fpscabs
01-23-2004, 03:34 PM
Bringing Water to Wildlife By Glenn Tessers
The So. Ca. Chapter of the CDA has been busy repairing and installing several water systems around the So. California mountains, and here are just a few more that CDA will take the credit for.
Besides the two water sources repaired at Sand Creek (proj. # 033-03), mentioned in Deer Camp last month, and the Cushenbury deer capture/study (proj. # 012-01), they have now completed several others.
While working on these projects you could have anything happen, like running into a pot farm or as in this case finding a dead 300 lb. bear. We reported to Fish & Game and had to remove it from the creek bed to prevent contamination. As you can see Jim Davis Ca. DFG had to do an autopsy on it; It was ripe and two weeks old!
The next project just completed was called "Water for Wildlife" (proj. # 004-02) funded by the CDA in 2002, and was headed up by Jim Davis Ca. DFG biologist for the San Bernardino mountains. The tanks that we installed are called the Boss Water System, and weigh approximately 800 lbs. The first site was the Luna Mountain range in Rattlesnake Canyon. At the site Jim went over the project steps and where the funding for it came from. It required us to dig the pit first and make sure it was at the slope and flatness this type of tank required. The depth is critical to prevent target holes on the sides, from irresponsible shooters. Adding that first bucket of water gave us all great hope and was symbolic for the potential this water will bring to wildlife of the area. The other site was around on the other end of Holcomb Valley that was named Marble Canyon Jump-Off by Jim, for a lack of name of the area. Most of the hole was dug by a back hoe but we found out it wasn't deep enough and it required us to still remove some large boulders. Once we felt that it was deep enough we would go over the slope and flatness of the pit, which by the way had to be reinforced with boulders at one end to prevent a flash flood from taking it down the canyon. As you can see in one of the photos Dave and Aaron barking out orders to the rest of the crew on hand. Once that's done it would be measured to insure proper fit, as one future conservationist/hunter named Talon helps his dad with that task. Then someone would have to go inside to install the support pillars, obviously, the two smallest guys would be volunteered to do the job; as you can tell, it's no place to look cool. "Can you hold my shades while I perform this task"
The next was at Big Morongo Springs Ranch (proj. # 001-03), in a remote canyon that Terry Anderson had picked out for the deer that migrate out of the national forest and resident deer. It was delivered to the site by helicopter and the work party had to hike up the mountain to get to it. That was done at around the 6,000 foot level, so about a good 2,000 foot hike was required!
Then we did a restoration job in the San Jacinto mountains, at the request of Chanel Davis Ca. DFG biologist for that district, where we installed a new collector at the head of the water source, as you can see by Jim, Ken and myself trying to fit it in place making sure the screen doesn't come off while positioning it. This fed into a holding tank thru pipes that needed to be repaired and the tank cleaned out from all the debris it collected, posts needed to be installed around it and painted. When that was complete we had to follow the pipes two to three miles down the mountain to three different water tanks. Two were New Mexico guzzlers and one was a stock tank, which required us to remove all the over growth and trash in and around it. As you can see it also required Al to install a new float; that fresh clean water going into that dirty water was exciting which happened as soon as Dave turned the knob.
Completing this project prompted the District Wildlife Biologist for the San Bernardino National Forest to write a letter Andy Wood thanking us for the job we did. No work has been done to the site since 1972! They were very thankful.
I would like to thank the following volunteers that worked so hard to complete these projects in the name of the California Deer Association.
- Dave Mahosky, Merle Bindner Jr. , Al and Vera Fols, Jeff and Sarah McMahan, Jim Adams, Kevin Whiteman, Aaron Wagner, Richard Chagolla, Charles Sharp and his son John, and Bob Carlson. We also had volunteers from the Semi Valley and Riverside Q.U. come out and support us. I wish I had their names to share in this story, I will follow through and publish it when I get them from Jim Davis. This is just the start of many more to come, especially where it's needed like the Mojave Preserve.
