Volunteers Restore Aspen for Mule Deer

September 12, 2005
By Greg Losinski, Upper Snake Regional Conservation Eduator

Mule deer numbers have been steadily declining for fifty years throughout the West, including here in Idaho. Habitat biologists believe the disappearance of aspen may be contributing to the decline. Aspen stands form a valuable habitat component for mule deer, producing up to 2,000 pounds per acre of forage in the form of grasses, forbs and shrubs. In addition, biologists say aspen stands are ideal places for does to give birth and nurture fawns in their first days and weeks.

In many places aspen are suffering due to the impact of man. Ironically even well intentioned programs such as wildfire suppression have hurt aspen in the long-run. A century ago aspen thrived on 10 million acres in the West. Now, 100 years later, that acreage has been reduced by more than half, to about 4 million acres. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has been working with volunteers across southern Idaho to develop alternate management strategies to stimulate aspen regeneration.

Through a unique relationship, aspens and fire historically worked together to keep conifers from taking over. Fire suppression efforts beginning in the early 1900s have hindered the growth of sucker plants that regenerate aspen stands. Meanwhile, conifers which regenerate through seeding have continued to spread. Of the aspen stands now in danger of failing, 80% are failing due to conifer encroachment.

Because the high fuel loads created by decades of fire suppression make controlled use of fire difficult if not impossible to manage, other techniques such as manual control offer hope. That means hard work on the ground.

For smaller conifers, direct removal is usually the ticket, with volunteers using clippers and saws to cut shrubs. All cuttings are left in place to provide habitat for birds and small mammals and because the location of most aspen stands makes total removal very difficult.

Volunteers use saws and axes to girdle larger shrubs and conifers. Girdling involves stripping away the outer layer of bark that is critical for transporting nutrients. This leaves a dead standing bush or tree to serve as cover for birds and small mammals, while preventing any further competition by that particular piece of vegetation. The process is time consuming, but necessary in order to allow the aspen stands the space they need to regenerate by sending up suckers from the root network. Each aspen stand is a single organism. So the trees, both large and small, above ground are genetically identical. Clones can range in size from less than an acre to around 100 acres.

Restoring aspen stands obviously benefits mule deer, but it also provides a restorative benefit to the humans involved in the endeavor. According to Bruce Mincher, a scientist at the Idaho Engineering Lab who is a sportsman and a member of Safari Club International, "I work all week in a lab dealing with things the size of atoms, it's good to get out here and work with my hands on something the scale of an aspen stand."

Dave Strickland, Biology professor at BYU-Idaho brought a dozen students from his ecology class and the BYU-I Wildlife Society to a recent work day at Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area located near Ririe, Idaho. Strickland thinks it's important to get his students out on the ground. "I can lecture all day, but having them get out here and do hands -on work helps pull it all together." said Strickland.

The problem for aspen stands is that the entire stand is at risk of disappearing when competition, insects and disease start to overtake individual trees. In many ways aspen are representative of the challenges facing mule deer in Idaho. We can work to benefit individual animals, but the overall health of the population is based on a complex arrangement of factors that we have yet to fully untangle and understand.

The hard work of volunteers across the state to help regenerate aspen is just one part of a large scale project to recover mule deer, known as the Mule Deer Initiative. Along the way not only mule deer benefit. Other wildlife and domestic livestock that roam the hills benefit, along with the spirit of people who understand that they are a part of the natural system as well.