The Colville Tribes’ Wildlife Mitigation Project currently manages over 57,000 acres of wildlife habitat within the boundary of the Colville Indian Reservation.  This on-going project 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 quality or "credits."  During the contract period (3/1/10 – 2/28/11), 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, coordination with BIA and the Colville Business Council, providing input on code revisions, road maintenance, management plans, and management of invasive species including noxious weeds.

Fence lines will be constructed on the remaining perimeter of the Redthunder and North Omak Lake Management Areas (MAs) within the Colville Reservation.  This new/reconstruction of fence lines surrounding these MAs will total approximately 10-12 miles.  Fence lines will also be reconstructed around the Berg Ranch MA where many fence lines are still being replaced after two wildfires burned through in the past few years.  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 are no codes nor enforcement to aid in our management.

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 Finalized this year.  This plan has been delayed due to the incompleteness of the purchase.  This purchase was conducted in two separate purchases due to available acquisition money in a given fiscal year.  This area is now going to be called the North Omak Lake Management Area.  This MA needs complete fencing of the boundaries due to the current poor fencing that is not appropriately place along the area boundaries.

The Wildlife Mitigation Project’s Invasive Species sub-division will focus on the removal, containment, and overall reduction of invasive species and 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.