This brings a total of eight water different projects that the chapter has done work on, and these guys have passion for working to bring water to wildlife.
The So. Ca. Chapter of the CDA has been busy repairing and installing several water systems around the So. California mountains, and here are just a few more that CDA will take the credit for.
Besides the two water sources repaired at Sand Creek (proj. # 033-03), mentioned in Deer Camp last month, and the Cushenbury deer capture/study (proj. # 012-01), they have now completed several others.
While working on these projects you could have anything happen, like running into a pot farm or as in this case finding a dead 300 lb. bear. We reported to Fish & Game and had to remove it from the creek bed to prevent contamination. As you can see Jim Davis Ca. DFG had to do an autopsy on it; It was ripe and two weeks old!
The next project just completed was called "Water for Wildlife" (proj. # 004-02) funded by the CDA in 2002, and was headed up by Jim Davis Ca. DFG biologist for the San Bernardino mountains. The tanks that we installed are called the Boss Water System, and weigh approximately 800 lbs. The first site was the Luna Mountain range in Rattlesnake Canyon. At the site Jim went over the project steps and where the funding for it came from. It required us to dig the pit first and make sure it was at the slope and flatness this type of tank required. The depth is critical to prevent target holes on the sides, from irresponsible shooters. Adding that first bucket of water gave us all great hope and was symbolic for the potential this water will bring to wildlife of the area. The other site was around on the other end of Holcomb Valley that was named Marble Canyon Jump-Off by Jim, for a lack of name of the area. Most of the hole was dug by a back hoe but we found out it wasn't deep enough and it required us to still remove some large boulders. Once we felt that it was deep enough we would go over the slope and flatness of the pit, which by the way had to be reinforced with boulders at one end to prevent a flash flood from taking it down the canyon. As you can see in one of the photos Dave and Aaron barking out orders to the rest of the crew on hand. Once that's done it would be measured to insure proper fit, as one future conservationist/hunter named Talon helps his dad with that task. Then someone would have to go inside to install the support pillars, obviously, the two smallest guys would be volunteered to do the job; as you can tell, it's no place to look cool. "Can you hold my shades while I perform this task"
The next was at Big Morongo Springs Ranch (proj. # 001-03), in a remote canyon that Terry Anderson had picked out for the deer that migrate out of the national forest and resident deer. It was delivered to the site by helicopter and the work party had to hike up the mountain to get to it. That was done at around the 6,000 foot level, so about a good 2,000 foot hike was required!
Then we did a restoration job in the San Jacinto mountains, at the request of Chanel Davis Ca. DFG biologist for that district, where we installed a new collector at the head of the water source, as you can see by Jim, Ken and myself trying to fit it in place making sure the screen doesn't come off while positioning it. This fed into a holding tank thru pipes that needed to be repaired and the tank cleaned out from all the debris it collected, posts needed to be installed around it and painted. When that was complete we had to follow the pipes two to three miles down the mountain to three different water tanks. Two were New Mexico guzzlers and one was a stock tank, which required us to remove all the over growth and trash in and around it. As you can see it also required Al to install a new float; that fresh clean water going into that dirty water was exciting which happened as soon as Dave turned the knob.
Completing this project prompted the District Wildlife Biologist for the San Bernardino National Forest to write a letter Andy Wood thanking us for the job we did. No work has been done to the site since 1972! They were very thankful.
I would like to thank the following volunteers that worked so hard to complete these projects in the name of the California Deer Association.
- Dave Mahosky, Merle Bindner Jr. , Al and Vera Fols, Jeff and Sarah McMahan, Jim Adams, Kevin Whiteman, Aaron Wagner, Richard Chagolla, Charles Sharp and his son John, and Bob Carlson. We also had volunteers from the Semi Valley and Riverside Q.U. come out and support us. I wish I had their names to share in this story, I will follow through and publish it when I get them from Jim Davis. This is just the start of many more to come, especially where it's needed like the Mojave Preserve.
This brings a total of eight water different projects that the chapter has done work on, and these guys have passion for working to bring water to wildlife.