, 4025 S. US-89/91 in Wellsville.

*As we look at the busy year ahead, we need to tell people what*s happening at the ranch,* says Dan Christensen, superintendent of the Hardware Ranch WMA, which is about 15 miles east of Hyrum.

*Our programs are creating changes on the landscape, as well as in classrooms and in our community.*

About 1,000 cattle will be released onto portions of the ranch around April 1 as a study continues to determine whether prescriptive livestock grazing can be used to improve wildlife habitat, especially in places too steep or rocky to use heavy equipment or other traditional methods.

The cattle will initially graze along the steep hillside about six miles above SR-101, the main road in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Then the cattle will be moved among five other areas on the ranch throughout the summer.

*The number of cattle and the effects they*re having on the range will be obvious to people as they come up the canyon to camp, fish and hike this spring,* Christensen says. *The study will affect many areas of the ranch throughout the summer. We want to explain why we think this study is important and let people know that they can still use most of the ranch this year.*

Christensen is also gearing up to continue a major facilities improvement project. In June 2006, the WMA received much-needed funding to repair and replace utilities, buildings, roads, fences and other systems.

Some of the trenches and repair scars from past work are reappearing as the snow melts, and there will be more trenches and improvements as major projects resume at the WMA in April.

The visitor center at the WMA is also being repaired and upgraded.
That work will continue through the summer. New displays, major artwork and a new habitat garden will premiere in time for the ranch*s Elk Festival in October. A new interpretive area, located where people wait in the winter to board sleigh rides that take them through a wild elk herd, will also be completed this year.

*At the open house we want to talk about new partnerships, growing education programs, habitat initiatives, recreational opportunities and future plans,* Christensen says.

*We*re bringing together a team of people who know and care about what happens at Hardware Ranch. We want to talk to our neighbors to learn more about what they want to see.*

For more information, call the Hardware Ranch WMA at (435) 753-61686.