The Colville Tribes’ Wildlife Mitigation Project currently manages over 57,000 acres of wildlife habitat within the boundary of the Colville Indian Reservation.  This Project (CR# 109303) has been proposed to manage the operation and maintenance (O&M) and the administration operations to protect the Wildlife Management Areas (MA) from loss in Habitat Credits.  During the contract period (3/1/09 – 2/28/10), this project will provide direction and personnel to ensure the protection of the habitat values through fence construction and maintenance, livestock removal, law enforcement strategies, road maintenance, management plans, and control of invasive species including noxious weeds.

Fence lines will be constructed on the remaining perimeter of the Rattlesnake Canyon Management Area in the Colville Tribes’ Wildlife Reserve.  This new/reconstruction of fence lines surround the Rattlesnake Canyon MA will total approximately 7 miles.  Fence lines will also be reconstructed around the Berg Ranch MA where many fence lines are old, brittle, and easily broken.  Boot Mountain MA will be completely finished with new boundary fences by the end of this contract period.  Many MAs have interior fence lines that prove to be a hindrance for wildlife and also a safety hazard and will be removed when scheduling allows.

Livestock are an increasing problem with rising prices in feed and storage fees.  Many fence lines around our MAs are deliberately cut and opened to allow for private livestock use of recovering habitats.  The Mitigation Project invests a lot of time in the repair of these fences and also in the removal of the livestock.  Recent threats have been felt due to a rising feral horse population on the Colville Reservation.  These horses are extremely destructive to the range and habitats in the MAs, yet there is not enforcement to aid in our fight against them.  This contract period has allowed us to add a part-time Natural Resource Enforcement Officer to assist in enforcement and removal.

Roads within and leading into our Management Areas are very primitive and are mostly not maintained by other agencies.  The Wildlife Mitigation Project, in turn, has to maintain the access roads and internal roads with our own equipment and personnel.  Road maintenance ensures that Project equipment life does not expire prematurely.  Personnel safety is another reason we perform maintenance on the roads.

A Management Plan for the land acquired from Mr. Jacobsen will be drafted this year.  This plan has been delayed due to the incompleteness of the purchase.  Only stage one of the original three stage process has occurred.  In addition, these land parcels bought from Mr. Jacobsen have been prioritized as possible land trades for more appropriate land parcels that provide critical wildlife habitat and are more appropriate geographically.  Once the purchase has been finalized, a determination will decide what the final result of these parcels will be.  Management Plans that would not take these considerations into account would be inadequate and entirely irresponsible.

The Wildlife Mitigation Project’s Invasive Species sub-division will focus on the removal, containment, and overall reduction of noxious weed infestations within the Wildlife MAs.  During this contract period, at least 6,000 acres of noxious weed control will occur using numerous methods including: herbicide application, Bio-control methods, vegetation removal, competition strategies, and prescribed burning.  These acres will be spread among most of the MAs.