Wildlife Hitch #7 Writeup—
For hitch #7, the Wildlife crew predominantly worked in the Wild Horse Allotment of the forest. Dozens of Aspen stands were inventoried in the many canyons along the North Fork of the Big Lost river (within the allotment). While the hikes were spectacular, the health of the stands was not; the regeneration of many stands was clearly suffering from cattle grazing. Additionally, we were able to identify and notify the forest service of improper sheep grazing in stands where an effort had already been made to improve stand health by mitigating conifer infiltration. For five days, we stayed at the Wild Horse Guard station, appreciating both the beautiful views and the bright green shag carpet. During the second half of the hitch we returned to the North Zone of the forest. After spending only a night near Leadore, however, we were called back to regroup with our entire program in response to a wildfire that threatened our base.