New Fork Lake, Wyoming August 24-September 2: For the first time in WCC’s history, we are sending a crew out in September. This Fall season, the crew consists of three crew leaders and one crew member in a truck driving to different projects around the state. This season’s fall crew members are: Taylor Miller, Amanda Harper, Christian Bopp, Christian Marr.
For this hitch, our team headed just north of Pinedale area to work on wildlife fencing near the boundaries of the Shoshone National Forest and private land at the foot of the legendary Wind River Range. Working with Game and Fish, the crew maintained miles of fence which included felling hundreds of trees near the fence line including many hanging on the fence itself. The fence separates private land with public, and is designed to funnel elk traffic to safe corridors while allowing smaller ungulates and animals to traverse under the fence.
The crew put to use chainsaw techniques learned earlier this spring. In an effort to prevent the destruction of the fence, they are cutting trees within falling distance. They are cutting dead pines and aspens mostly due to the Bark Beetle epidemic. For more information about the beetles see below.
When it was all said and done this crew:
-Cut over 400 trees
-Maintained over 10 miles of fencing
-Cooked amazing meals
-Walked at least 4 miles of fence a day
-Learned more about the wildlife initiatives Wyoming plans on succeeding in around the Pinedale area, especially now that scientists have discovered one of the largest known mule deer migration that pinch points between Pinedale and Freemont Lake. To learn more about this phenomena – http://migrationinitiative.org/
There crew has two more hitches this month…
Information about the Bark Beetle in Wyoming can be found here:
Wyoming Conservation Corps 