Media are invited to report on or participate in a volunteer work weekend to see how partnerships with the Mule Deer Foundation and the US Fish & Wildlife Service are working together for habitat restoration. More than a dozen volunteers are expected to attend the event to be held July 30-31 in the CMR in the UL Bend area (Ferret Camp).
The USFWS has identified over 60 miles of dilapidated barbed wire fencing and areas of fencing where they are no longer needed. Initially this work was to be done by hand in which the goal was to acieve four miles in a two week period. Regional Director, Marshall Johnson, discussed the project with others in MDF at the National Convention in Salt Lake City this past February and learned that Arizona volunteers have been pulling wire on several projects and actually used a machine that could pull a mile in a few hours of work. Johnson reached out to XTO Energy and Hess Corporation for a grant to purchase these EZ Wire Pullers and was awarded the funds to do so. The Prairie Ghost Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation (Sidney, MT) has been the lead on this project and have already pulled five miles of wire and posts. Our goal is to pull another five-seven miles on our Volunteer Work Weekend.
Fences have been a part of our landscape since livestock were brought into Montana and were used to outline property boundries and to enclose pastures for livestock to control grazing. Fences are barriers and can be dangerous to wildlife, especially dilapidated barbed wire that can easily tangle up the legs of wildlife. This can cause injury and fatalities for wildlife. Additionally it can create dangerous barriers for migration. The Mule Deer Foundation raises funds for habitat projects, studies and education. This is one method of conserving the habitat and ensuring the safety of all wildlife.
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