Caribou-Targhee National Forest receives Regional Forester awards

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – The Caribou-Targhee National Forest was honored to be the recipient of two 2022 Regional Forester awards: Shared Stewardship and Partnership Award for the Bear Creek and Palisades Watershed Project and Multiple Use Award for the Curlew Riparian and Wetland Restoration Project.

“The two projects recognized this year by the Regional Forester truly exemplify what we can accomplish with partnerships and teamwork,” aid Forest Supervisor Mel Bolling said. “I am so grateful and proud to be a part of this amazing forest. Congratulations to our award recipients, to our partners and to everyone that contributed to the success of these outstanding projects.”

Recreation Manager Colby Jacobson accepted the Shared Stewardship and Partnership Award on behalf of the forest for the work done on the Bear Creek Trail Improvement Project.

“The project included installing two large trail bridges and rerouting 0.9 miles of trail and eliminating six locations where the trail crossed the creek,” Jacobson said. “Trail users can now use the trail without crossing the creek, getting wet and eroding the banks. The project also allowed for the beaver dams to remain unaltered, reducing the amount of sediment reaching the Palisades Reservoir which limits storage capacity of the reservoir."

The partnership aims to improve healthy watershed conditions in the Palisades Reservoir in southeast Idaho and focuses on addressing three main projects including the Bear Creek Trail Stream Improvements, Elk Creek Road and Stream Stabilization and Elk Creek Bridge and Stream Improvements.

“This project could not have been completed without the help of partners and volunteers,” Jacobson said. “Our volunteers provided 1,563 hours of service working in groups up to 50 people a day.”

The Bear Creek Trail Improvement Project organized the following groups of partners: Anheuser-Busch Foundation, National Forest Foundation, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, Idaho Single Track Alliance, Idaho Falls Trail Machine Association, Snake River Mountain Bike Club, Idaho Mountain Trading, KLIM, Action Motor Sports, Lithia Ford, Wackerli Subaru and Advocates for Multi-Use of Public Lands.

Forest Hydrologist and Watershed Program Manager Louis Wasniewski received the Multiple Use Award on behalf of an integrated Forest Service Staff that included, Brad Higginson, Hydrologist; Rose Lehman, Forest Botanist; Chris Colt, Wildlife Biologist and Hans Bastian, Rangeland Management Specialist for leading the Curlew Riparian and Wetland Restoration Efforts.

“The Curlew project is a compilation of projects with the larger goal of continuing the watershed restoration and conservations efforts on and around the Curlew National Grassland,” Wasniewski said. “The project was initiated by the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) and FS Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership Project initiated in 2016.”

Recent efforts focus on restoring several wetlands in the Rock Creek and Meadow Brook Creek drainages on the Curlew National Grassland. The projects are designed to restore five impacted wetland areas totaling about 20 to 30 acres in size which are critical resources in the arid great basin for wildlife, plants, livestock and recreationalist to benefit from. These wetlands have been reduced in size due to down-cut channels which lowered the water table and dried out the land. This and other projects on the Curlew National Grassland would not have been possible without the tremendous partners,” said Wasniewski. These partners included: Caribou-Targhee National Forest/Curlew National Grasslands, NRCS, Private Landowners, Sage Brush Steppe Land Trust (SSLT), Curlew Grazing Association, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Army Corp. of Eng. (USACE), US Fish & Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG), Idaho Dept. of Water Resources (IDWR), Idaho Dept. Environmental Quality (IDEQ), Oneida County, Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation (OSC), Idaho Youth Conservation Crews and volunteers.

For more information on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/ctnf.