The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has a unique job that benefits our landscapes: to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat.

Part of the Foundation’s role in preserving the natural habitat of these animals involves contracting the people and equipment to go out there and work on the ground. This has often involved prescribed burning in the past, but more recently they are taking an interest John Deere’s biomass harvesting system and how it might play a role in the conservation of elk habitat.

Elk are part of the deer family and are native to North America, living in forest and forest-edge habitats, feeding on grasses, plants, leaves, and bark. When their natural habitat is disturbed by overgrowth of weedy vegetation, it upsets the population and balance of the elk.

“Our job is direct habitat enhancement work,” says Al Christophersen, Director of Habitat Stewardship Service for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. “It’s removing certain kinds of vegetation in order to get it in as good a condition as we can. We contract to get the equipment and the people out there to do that work on the ground.”

One of the big challenges the Elk Foundation faces in habitat preservation is juniper encroaching upon native grasslands, consequently reducing the forage base for the wildlife. Historically, they have removed the juniper and other imposing vegetation by prescribed fire or mechanical grinding and chipping, but recently they’ve become intrigued with the advantages that biomass harvesting can offer.

	Al Christophersen, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

“We’re finding that sometimes fire is a little harsher on the landscape because of long term build up of needle mats from juniper trees and other conifers. Mechanical removal is one of the options. That is one of the things that we’ve been working on, using mechanical equipment of various kinds to remove these conifers.”

The Elk Foundation has used a skid steer with a rotating drum head on it to grind the conifers, producing small shredded up pieces that are scattered, thereby ensuring they aren’t concentrated on the ground. It is a first step in reducing the unwanted biomass, but it still needs to be removed altogether.

Al sees the advantage in removing the hazardous material mechanically and potentially using it as a biomass product. “I think in this case the ability to use the material off this landscape for biomass would be extremely important… If we can remove this material off site rather than burn it, certainly the hazards of burning it are not there. The expense we go through to remove this material [by fire], if it was used towards the cost of removing it [mechanically]... then our follow-up costs would be minimal if any. And again, it could be used to get this material off site to a place where it could be utilized.”

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recognizes the significant impact on the landscape by leaving biomass material on the ground after harvesting. The fuel bed it creates is unsafe for wildlife or human populations nearby, but there is hope for a better solution with biomass harvesting.

“I definitely think there is a future for biomass harvesting both in the stewardship we do and the contract arenas that we work in,” Al says. “We see opportunities every day that right now we are not able to take advantage of, either because the equipment is not there or the markets haven’t been completely developed yet. As they come on line, I think they are going to be a huge support in our efforts to deal with habitat work, and in using that material that comes off these project sites. I definitely believe the future is there. We just have to be diligent and make it come together.”

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation protects and enhances nearly five million acres of land, and has successfully restored long-absent elk populations in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

Elk Photo credits: Chuck Bargeron, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org (image top right); Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org (images top and bottom left).

Recommended link: http://www.rmef.org/

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