BLM Asks Help to Restore Mule Deer Range

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking for the assistance of volunteers on a National Public Lands Day event for the Mt. Tom area near Bishop, Calif. on Saturday, Oct. 9.

Mt. Tom, within the Round Valley Mule Deer Winter Range, experienced an intense, human-caused 5,000 acre wildfire in early June of 1995. Extreme fire behavior resulted in the near complete removal of all native vegetation from an area that formerly provided a significant critical winter food source for an ecologically important population of migratory mule deer.

The project goal is to establish islands of native bitterbrush (Purshia tridentate) as seed sources and centers of plant dispersal to accelerate restoration of the plant community. The event objective will be to plant 650 bitterbrush seedlings to augment on-going restoration efforts within critical mule deer winter range.

To date over 7,000 bitterbrush plants have been planted by various local volunteer organizations including: Quail Unlimited, the California Native Plant Society, and the California Mule Deer Association since September of 1999. Overall, about 65 percent of the plants have survived.

BLM Bishop Field Manager Bill Dunkelberger said the event is one of hundreds of such projects nationwide to commemorate National Public Lands Day, held annually to focus attention on publicly owned lands.

Volunteers are invited to meet at the intersection of S. Round Valley Road and Vanadium Ranch Road north of Bishop at 8:30 a.m. All tools will be supplied by BLM. Volunteers are encouraged to wear outdoor gear, including hat, sturdy shoes, work or gardening gloves, and to bring lunch and water. BLM will provide extra gloves.

For more information please contact Anne Halford, (760) 872-5022, or email: ahalford@ca.blm.gov .

-BLM-

Bishop Field Office, 351 Pacu Lane, Suite 100, Bishop, CA 93514

About National Public Lands Day:

National Public Lands Day began in 1994 with three federal agencies and 700 volunteers. Last year nearly 80,000 volunteers worked in 550 locations and in every state. Now, 9 federal agencies and many state and local lands participate in this annual day of caring for shared lands.

National Public Lands Day keeps the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the "tree army" that worked from 1933-42 to preserve and protect America's natural heritage.

More information at www.npld.com