“To provide and promote leadership in the use and conservation of natural resources through stewardship and education programs.” This is a mission that includes a recently updated 22-year-old range monitoring program, Reading the Range, and in 2023, part of Gila County, is bidding to add several new projects. increase.
This November, the Gila County Supervisory Board voted 2-0 to approve a $100,000 funding request from the Tonto NRCD and an intergovernmental agreement with the Tonto NRCD. Supervisory Board Chairman Woody Klein, who also chairs the Tonto NRCD Board, declined to vote. These funds, paid under the contract, will continue the Reading the Range program, establish seed harvesting and reseeding programs, and cover matching requirements for U.S. Forest Service grants to support weed mapping/management. helps.
Founded in 2000, Reading the Range is Gila County’s multi-partner range monitoring program. This is a partnership between the Tonto NRCD, the University of Arizona Gila County Cooperative Extension, and the Tonto National Forest. Since its inception, it has offered range monitoring workshops by the University of Arizona. The program teaches how to increase ground cover, improve watershed conditions, and increase vegetation diversity. Through Reading the Range, Gila County ranchers have significantly increased the number of perennials. “It was important for our county to keep this going,” Klein said.
Tonto NRCD is also developing two new initiatives, seed harvesting and reseeding using locally grown landraces. Their goal is primarily soil stabilization and watershed protection in wildfire-ravaged areas of the county.area. Klein said reseeding “really works” in the wake of both recent and previous fires. “Woodbury he needs to look for traces of old fires like fires and bush he fires. It’s never too late to start reseeding there.”
After the 2021 Telegraph and Mescal fires, one reseeding project near El Capitan yielded better-than-expected results. “The idea was to give residents native species, especially native species in the ground, to quickly start recovery work after a telegraph fire,” said regional associate agent for cooperative expansion. Ashley Hall said in an email to Silverbelt. Working with Extension, his local 4-H students have made seed balls at several events, including Tonto NRCD’s educational “Ag Daze.” The seed balls were then distributed to residents of El Capitan. The germination rate was more than 60% more than expected.
“I think the current research project I’m working on will hopefully drive whether more seed balls are used in post-fire restoration,” Hall said. “There is not much research on recovery efforts in semi-arid environments. Seed germination rates are often low, so my project is based on the success of seed bulbs and whether seed bulbs are a good regeneration option. We would like to provide more information about
Tonto NRCD plans to purchase a seed harvester next spring to begin harvesting in the summer. Klein said Arizona’s Game and Fish Department is interested in the harvest program and will seek other partners.
“We want to restart our weed management program,” said Cline. “We are newinvasive It is a species with yellow bluestems and I would like to work with these. Hall said her seasonal field her crew mapped about 20 acres of yellow her blues.stem Near Young. Weed mapping is being considered in the Tonto Basin, Roosevelt, Payson, and Young areas. Klein said the process should be completed sometime in the spring in order to apply for the weed treatment grant. The Cooperative Extension and Tonto NRCD are in talks to work together on a grant proposal. “We are still in the very early planning stages of this project,” Hall said.
After last year’s wildfires, Tonto and Winkelman’s NRCD partnered to help with lost or damaged infrastructure.structure. “We worked with public and private landowners to assess the damage and then sought assistance from the Forestry and Fire Administration. We are considering,” Klein said.
Tonto NRCD is part of a national network of approximately 3,000 protected areas that work directly with landowners to protect and promote healthy soil, water, forests and wildlife. We also support the Tonto Natural Resources Learning Center with school visits, environmental activities and more.mental Establishment of education, excursion and outdoor learning centers. Like all his NRCDs, it is run by his five-member board of locally elected or appointed farmers, ranchers and other land managers. These committees work with local producers and other land managers, known as collaborators, to represent more than 20 federal, state, and tribal agencies and natural resource management authorities, funding, or expertise. We work with other stakeholders who have Another feature of the NRCD is its ability to work across borders with government agencies and private landowners. “We can work with anyonebody,” Klein said. “As Tonto NRCD builds and becomes more involved, we hope to form more partnerships with government agencies and accomplish more.”
