High Altitude Revegetation 2015 Summer Field Tour

July 13 and 14, 2015

Pinedale, Wyoming

In association with:
Central Rockies Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration
and
Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center

Monday, July 13: The tour will travel from Pinedale 40 miles south to the Jonah field where a number of Energy Companies are extracting natural gas. This relatively small field has been one of the most productive gas fields in North America and has a growing season of 55-60 days and a semi-arid climate with precipitation dominated by snow. Dick Carr will take us to a number of wellpads at which he has been responsible for the restoration for Shell Oil Co. After Dick shows us some of his work, we will return to Pinedale for lunch. On Monday afternoon we travel to the Pinedale Anticline to tour sites reclaimed by Pete Guernsey of QEP Resources. Pete will show us a number of his reclaimed well pads and talk about both what works as well as what doesn’t. The Anticline has both high wildlife and domestic livestock use and is considered part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Tuesday, July 14: On Tuesday morning, we will visit the Trapper’s Point Wildlife Crossing over Highway 191 north of Pinedale. This crossing was constructed to facilitate wildlife migration between the “Mesa’ southwest of Pinedale, where some of the world’s largest herds of Pronghorn Antelope and Mule Deer overwinter, and their summer habitats to the north and northwest. This is one of the most intact wildlife migration routes left in the US.  Dylan Bergman of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will be our tour guide. After visiting the wildlife overpass, Dylan will take us to a number of wildlife habitat improvement projects north of Pinedale intended to supplement wildlife habitat impacted by the large amount of Natural Gas development in the Pinedale area.  On Tuesday afternoon we will end the tour by visiting some NRCS plant materials test plots to discuss reclamation plant species appropriate for this ecosystem.

The tour is free and open to anyone.  Participants arrange their own lodging and transportation (carpooling encouraged).  For tour details and meeting locations, please email Mark Paschke at Mark.Paschke at colostate.edu.