Aspen Working Group Schedules Public Field Trip

The Eastern Idaho Aspen Working Group is sponsoring a public field trip to the McCoy Creek Drainage of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest on Wednesday, July 14. This is a chance to learn more about the plight of dwindling aspen communities affecting much of the western United States, and to understand more about what recovery efforts are underway. Join members of the working group as they visit a number of locations in the upper McCoy Creek and Barnes Creek drainages and discuss aspen stand health and potential restoration activities. Resource experts will be on hand to discuss the impact and logistics of various treatment options. Anyone interested in attending the field trip should meet at 10 a.m. July 14, at the junction of Grays Lake Road and the McCoy Creek Road (Forest Service Road 087) at Herman. Participants are advised to bring a lunch as the trip will run from 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m. Mosquito repellant is also suggested. Quaking aspen is the most widely distributed tree species in North America, ranging throughout Canada and most of the United States, including Alaska, and extending into Mexico. But since the late 19th to early 20th centuries, it is estimated that the aspen component of the landscape in eastern Idaho has declined by as much as 65 percent. At one time on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest 45 percent of the Caribou acreage and 40 percent of the Targhee acreage were occupied by aspen. That has dwindled to less than 27 percent on the Caribou and less than 9 percent on the Targhee. Lost aspen means a loss of valuable habitat to wildlife, and a reduction in a resource that is valued by the public as a whole. Anyone interested in attending the field trip or with questions please contact Aren Eddingsaas at aeddingsaas@sbtribes.com or 208-239-4577; Tom Silvey at tsilvey@fs.fed.us or 208-557-5806; or Terry Thomas at terry.thomas@idfg.idaho.gov or 208-525-7290. Please RSVP so the tour won't start without you.