Aspen Working Group Seeking Members

Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April here in Idaho. But don't wait until next month to begin doing something that benefits Idaho's trees. Become a member of the Eastern Idaho Aspen Working Group today. Members of the group are working to help educate the public about the importance of aspen as well helping to develop projects that will promote aspen recovery. To find out what is currently being done for aspen conservation, please attend the next meeting of the Eastern Idaho Aspen Working Group at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office at 4279 Commerce Circle, Idaho Falls. All meetings of the Eastern Idaho Aspen Working Group are open to the public and free of charge. 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. Now 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. For more information about the Eastern Idaho Aspen Working Group or aspen issues in eastern and southeastern Idaho, please contact Fish and Game at 232-4703 in Pocatello or 525-7290 in Idaho Falls, or the Caribou-Targhee National Forest office in Idaho Falls at 557-5765.